China Periods

WARNING: this is my job and I’ve been working in this world for over a year now so I’m not squeamish at all by use of the words such as “vagina”, “menstruation”, “period flow”, etc. I promise not to be graphic in the following but if any of the three previous words make you uncomfortable, you may want to stop reading.

Today was Day 1 on the job at J&J. I will be managing the Women’s Health Portfolio of 3 brands: Stayfree pads (my beloved brand from NJ), Carefree pantyliners (another goody) and o.b. tampons (I love this brand, huge in Europe, but not as big in the US as it is a non-applicator brand in an applicator driven market). As it’s only day 1 on the job, I want to wait a little before I report back on what it’s like to work in China, as honestly, I don’t really know yet! I do know that everyone I’ve met so far as been incredibly kind and helpful in trying to get me setup in rapid fashion.

What I do want to comment on is the difference in the women’s health / sanitary protection marketplace.

US vs. China:

In the US, 60% of women use pads, 50% use tampons, pantyliners are interspersed in there and most women use a combination of all three depending upon the occasion / time of the month. (Trust me there are more detailed statistics than this, but this is the high-level summary).

In China, household penetration of pads is 99.9%, meaning 99.9% of women use pads. The household penetration for tampons is 1.9%. This 1.9% HH penetration is defined as “has used in the past 3 months”. The majority of these users are “occasion” based, meaning if a woman wants to go swimming, go to the beach, or do yoga. (again simplified). To any tampon-using American woman, I assure you this is INSANE.

The 2 main barriers to tampon usage are:

1. The use of tampons is considered unnatural. Honestly, this I can kind of understand. After listening to some perspectives about how getting your period is supposed to be natural and “cleansing” in a way, I can see how inserting something that stops that can be seemed as unnatural. This is no way true, but I’m in a different culture so fair enough. (also, there are dangers if you keep a tampon in for too long.) Additionally, many Chinese believe that when on your period a woman must not do any strenuous activity, rest as much as possible, not eat or drink anything cold, etc. 
2. Using a tampon can mean you lose your virginity. Now, honestly, this is simply not true. However, for a culture where the idea of pre-marital sex was incredibly taboo only a short time ago, I can understand the modesty behind wanting to insert a tampon and the uncertainty of the consequences. Also, women have assured me that as life and women become more progressive in their thinking (especially in the Tier 1 cities, like Beijing & Shanghai) that this perception is decreasing, but still HH penetration is less than 2%. Another interesting component is that there can also be a negative social stigma to using a tampon that implies that you have already lost your virginity. Therefore, while many times an ideal feminine hygiene brand consumer target is college students, this social stigma doesn’t help our cause.

I have a feeling there are additional barriers as well: lack of awareness, lack of education, habits passed down from your mother, and just being comfortable with what you know and that tampons don’t provide a benefit (to which I responded “you have to be kidding me”), etc. The above 2 barriers were pointed out to me as the leading causes and honestly seem like the most challenging perceptions to change. For example, if the main barrier was Awareness, we’d be having a much different conversation.

o.b. is basically the ONLY tampon in the market with 99.9% market share. So if anyone is going to drive the change in China, it’s o.b. (No pressure). Knowing the above, I think the team I’m working with has a great initial plan in place so more to come! I just couldn’t resist sharing this new found info. :)