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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To not get the attitude to periods

182 replies

mytartanscarf · 06/02/2015 22:17

Some people seem to think there really is something horrible about them. People always urge sanitary protection to be given in food bank parcels. Someone leaving a sanitary towel out is treated with horror.

I don't get it. I've occasionally found myself in a position where I don't have sanitary towels in. I don't think a used sanitary towel is necessarily any worse than anything used for bodily fluids! I think there are more prevalent things on the minds of homeless women than periods.

Aibu? Not being an arse: I don't get it!

OP posts:
Original poster
mytartanscarf · 06/02/2015 22:34

Oh yeah definitely Tawdry :) it's just I haven't seen the sort of emotional responses to toothpaste as I have to periods - do you see what I mean?

I guess though periods can catch you by surprise in a way brushing your teeth doesn't!

OP posts:
tinkerbelletigger · 06/02/2015 22:34

Me neither. You're obviously not like those of us who gush gallons of blood over ourselves, which would therefore cover our clothes without protection. It must be Friday..

MrsTawdry · 06/02/2015 22:35

Tartan expect it's because it feels undignified...just pissing blood all day. If yours are light you may not realise that...which is fair enough...but to me, when I have a period it is AWFUL and I am pretty much done in for about three days...don't like going out etc as I leak. I have very heavy periods.

ourglass · 06/02/2015 22:35

What on earth are you on about...

GiddyOnZackHunt · 06/02/2015 22:35

Rinsing your clothes out or not having soap and being a bit smelly is one thing. Not having loo roll isn't great but you can always pinch a bit from a restaurant or shop if you're a bit skint.

If you have anything other than really light periods then sanitary protection is relatively expensive and necessary to avoid walking around with blood all over you bottom half. When I had periods I had clots the size of my palm descending at almost no notice. Periods aren't a shameful thing but I don't want to advertise them or have to wash it out of my clothes. Plus if you can't afford sanitary protection then getting rid of the stains from your clothes might be a difficult matter too. I was spending £10 just to cope with a couple of days.

nocoolnamesleft · 06/02/2015 22:35

If you don't have soap/deodorant, then you would become smelly. If you don't have sanitary protection, then you would leak blood onto your clothes and surroundings. If you didn't have access to decent washing and laundry facilities your clothing would become increasingly and obviously rank. The constant dampness for days at a time would give rise to uncomfortable rashes. Which would probably not heal, given the aforementioned losses.

Did you know there are charities dedicated to providing sanitary protection in the third world, as absence thereof is a cause of girls being stopped from going to school as soon as they start menstruating?

Oh, and phlebasconsidered/DropYourSword I do not mean to pry, but you don't by any chance happen to have six fingers on your right hand?

Momagain1 · 06/02/2015 22:36

So, it doesnt bother you to start your period and be without anything to catch the flow. Ok. Why? Why doesnt the risk of getting blood on your clothes and furniture bother you? Why do you think the rest of us are somehow acting strangely to want to arrange for this predictable situation in advance?

What a very strange outlook.

MrsTawdry · 06/02/2015 22:36

Re toothpaste vesus fanny pads...I can clean my teeth with a cloth and have a chewing gum and be ok....can't do that to my vagina though.

pinkstinks · 06/02/2015 22:37

I work with homeless women. FFs op it's about dignity.

Original poster
mytartanscarf · 06/02/2015 22:37

Thanks for explaining Tawdry. Sorry yours are awful - sounds so difficult.

OP posts:
RedRugNoniMouldiesEtc · 06/02/2015 22:38

I've been at work since 6 so this may not be clear Hmm

If you have no loo roll you hang on until you are somewhere that does, nip to a friends, public loos, dash into an accommodating cafe/supermarket or even air dry. If it comes to it I guess you could use your hand and wash well.

If you have no sanitary protection you will, eventually, have blood constantly seeping through your clothes and onto anything you sit on. I really don't understand why you would think a woman can just go without - especially a woman who is possibly not in a position to launder clothes covered in blood daily Confused

FightOrFlight · 06/02/2015 22:38

There was a recent thread about food banks and a poster who stayed in a refuge asked people to please consider donating sanitary protection not just food, deodorant and toothpaste.

She gave an example of how she and others had to wash out their tampons and reuse them as they could not afford to buy sanitary protection.

Have you seen the price of tampons? You'd think they were made of solid gold.

So YABU

darlingfascistbullyboy · 06/02/2015 22:39

well not brushing my teeth doesn't stop me leaving the house - on days 1 & 2 I think very carefully before I do ... leaving a trail of blood behind you is fairly unpleasant I'd say?

Lack of proper sanitary protection is an important issue for women & girls throughout the world.

A bit of kitchen roll doesn't really cut it Hmm

Caronaim · 06/02/2015 22:39

What are you going to do with all the bloodstained clothes, sheets, duvets and mattresses then tartan scarf?

I wouldn't want to wear unwashed clothes, but if I did, it wouldn't leave me needing to replace my mattress, or unable to walk into a carpeted room.

GetSober · 06/02/2015 22:39

OP, you may not have read a recent thread on here where the OP described her time living in a women's hostel, where sanitary protection was very hard to come by. The women had to rinse out their tampons and dry them on the radiators ready for re use.

That's pretty fucking awful, and is the reason why I will be adding several boxes of towels and tampons to every batch of stuff I donate to our local women's refuge from now on.

TheSpottedZebra · 06/02/2015 22:39

Gideon, is that you in disguise making a really odd case for putting the vat rate on sanitary protection up to 20% ? And slagging food banks also while you're at it?

No no, they are quite essential, still.

Original poster
mytartanscarf · 06/02/2015 22:40

Gosh no I don't think it's strange to want sanitary protection!

I just mean sanitary towels or tampons are one item on a long list of things we need to be hygienic and I have read (over a period - no pun intended - of months) people getting upset over the idea of a woman not being able to protect herself during a period.

I haven't read people getting upset over someone not being able to clean their teeth or wash their hands or wipe their bottom. I suppose that's just what I was wondering really.

Sorry for those of you with heavy and painful periods. It must be very difficult.

OP posts:
TheCowThatLaughs · 06/02/2015 22:40

The difference is that hopefully most people don't have wee and shit dripping out of them all day, so it's a bit easier to handle if you don't have any toilet paper, and maybe you could use newspaper or something instead if you really had to, but your period is not so easily contained. It's not horror, it's just practicality.

CaptainJamesTKirk · 06/02/2015 22:40

As I have already posted... see this link, this comment is particularly interesting. Approximately 70% of all reproductive diseases in India are caused by poor menstrual hygiene - it can also affect maternal mortality.

From that alone I would suggest sanitary protection is an absolute necessary.

GiddyOnZackHunt · 06/02/2015 22:40

Spotted can I refer you to my username :)

Original poster
mytartanscarf · 06/02/2015 22:41

Yes I suppose that is very true cow :)

OP posts:
BastardGoDarkly · 06/02/2015 22:41

This must be a wind up

Wine anyone?

Caronaim · 06/02/2015 22:42

In other countries, women who don't have access to proper sanitary protection have to make tampons with tight rolls of newspaper. Not only are infections common, but it is also many women feel they need to walk in the road not on the pavement.

unwashed clothes don't cause infections, and or mean you have to walk in the gutter.

wanttosqueezeyou · 06/02/2015 22:43

I don't have periods like some described on here but still...

A bit of kitchen roll just wouldn't work for me. I'd be terrified to go out/sit down. I'd damage clothes/furniture. I couldn't work.

Unless you mean a whole kitchen roll length ways?