‘I Don’t Even Have A Uterus’: Amy Schumer Reacts On Issue Of Tampon Shortage

After baby formula and toilet paper, the U.S. is facing a shortage of another household item – tampons. And ironically, Amy Schumer is getting blamed for the crisis.

The comedian posted a clever response after being blamed for the shortage of tampons in the country.

“Whoa I don’t even have a uterus,” Schumer wrote on her Instagram page Thursday alongside a photo of an article from the New York Post titled, "Why Amy Schumer is being blamed for the tampon shortage." Schumer’s response is a reference to her hysterectomy last September after a lengthy battle with endometriosis.

When tampons suddenly became scarce on commercial shelves, Tampax maker Procter & Gamble was quick to point a finger at Schumer who led an ad campaign for the company in July 2020. After Schumer’s tampon commercials aired on TV, “retail sales growth has exploded,” spokeswoman Cheri McMaster said in this Time report. The company said demand rose by 7.7% over the past two years and its factory in Auburn, Maine, has been running 24/7 to keep up with the demand for tampons.t

But there is more to the story than just increased demand for tampons after Schumer’s twin advertisements. Demand rose at a time when people went into panic buying mode and stocked up on supplies during the lockdown. The supply chain was further stressed by factory closures and port delays, Time reported.

P&G explained it is still grappling with a shortage of raw materials for feminine care products while Edgewell Personal care (maker of Playtex and o.b. tampons) reasoned that it experienced a “severe” staff shortage at its facility in Dover, Delaware. The company also said that since the pandemic, they have been competing for quality raw materials as cotton, rayon and sometimes pulp and plastic for applicators now mostly go into medical products such as personal protection equipment.

The increase in demand for feminine care products has allowed companies to raise their prices, with Procter & Gamble earning its biggest sales gain in decades in the recent quarter. The amount of money it earned from the feminine care division was up by 10%. Generally, there was an overall increase in the price of feminine care products in the U.S. by 10.8% since 2021, Nielsen IQ reported.

Meanwhile, enterprising minds are taking advantage of the shortage and are profiting from selling high-priced tampons on Amazon. In January, a box of Tampax was listed for $114 which is $6 more per tampon than its original price.