To say a period does not cost £25

[jinjkl]

I hear the story on the radio about MP Danielle Rowley standing up in parliament to speak out about period poverty.

Good on her - it shouldn't be a taboo subject and I feel for the homeless women or those in poverty who cannot afford basic luxuries. But I can't agree with her statement that each period costs £25, and that women spend £500 a year on sanitary products.

You can buy a 20 pack of supermarket own brand tampons for £1 and that lasts a whole period. Even if you buy Tampax you won't be spending more than £3. Sanitary towels are about the same.

You can pick up some painkillers for under £1. I know some women have extreme periods which require prescription medication, but this is uncommon and it still wouldn't cost anywhere near £25.

Some would probably argue it's the cost of replacing soiled knickers, but the whole period poverty campaign is centred around sanitary protection, not giving women women to buy new knickers after a period (I wish!)

I want sanitary protection to be free as much as the next person, but I just can't abide by these exaggerations. Any woman knows they don't spend £25 every month on their period, and if you are spending this much there is something seriously wrong.

Well, back at you, really.

Well not really. The £25 was an average amount. Meaning data was collected and the average cost calculated - I believe

your your your....

I thought "bloody he'll she must have one he'll of a period" .
I use Tena's and they don't even cost me £25.

@TwoDrifters - "Slightly off topic but is there anything I can do for a stained mattress?!"

Hydrogen peroxide from the pharmacy. Drop it onto the stains. Depending on the dilution, you may need several goes, but it fades the stains - you can see it fizzing where there is old, dried bloodstains. It's great for getting blood out of carpets, too.

I fully understand that many women have shit times with their periods but I don't understand why so many people throw out their underwear?
I'm old now but I always had period pants. I always washed them with cold water to lift out blood before washing, but I lived with the few remnants of stains. They were clean and hygienic. I would never have chosen to wear new pants on a period day.

I'm saddened by the huge number of you who have been fobbed off by GPs - I had mistakenly thought those days (as in my youth) were past. Sorry they are not .

I hope all of you who need monthly prescriptions know you can get a yearly pre-payment card which costs c10.5 prescriptions. It's not a huge saving but it is worth it.

Have any of you tried incontinence pads for your bed? They are reasonably cheap from boots and you can get more cheaply in bulk elsewhere. They absorb a lot.

Period poverty is an issue - and one which needs addressed. But quoting figures which don't add up and which seem too high to be an average doesn't help the cause at all.

Yes there are women who spend £25ish. But every example of that listed on this thread is women with very heavy periods, often with accompanying additional medical issues (endo, fibroids, etc.) I don't for a moment disbelieve that there are a good number of women spending in this range each month. But I don't think it's the average, realistically - because there are also a very large number of women who have light periods, or a fairly regular 5-7 day period that isn't a bloodbath, or who are on some form of contraceptive which reduces/stops their periods...they're less likely to post or respond to surveys though as it's not a big deal for them.

It's not surprising that a thread about the cost of sanitary protection has received a lot of posts from people who it is particularly expensive for. If it had been "some women have to spend £25 plus" or similar then fine.

p.s. yes, I've looked at the links for where the amount came from, so far it was a survey conducted by an online voucher company. Not exactly an ultra robust source where you can be confident in their sampling methods I wouldn't have thought.

Private prescription to keep periods at bay - £70 a month (I have endometriosis). But priceless to me though I know I'm lucky I can afford it.

I agree £25 sounds a lot for a 'normal' period, but it does seem that a high percentage of us have abnormal periods. And if she said her period had cost her £25, it could easily include dry cleaning and/or prescription or more expensive painkillers. If you need nurofen plus and co-codamol and tranexamic acid at max dose of each for a week, and your GP is of the unhelpful variety who won't prescribe, it could easily be £15-20 (nurofen plus was £7 or £8 for 36 last time I bought it).

It would be great if the MP could address the issue of the pathetic lack of understanding from GPs while she's on the subject. I didn't get my diagnosis until I moved abroad (moving was a happy co-incidence, I didn't move specifically to get the diagnosis, though I would have been desperate enough if the crap from my GP had gone on much longer).

to those suffering and getting no medical help.

