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About this tool
Estimate pads, tampons or liners needed per cycle and per year from flow days, plus cost and a menstrual cup comparison.
The Period Product Usage Estimator converts your flow pattern into the number of pads, tampons or liners you get through per cycle and per year, and what that costs. It counts from safe wear time rather than habit: heavy days at a four-hour change, moderate days at six hours and light days at the eight-hour maximum that regulators set for tampons and pads, giving six, four and three products a day respectively. Cycles per year are worked out from your own cycle length against a 365.25-day year, and a menstrual cup comparison shows the five-year cost either way.
Open Period Product Usage Estimator on AltFTool — it loads instantly in your browser.
Enter the values you already know.
Fine-tune the options to match your scenario.
Read the result and use it in your planning or reporting.
The 4 to 8 hour change window is the actual guidance, so the count reflects safe use rather than habit.
Heavy, moderate and light days use different intervals instead of one flat number per day.
Five-year totals for disposables against cups, using your own prices and replacement interval.
For a six-day period with two heavy, two moderate and two light days, about 26 products — six a day on heavy days, four on moderate and three on light. That is roughly 340 a year on a 28-day cycle, which works out to 13 periods a year.
At least every 4 to 8 hours, and never leave a single tampon in for more than 8 hours — that is the toxic shock syndrome precaution on tampon labelling. Change sooner on heavy days; a product should not be soaked before you swap it.
Cups are generally labelled for up to 12 hours before emptying, which works out to about two empties a day. Most manufacturers give a replacement interval measured in years, so the long-run cost is usually far below disposables even at a high purchase price.
Typical total blood loss across a period is around 30 to 40 mL, and 80 mL or more is the clinical definition of heavy menstrual bleeding. Soaking through a pad or tampon every hour or two, passing large clots, or bleeding for more than seven days are all reasons to see a clinician — this tool is informational and cannot diagnose anything.
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