It's estimated that women spend more than $18,000 over the course of a lifetime on products related to having a period each month. Couple this with the long-existant gender wage gap (yes, women still only earn about 80% as much as men), plus the fact that many of the necessities women purchase regularly are subjected to what's known as the pink tax—the price difference between items marketed to women compared to those marketed to men—and it's pretty obvious that the price of being a woman is no bargain.

For these reasons and many more, Maria Markina and Allie Griswold decided it was time to take the cost and convenience of buying tampons into their own hands. The two former consultants left their steady careers to launch Athena Club, a feminine care subscription start-up that boasts high-quality tampons without the high prices.

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