That story always makes me a little "harrumph". They act like the engineers were totally clueless when you get that number by looking at the box, applying their normal redundancy rules for consumables, and then weighing one and determining that it's easily within their per person weight budget.

The box says one every 4-8 hours. It's a six day mission, menses typically last six days but can go longer. The ratio for consumables is 1.5 to 2 times expected need.
Expected usage is 36, with 60 being a possibility with a mission delay and atypical period. Redundancy takes you to right around 100.

Then they asked.

Of the things they did wrong with dealing with women, the tampons are the least of it, albeit easily the most amusing.