Go ahead and buy that bigger tub of ice-cream, ladies. The Federal government announced their decision to remove the Goods and Service Tax from tampons and other feminine hygiene products today. The changes will be made effective as of July 1. A Happy Canada day it shall be.

In an announcement from the Department of Finance, the government stated they would remove the GST and HST from the sale of “a product that is marketed exclusively for feminine hygiene purposes and is a sanitary napkin, tampon, sanitary belt, menstrual cup or other similar product.”

The issue was first brought up earlier this year when dozens of online petitions that began across the nation as females protested about the rather arbitrary tax. Women took to social media pointing out the sexism that exists with the “tampon tax” despite other necessary goods such as groceries and prescription drugs being zero-rated.

According to change.org’s Canadian Petition , approximately 17,876,392 Canadian women between the ages of 12–49 spent about $519,976,963.00 on menstrual hygiene products with the government raking in $36,398,387.00 from said amount. The petition has garnered over 74, 000 signatures since it began early this year.

It’s certainly a step forward for Canada to realize women’s menstrual cycles are not something to be making money off of. Society has been deeming periods as shameful and impure for decades now. Whether it’s through unrealistic commercials or  the stigma of Premenstrual Syndrome (PMS), it’s time to change the perception of periods for what they really are; a natural process of the human body.