I don't understand all the people saying they have to regularly replace pyjamas, underwear and sheets.

I have period pyjamas - navy/ black shorts and underwear (mainly black so they don't stain, a couple that aren't but are really comfortable, and though they're blood stained, who cares - they're underwear and I only wear them when I've got my period so there's going to be blood around anyway).

And sheets (I have white sheets) you just immediately strip, put a bit of detergent directly on the stain, and then put them on a cold wash. Job done, I don't even use any bleach/ different detergent.

@astrid2

Fair point re: gp / I should have said I live in Ireland and it’s 60 euro charge each time. I have to go at least twice a year period related - for non-painkiller prescriptions. For painkiller prescriptions I have to go every three months. I try and scrape by on a good month, so on average three period related visits a year or 180 before medication.

My periods weren’t always this bad, they were previously controlled by the pill as I have endo. However after a complicated pregnancy and an unrelated bout of sepsis I was taken off the pill for life as I developed DVT’s and a pulmonary embolism. So the heaviness is new to me over last six months. Which may be the cause of some of my errors at nighttime resulting in sheets and towels getting whacked.......I do see a notable difference in costs when compared to my pre pregnancy pills and any pack of tampons were fine.

I'm fortunate that in recent years, my periods are much lighter, shorter and low on pain compared to those of my youth. A few years ago, I invested in a mooncup and washable pads, so my only outlay is about 20p's worth of basic painkillers for the first day.

Washable/ reusuable sanpro is worth promoting and a potential solution to some, but aside from practical biological difficulties, for females having poor access to laundry and hygiene facilities they may not be practical to manage.

While £25 per month may not be average, I can see how women can pay towards that in additional costs. I used to buy heat patches in order to keep myself functional. Before I discovered those, I had times of teaching while clutching a fluffy hot water bottle in an effort to not go home ill. There were occasions where I was sent home because I was wiped out. Cramps in my legs and exhaustion stopped me from walking to and from school, so I incurred additional bus fare. Generic paracetomal/ ibuprofen didn't touch the pain so I had prescriptions. Laundry costs can increase from leakage. While I'm not squeamish about washing out stains, sometimes items can be beyond redemption. I used to think my periods were long, heavy and painful (and I'd repeat my 10 hour back to back labour over some periods I've had!) but they certainly weren't nearly as long and heavy as many women experience.

At least it has opened up discussion about the issue. It's also good that the issue has been brought up in a forum so dominated by men.

Lallileila
Not everyone can use the coil. And it won’t aleays work. It depends on the size of a woman’s uterus - if it is too big due to fibroids, adenomyosis etc.

I now know I have had some pretty horrendous on costs from my period. For years. I went to the doctor and was sent away with mefenamic acid and tranexemic acid when like some of you I should have been referred to a gynaecologist. Even though I went back and said the tranexamic acid gave me incredible pain, still no referral. This was perhaps 5 years ago.

Then came a tipping point a few months ago. Turns out my body has been poisoning me for years. I have just had a hysterectomy and the surgeon found advanced adenomyosis (uterus was the size of a 6 month pregnancy), endometriosis with a lot of adhesions and a blood filled ovarian cyst. I have chronic pain and am diagnosed with ME. I am yet to discover whether the poisoning was causing all my problems.

My on costs if I count what I spent monthly on treatments are far more than £25 a period.

Painkillers
Washing
Waterproof sheets (4 replaced every 2/3 years)
Outer underwear to keep the pads in place
Black underwear
Transport (eg taxi as too ill to walk), diesel as I drive everywhere
Infections and ensuing prescriptions eg thrush, uti. Often difficult to treat and reoccurring at the end of the following cycles.
Additional food - we eat more as we burn more calories
Loss of earnings - I’m too ill to work and would like to
Additional Childcare - dd goes to the childminder once a week. When she little she was in nursery 3 days a week as I couldn’t look after her
I have twice weekly massages £100/ week
Then supplements and Detox remedies, which helped to cleanse me a bit easily costing £200/month

Without these I would have been bedbound and in a wheelchair. Obviously my case is extreme. But I’m not the only woman suffering terribly. I’m just lucky to have been able to spend 60k of savings and dh earns well.

