The government in February lifted the ban on the sale of menstrual cups — which prevent leakage during menstruation — following an online campaign launched by 35-year-old Tseng Ying-fan (曾穎凡).
Tseng in an interview earlier this month said that she was moved to bring more choices to women in Taiwan after seeing the large variety of feminine hygiene products in the US during her stay there as an exchange student.
She discovered that about 90 percent of women in Taiwan relied on menstrual pads, while only about 0.02 percent used tampons, based on sales figures.
The numbers reflected a problem with social values in the nation, she said, adding that she hoped to bring more insertion-type feminine hygiene products to the Taiwanese market.
Tseng said the challenges she faced were due to a general misunderstanding about the products.
She said her mother asked: “If you start selling these things in Taiwan, will there not be less virgins here?”
Tseng successfully brought tampons to the local market for the first time in 2010, saying at the time that she worked hard to achieve a 2 percent market share.
In 2015, she set out to bring menstrual cups to the market, but met with objections from her father — the biggest shareholder in her company.
The menstrual cup, invented in the US in 1937, is made from medical-grade silicone and can be sanitized and reused.
Tseng said her father was concerned about the implications of women using cups and also afraid it could destroy Tseng’s hard-fought achievements in tampon sales.
Tseng launched an online crowd-funding campaign in which she posted designs for “the first menstrual cup designed by a Taiwanese woman.”
She said she was shocked when she achieved her investment goal of NT$3 million (US$99,980) in just three days, and after three months of raising funds, she raised NT$10 million for the project.
Tseng ran into a second challenge when we she started looking into how to market the cup and discovered that it was classified as a medical device in Taiwan, meaning it would require clinical testing before it could be sold.
Tseng took to the National Development Council’s online public policy participation platform, where she requested that the menstrual cup be treated as a consumer product similar to tampons.
By July last year the motion was seconded by 6,100 people and the product was given approval by the Ministry of Health and Welfare for sale in February.
“A woman will spend about NT$70,000 on sanitary napkins over the course of her life. Conversely, a menstrual cup can last 10 years, meaning a lifetime expense of NT$5,000. This is to say nothing of the benefits to the environment,” Tseng said.
Tseng said her next goal is to promote the idea of part-time work for women, with the aim of allowing mothers to return to the workforce with a flexible schedule.
“I want Taiwanese women to have more choices and I want them to understand that they can be more active in fighting for their rights — not just waiting for good things to fall into their laps,” she said.
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) is maintaining close ties with Beijing, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) said yesterday, hours after a new round of Chinese military drills in the Taiwan Strait began. Political parties in a democracy have a responsibility to be loyal to the nation and defend its sovereignty, DPP spokesman Justin Wu (吳崢) told a news conference in Taipei. His comments came hours after Beijing announced via Chinese state media that the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s Eastern Theater Command was holding large-scale drills simulating a multi-pronged attack on Taiwan. Contrary to the KMT’s claims that it is staunchly anti-communist, KMT Deputy
RESPONSE: The government would investigate incidents of Taiwanese entertainers in China promoting CCP propaganda online in contravention of the law, the source said Taiwanese entertainers living in China who are found to have contravened cross-strait regulations or collaborated with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) could be subject to fines, a source said on Sunday. Several Taiwanese entertainers have posted on the social media platform Sina Weibo saying that Taiwan “must be returned” to China, and sharing news articles from Chinese state media. In response, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) has asked the Ministry of Culture to investigate whether the entertainers had contravened any laws, and asked for them to be questioned upon their return to Taiwan, an official familiar with the matter said. To curb repeated
Myanmar has turned down an offer of assistance from Taiwanese search-and-rescue teams after a magnitude 7.7 earthquake struck the nation on Friday last week, saying other international aid is sufficient, the National Fire Agency said yesterday. More than 1,700 have been killed and 3,400 injured in the quake that struck near the central Myanmar city of Mandalay early on Friday afternoon, followed minutes later by a magnitude 6.7 aftershock. Worldwide, 13 international search-and-rescue teams have been deployed, with another 13 teams mobilizing, the agency said. Taiwan’s search-and-rescue teams were on standby, but have since been told to stand down, as