States have been eliminating taxes on period products for years. Here’s where you'll still pay them.

Over a lifetime, period products in the U.S. cost a total of around $6,000 per person, according to research published in 2021 — and that’s before tax.

In 21 states, a sales tax of between 4% and 7% applies to items like pads and tampons, making them more costly, data from the Alliance for Period Supplies show.

Most states don’t tax certain essential goods, such as grocery store produce, canned food and prescription medicines. But in states with a "tampon tax" — a term that usually applies to tampons plus many other menstrual care products — these products are considered "luxury items." (Broader still is the so-called pink tax, which isn’t an actual tax and refers to instances in which items marketed toward women, such as razors, deodorants and shampoo, cost more than equivalent products marketed toward men.)

Over the last four decades, states with sales tax have been enacting laws that eliminate such taxes on menstrual products. Minnesota was the first to do so in 1981, and 23 others have followed suit, along with Washington, D.C.

Texas was the most recent: Since September, there has been no state sales tax on period products there. In Kentucky, two bills that would waive its tampon tax — one Republican-sponsored and the other Democrat-sponsored — were introduced last week.

The map below shows which states have tampon taxes and which don’t. Alaska, Delaware, Montana, New Hampshire and Oregon don’t have sales tax on any products.

Lacey Gero, director of government relations for the Alliance For Period Supplies, said Southeastern states often follow Texas’ model for their own legislation, so more may eliminate tampon taxes in the coming years.

"We’ve already heard from states like Alabama, where there is going to be a