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.

That's why I started using a mooncup because it felt hugely wasteful to be changing every couple of hours when the pad was barely used. And it's not pleasant to keep one on until it's full if that takes the whole day.

That said though I have never assumed that everyone or most people have the same periods as me. I just assumed that it might be maybe 2, 3, 4 times heavier than mine - not 10 or 20 times. Thats shocking and sounds really difficult to deal with. It makes you wonder why some of us are lucky and others had to suffer - seems like it should be spread out a bit more evenly.

I have never had to buy new underwear specifically because of my period. How weird. I buy knickers obviously from time to time but nothing to do with periods.

And who needs a magazine or chocolate? That is just pathetic. Do they think they only buy them because of hormones?

We always have generic cheap painkillers in the house and I might need the odd paracetamol at a cost of about 1p.

Did they just survey a load of snowflakes or women with extreme periods?!

What a load of shite, no wonder some men don’t take women seriously.

ok, about 8 tampons plus reusable washable pads for the first 2 days, then the same for the other 4 days. so about 16 tampons, i have 6 reusable heavy flow pads that get washed daily, and 4 lighter flow ones. my periods are heavy. painkillers are 30 p a pack. The pads are about 5 years old and are fine. so costs are about £2 per period. £25??? you can get 3-4 reusable pads for that!

I don't think it helps the argument to use silly exaggerated figures - of course women do not spend an average of £25 per period. Even allowing for outliers, that is plainly nonsense.

Yura, you can only buy 3-4 reusable pads for £25 if you have the £25 to start with. A lot of women don't.

And when you change a reusable pad at work, what do you do with the used ones? Do you carry them round in your bag until you get home?

All of this makes me glad I'm post menopause, I'd forgotten what a faff it all was, and I never had troublesome periods.

I have horrendously heavy periods which can last two weeks at a time, I have to wear a sanitary towel and super plus tampon at the same time

You think that's heavy? I have to use 3 ultra tampons and a night towel which I have to change every hour if not more often for the 1st 2 days. Then it drops to one super plus tampon and regular towel for the next 5 to 8 days

Even if you are buying new knickers every period a pack of 4 from tesco is £4.50
42 Lillets superplus tampons on ocado £3.80 (pack of 14 £1.90 buy 2 get one free)

Bodyform superultra towels £1 for 10 so say 2 packs £2
Popins £1 for 50 so lasts several periods

that is a total of £11.30 which will cover the heaviest of periods using a tampon and a pad and new knickers for at least 4 days

Here are the points I want to add

• she stood up and said that she personally has spent £25 this week and that the AVERAGE is £500 a year that some women cannot afford. £500 a year equates to £38.46 per four weeks (based on a 28 day menstrual cycle) I understand everyone is different in terms of frequency, flow, duration and supplies required but this is apparently an average.

I don’t think it is unreasonable to say that it really isn’t an average, and question where those figures came from, when even the people here who are detailing the most horrible periods imaginable are saying they can sometimes spend over £20 a month just on supplies. You’d still need to double that and then some to make £38.46 anywhere close to average. I admire the cause but it damages itself when the figures sound so inaccurate to the majority’s ear.

Further, I got to the idea that poor women should be made to use mooncups and rich women get a choice and rolled my eyes a bit - reusable pads anyone? I used them for years when I was on income support. Never used a mooncup. I still use them now but usually at night.

To add my 2p, my average period costs me around £1. You’ve got to admit there’d have to be a lot of people spending £60-80 a month just to even up my £1 skew, if the £38.46 was accurate.

Look, I've been there with the heavy periods and it's really not normal. Just because it happens to a lot of people doesn't mean it's normal. There is always a cause - in my cause it was huge fibroids.

There are lots of treatments available to deal with heavy periods, from tranexamic acid to cut the flow through to Mirena, small surgical procedures like ablation and big surgical procedures like hysterectomy. In my experience though it depends very much on your GP. One of the GP's at my surgery was very much "put up and get on with it until menopause", the other was horrified at my constant lack of iron and how it was affecting my life.

It's easy to lose perspective of "normal" because it creeps up on you gradually, a little heavier each month until you're at the stage of being permanently welded to the loo and sleeping on a towel because you know you'll flood overnight, and only ever buying black underwear because you know white will get ruined.

But even when I was at that stage I wasn't spending the reported £25.

Please, if you're having to buy Tena products to cope with your periods get back to the GP to firstly understand what is causing it, second what your options are for treating it. Push for a gynae referral. I know the NHS is strapped but come on, we shouldn't have to live like this!

I had a hysterectomy 18 months ago and it is the best decision I ever made. Life back to normal.

her statement that each period costs £25, and that women spend £500 a year on sanitary products.

Even if you were spending £25 a month that's still only around £300 a year - where's the extra £200 from?

You can buy a 20 pack of supermarket own brand tampons for £1 and that lasts a whole period

LOL at that idea...some women can get through that many in a day!

Having PCOS, which isn't an uncommon condition, results in periods that can last months. Or multiple periods each month. If I don't keep my weight very low, which is very difficult with PCOS, I suffer terribly.

The reason this study includes luxurious items such as chocolate is because it was a survey conducted on a variety of women, many who can easily afford to eat extra chocolate, to get an idea of how much extra a period costs in general. Personally I go off food for a few days so do save some money there. But I don't believe it's ridiculous to suggest that some extra comfort through a sometime horrendous period is what many pay for.

I have a friend who gets strong, pregnancy like, cravings for fried chicken the week before she is due. Without her period she wouldn't touch the stuff, so yes her period causes that extra spending.

Not everyone can use a moon cup.
Also the cost of one is a lot out of a small income and would often be a families food budget.

This thread really makes me think of this

Take ur period-shaming,moon-cup loving arse&shove it...fumbling aroung with bloodclotted hands-criticising those who choose anything but..u make me ill...rich peoples problems

Was it necessary to tell everyone she was on her period. Do men really want to know. She can still get her message across.

So what was the she after? The government have already removed VAT, does she want free sanpro?

Or being Labour does she want the taxpayer to pay?

Mine cost me about £5-10. I was on incapacity benefit for some time and it was a problem.

To those posters saying poor women can’t afford a mooncup - this thread is about taxpayers providing sanpro FREE to women on benefits. So WE would be paying, not the claimants. And we would get better value for money if we paid once for a mooncup, than shell out every month for 40 years on pads and tampons.

I use reusables

Cost me £20 for about 12 of them but that's it. I don't need to pay anymore.

I was spending around £5-6 a month on always infinity pads. They are the quite expensive ones too. It is possible to do it under £25 but I think those who spend that, obviously need it

Mine are heavy after being sterilised. And extremely painful. I go through about 2 packs of thick pads per period. I don't spend anywhere near £25 on them.

I probably spend the £25 in a whole year.

Was it necessary to tell everyone she was on her period

Did you watch her speech? It was pretty relevant. God forbid the delicate man ears have to hear the word 'period'.

Let's be honest if this was a room full of women saying "I'm on my period" wouldn't have turned so many heads