Sobering and the other extreme of a 60p pack of pads.

Gynaecology in this country is disgraceful. I was never investigated for gynaecological issues. My gp didn’t even think about it. Even though I had an mri on my spine, the rheumatologist didn’t flag up my (what would have been) enlarged uterus. I had a barrage of tests and nothing was found to determine my complete lack of energy I ended up walking away from the nhs when it was treated as a mental health condition.

As I say I shall wait and see how much pain I am in once I am healed and how much energy I have. But this operation will definitely give me a lot of health benefit.

anditgoes MaryPeary Thank you!

My period lasts literally bang on 48 hours. A pack of 12 tampons lasts two months.

@Mummyoflittledragon excellent

Here's the Radio 4 More Or Less segment that a poster mentioned earlier (about 4 minutes in): www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p05xnw72

It estimates that women actually spend an average of £3 a month on towels and tampons, rather than the £13 a month quoted by the Guardian (which I suspect is where the MP got her figures from, as they estimate £26 a month). The £13 figure came from a survey conducted by a shopping voucher company, who asked women to guess their total spend on sanitary products each month (not a particularly reliable method).

Here's the Guardian article again: www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/oct/05/period-poverty-women-sanitary-products

Of course there are women who need to spend much more than £3 a month on sanitary products (and others who will spend less), but I think as an average that figure is much more sensible.

The figure is realistic for me - but let's say it is £3.

A neglected child can't afford £3

Those waiting 5 weeks for a UC payment could struggle

Homeless women

Those in refuges who may not have any income sorted

Women whose husband controls finances

There are so many situations where periods could cause extreme financial stress for women and something should be done.

All of those focusing on the 'average' cost of a period should factor in that a poorer person may well have to pay to use a launderette. If they are homeless, they are unlikely to have a supply, and would probably need to buy new supplies each month.

$25 is high, not an average, but the poorest people in in society almost always pay far higher as a percentage of their money than other groups in society. $10 to someone on benefits is a much greater cost than to someone earning over $27k a year.

I’m pretty sure I have endometriosis, which is hard to diagnose and doctors pretty much refuse to diagnose (in my experience). I easily spend that in products, new pjs, loss of earnings and painkillers.

I think subsidising sanitary protection for some women would be really beneficial.

Women on low incomes, spending more £10 per month on sanitary protection could perhaps pick up free, decent quality, heavy duty pads / tena pants equivalent at their local doctor's surgery. If they monitor menstruation doctors may gain some insight into how difficult dealing with heavy flow can be and perhaps become less dismissive.

I had thought I had heavy periods but I reckon they’re more average now... it’s just the flooding that’s rubbish.
6 days max and use prob less than a 22 pack of Always long towels....roughly £2.75 per pack.
No tampons.
Maybe 2 paracetamol.
No extra washing.
SAHM so no time off needed.
Maybe extra loo rolls.
Oh and I have a period every 3 weeks so that’s crap too.
Still not £25 though

To those people who've commented on the fact that 12x £25 doesn't make £500 - the MP noted that she had spent £25 so far this week - which implies she is going to have to spend more, not that £25 is her standard total each month...

Apologies if this has already been pointed out but I've been picking at the thead over the evening, and I'm too tired to go back and reread it all now to see if I've already missed a post about this. It's just I've seen a few posts noting the discrepancy and saying that it reduces her credibility, instead of realising that they were two separate figures.

a packet of 10 supermarket sanitary towels is about 60p

Are they effective though? I've looked at cheap towels, but they look like they'd be about as effective as a piece of triple folded toilet roll..

Not if you have a latex allergy and very heavy periods.....quite easy to spend £25

Can't you really that someone might have different needs to you?

Really?

Agree. What on earth did the money go on?

It costs the poor more because they cannot afford to buy in bulk. It is too large an expenditure at once. A small bottle of pain remedy and a small box of tampons are what poor women buy.
Particularly difficult for the homeless who buy one pad or tampon at a time from the machine.