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Nine years before Courteney Cox became a household name for her beloved Friends character Monica Geller, she was famous for something else: She was the first person to ever use the word “period” during a Tampax commercial in 1985. “Tampax tampons protect differently than a pad, so you feel cleaner—and feeling cleaner is more comfortable,” a leotard-clad Cox said.
The idea that periods are “unclean” was baked right in. Like a lot of products marketed directly to women, that ad (and plenty that came before it) sold tampons under the societal guise of empowerment and taking charge of your body. But what seems to be implied with this messaging is that “your vagina is stinky, it’s dirty, and your period is gross—so buy these products to hide the smell,” Nadya Okamoto, author of Period Power and founder of the menstrual product brand August, tells SELF.
Even today, when she does first-period workshops with young folks, lots of them tell her they’re “terrified that other people can smell their period on them,” she says. “There’s so much paranoia and shame.” But as any ob-gyn will tell you, it’s normal for your vagina to have some kind of smell. “The vagina isn’t supposed to smell like a bed of roses,” TraShawn Thornton-Davis, MD, an ob-gyn at Kaiser Permanente in the Washington, DC, area, tells SELF. “The vagina cleans itself, so you don’t need products or perfumes to cover an odor.”
And despite the promises of scented pads and tampons, we know they generally aren’t great for us for a host of reasons. For instance, any fragranced period product can potentially mess with your vaginal pH (a measure of how acidic it is), disrupting the delicate balance of bacteria that keep you healthy down there, Heather Bartos, MD, a gynecologist in Frisco, Texas, tells SELF. “pH is the normal milieu, essentially the bacterial playground, of the vagina, and it is usually kept in check by a balance of different microbes, like bacteria and yeast,” Dr. Bartos says. “It’s very delicate and can get thrown off course very easily.” And when that pH is out of whack, this environment can set the stage for bacterial vaginosis, yeast infections, and even trichomoniasis, among a slew of other issues. The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists specifically advises against using menstrual products that “contain a deodorant or a plastic coating” to prevent vaginitis, an umbrella term for conditions that can cause vaginal inflammation or infections.
So why do some brands continue to offer scented menstrual products when it’s clear they can be stigmatizing and bad for you? We decided to ask the various companies that still make them.
Unpacking the odor narrative
There’s a major reason some period-care companies are still selling scented menstrual products: We keep buying them—in part, because a lot of us still believe we might need them.
Take an experience I had in college: One of the boys at my school was recounting a date when he said, “Her vagina smells like Doritos.” The comment was dripping with misogyny, yet it immediately stirred the most self-critical voices in my head. Could a man be out there comparing my vagina’s scent with that of a cheesy chip? It’s been many years since this incident, but I still remember how it immediately sparked self-consciousness within me.
This wasn’t a new idea 10 years ago: There’s a centuries-long sexist and racist history around vaginal odor, Ami Zota, ScD, an associate professor of environmental health sciences at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health, tells SELF. Research shows Black people have been disproportionately targeted by ads for products that make promises about alleviating vaginal odors, Dr. Zota adds. This group is also more likely to use scented or scent-altering intimate care or menstrual products, Elissia Franklin, PhD, an analytical chemist at Silent Spring Institute who studies chemical exposures from consumer products, tells SELF. What’s more, studies have shown that women with less education, regardless of race or ethnicity, are more likely to use multiple scent-altering menstrual products compared to those with more formal education.
Scented pad and tampon makers are aware of our potential insecurities. “We know that odor control is a strong driver for women, so it’s important we provide that benefit to them with our products,” Mariela Biber, the research and development director at Edgewell Personal Care, the parent company for Playtex, Carefree, and o.b., tells SELF. (A spokesperson from Proctor & Gamble, the parent company of Tampax, did not respond with comments for this story prior to publication.)
“They’re really looking for products that offer that freshness and give them the confidence and peace of mind that they don’t have to worry about it,” Biber adds. (Again, this notion of “freshness” is problematic, given that fragrance in or around your vagina can contribute to changes that may lead to irritation and infections, Dr. Thornton-Davis says.)
Giovanna Alfieri, the vice president of marketing at Honey Pot, tells SELF the company’s position is that natural odor isn’t a bad thing: “Vaginas do not have to smell any sort of way—that, to us, is a huge brand tenet,” she says. Alfieri says she views scented tampons, in particular, as “unnecessary” and cautions against putting anything fragranced inside of your vagina (it’s also worth noting that Honey Pot does not sell scented tampons). But the company’s “herbal” pads do contain essential oils. In response SELF asked, Why have that option at all? “It’s a meaningful question,” Alfieri says. She acknowledges that there’s “most certainly” demand for a scented product. “If you looked at our competition, obviously it suggests there’s willingness,” she says. “We’ve been really focused on them not being fragrances but being essential oils.” She also says “because they are cosmetic products, there is no residual scent profile.”
But Dr. Franklin notes that essential oils can have “fragrant properties,” albeit “natural” ones, and they can still potentially trigger similar skin sensitivities, like irritation. “I would steer clear of essential oils, fragrances, or anything that’s covering up the natural odor of the vagina,” Dr. Thornton-Davis advises. (Spokespeople for Honey Pot declined to comment further on Dr. Franklin and Dr. Thorton-Davis’s insights.)
Changing attitudes, same old stigma
Period-product marketing doesn’t highlight odor quite like it used to. That is, in part, due to state legislation that forced companies to disclose what’s in their menstrual products, says Alexandra Scranton, director of science and research for Women’s Voices for the Earth (WVE), a nonprofit that aims to reduce the use of harmful chemicals in women’s health care and cosmetic products.
