An online campaign has prompted major pad manufacturers to apologize. Regulators said they would consider women’s criticisms when writing new standards.

An investigation by the Chinese outlet The Paper earlier found that nearly 90 per cent of sanitary pads were at least 10mm shorter than advertised, with even smaller absorbent layers inside. While national standards allow a 4 per cent size discrepancy, they don’t regulate absorbent layer lengths.

Major sanitary pad makers in China are apologising after being accused of selling pads that are shorter than advertised.It comes amid a storm of anger after viral social media videos showed Chinese women measuring the lengths of sanitary pads from popular brands - showing that most of them fell short of what was stated on their packaging.