The FDA regulates pads and tampons as class I or II medical devices, and there’s no general law requiring ingredient disclosure for products in those categories, unlike food or cosmetics, Scranton explains. But a shift took place in October 2021, when a New York State law spotlighting pads, tampons, menstrual cups, and period underwear went into effect; it called for “a plain and conspicuous printed list of all ingredients which shall be listed in order of predominance” printed on or attached to the packaging. While it didn’t hit the federal level, the law had a “national impact,” marking a significant move toward transparency in the US, per a 2022 WVE report investigating the ingredients disclosed on menstrual products.
Even before then, though, the tide was starting to turn. For instance, Playtex phased out its scented Fresh Balance tampons in 2020. Nicole M. Harris, the head of marketing at Edgewell Personal Care, tells SELF that while there’s still some demand for scented products, a lot of consumers have more nuanced views on fragrance: “Scent is, by and large, not something that women want to associate with products that are going in an intimate part,” she says. “So they want to take care of the odor but not through means of a perfume or an added fragrance…. Added fragrance in feminine care products is not widely available or a growing space. If anything, it’s going the other direction.”
Biber agrees: “Everyone’s trending towards a ‘less is more’ approach.”
In fact, in November 2021, the official Tampax brand account wrote in response to a tweet, “As of Spring 2021, we said goodbye to scented tampons and we no longer manufacture products that contain fragrance in the U.S.!” But while the brand’s Pearl Super Scented tampons are no longer available on the Tampax website, they are available in what appears to be the official Tampax store on Amazon US, as well as Kroger.com and Walmart.com. And P&G offers Always scented pads, which are currently available on its website. (A spokesperson from Proctor & Gamble, the parent company of Tampax, confirmed receipt of SELF’s detailed list of questions, including a question about whether or not Tampax still manufactures and/or sells scented period products in the US, but did not respond prior to publication.)
Around the same time Playtex stopped manufacturing its Fresh Balance tampons, it launched a line of products branded as “Odor Shield,” which claims to have “2X more odor protection” on its packaging. It isn’t branded as a scented product but rather “an odor neutralizer,” Biber says. Similarly, she notes that certain Carefree pads also have “odor control” technology. “They’re unscented,” she says, “but to get at that odor control, if you were to open up the product, there would be a scent associated with that odor neutralizer.”
If you’re confused by this, that’s because it is confusing. The gist: Just because a product, including pads or tampons, is labeled “unscented” doesn’t necessarily mean it’s also “fragrance-free,” unless otherwise specified. To be truly fragrance-free, a product shouldn’t contain any fragranced materials or “masking scents” at all. As for the “unscented” label? That “means it doesn’t smell like anything; it doesn’t mean there’s no masking ingredient,” Ginger King, MBA, a cosmetic chemist based in New Jersey, tells SELF. “If there’s a bad odor, you can use a [masking] ingredient to cover it so you don’t smell anything. It doesn’t mean it’s not fragranced.” Various chemicals have functions that aren’t necessarily “adding” scent to a product, she explains, but rather making one last or simply covering it up.
Although Playtex declined to comment directly to questions about this, a spokesperson noted that the brand “discloses odor-control ingredients for the products that contain them,” adding, “The safety and quality of all our products have been evaluated and tested by independent third-party laboratories and are shown to be fully compliant with standards and requirements of the FDA.”
Playtex’s call-out of these ingredients at all is a step in the right direction—the WVE report noted it as a brand with “helpful ingredient disclosure features,” specifically highlighting it as a good thing that they give their consumers this information.
Will scented period products ever go away entirely?
A lot of this news—well, it stinks. But many people are working to upend the stigma around periods and odor, hoping to ban scented menstrual products entirely.
Some brands still sell scented tampons, but you may have to go looking for them—which is a good thing, Scranton says: “We were pleased to see in our research that there were a lot fewer scented tampons than there used to be,” including not just in the offerings from big-name brands, but also less recognizable ones sold in dollar stores. But “the fragrance thing is holding on,” particularly with scented pads, she stresses. “There’s still this mentality of, Oh, I definitely need a scented pad—otherwise, someone is going to know that I’m on my period.”
A greater push to change these dynamics might be coming, though. Laura Strausfeld, the executive director of Period Law, a legal advocacy group pushing for safe, freely accessible period products, and her team want the FDA to regulate menstrual products as class III medical devices. (To give you a better picture of this system, bandages are in class I, daily contact lenses are in class II, and breast implants are in class III). Strausfeld says the classification change “would shift the burden [of making menstrual products safer] to companies, which would have to test more rigorously and over a longer period of time.”
Meanwhile, a recent State Senate bill in New York seeks to ban “certain restricted substances,” including but not limited to fragrances, colorants, dyes, and preservatives “intentionally added for the presentation” of menstrual products—which, if passed, could spell the actual end to scented pads and tampons. So far it has passed the State Senate but not the assembly; sponsors plan to revive the bill when the assembly reconvenes in 2025.
Scranton suggests limiting your exposure to fragranced period products by simply not buying them. And, again, Dr. Thornton-Davis emphasizes that it’s normal for your vagina to have a “baseline smell” (though, if you take a whiff and detect something very different from your usual, it’s worth talking to your ob-gyn, especially if the odor is accompanied by changes in your vaginal discharge). The point is, your doctor can help you a lot more than some perfume-y pad.
When buying period products, Dr. Bartos says “plain Jane is best” are the words to live by, and Dr. Thornton-Davis echoes this sentiment: “You want to keep things as plain as possible.”
The truth is, the more we turn up our noses at these “odor”-targeting products, the fewer of them companies are likely to make. Your period and its scent? It’s all-natural. Your vagina does not smell like flowers—and it’s not meant to. Especially not because of a tampon.
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