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.

I go to Home Bargain Store and get two packets of sanitary pads for £1.

Also I sometimes use the panytliners which are less than a pound for when I am expecting it or if the period lingers a little.

Even tampons I do not buy fancy Lillets I just get e.g. Asda own brand.

No need to spend a fortune there really isn't.

Equally baffled here. I struggle to see how it's possible to spend more than £10 a month on sanitary protection unless you've got a serious medical problem. Even then, £10 is a lot more than I ever spent.

I get a bit irritated by the idea of "period poverty", tbh. The problem is poverty full stop. Poor women don't need more money for sanitary protection, they just need more money - for food, for clothes, for heating, for everything. Let's just organise society so everyone has enough money to meet their basic needs. Don't patronise people by giving them money for sanitary towels but not bothering about whether they have enough to eat.

It should be free or cost a hell.of a lot less. I have had every test under the sun done but in the end fobbed off with "thats just how your body/cycle is". One month i can use 3 x 28 pk of tampax and a full pkt of towels. Another month i might only use half a pk. My periods can last from 3 days to 12 days!! And my cycle is only 14 days at times so i can have 2 periods a month (can also go the other way and not have a period for 3 months) ! It soon adds up. Own brand super/super plus is nowhere near as strong and branded (in my own disgusting experience). Lucky where i live there are plenty of shops with offers on so sanpro can be affordable but i have struggled with the expense some months especially when i was younger. I remember going to a corner shop for an emergency pkt and they wanted £4.50 for 8!! That is just taking advantage imo. Not to mention the cost of thrush cream, brought on for having to wear towels, why are the majority of towels made from that sweaty smelly thrush inducing plastic?

So much about this annoys me. As I said in a PP I have severe endo and my period were hellishly heavy (and will be again no doubt) pre-surgery and coil/pregnancy. However I would in no way factor in new pants, sheets, chocolate and fucking dvds to my “period cost”. It’s pathetic. I’ve also flooded several pairs of shorts and jeans etc but have never had an issue removing the blood. Same with pants. Same with sheets. People are being excessively dramatic having to replace everything every month....

I used to have horrendous periods but I’ve had an endometrial ablation so they’re much lighter now. I couldn’t leave the house for the first couple of days and passed clots the size of sanitary towels. It was really awful and painful.

I was bullied into having a Mirena first by the gynaecologist at the hospital I was originally referred to but that made me so ill that it was removed after 8 months, and I was referred elsewhere following complications from that.

I really do recommend an ablation to those of you who suffer so badly.

anditgoes No it wasn't relevant. You don't go for an interview and say "I'm good at typing oh and I have my period today", or a wedding "I'd like thank the bride and groom, oh and I've just come on". There's a time and a place. I was just embarrassed for her.

She wasn't in a room of women and she was in her place of work. She could just raise the issue of period poverty and how much it costs. But... she's young & Labour so she thought she was being clever.

Image if a bloke stood up to complain about the price of condoms and said "Today I have a stiffy on"

Just worked out what I used to spend (before mirena solved a lot of problems:

1 pack super plus extra lilets (6 per day for about 4 days) - £3.50
1 pack super plus lilets (6 per day for the next 3 - 4 days) - £3.50
1 pack of always night time towels - wore day and night in case of leaking - £2

Painkillers continuously for a week around ovulation ~ £2
Painkillers continuously for a week prior to my period ~ £2

So only about half the amount stated - BUT my cycle was only 20 - 23 days so I would have two periods in some pay months, which would take it to the £25.

Yes, how dare she tell a room of men that she’s on her period - oh the shame! 🙄

Ladies why are you suffering these horrendous periods? Get a Mirena coil! They’re brilliant. Wish I’d had mine years ago.

FFS. I’ll happily tell you about my Mirena experience. I didn’t want one and tried every other type of contraceptive first but eventually relented and had it inserted during my fifth laparoscopy (fifth surgery in seven years, as it happens).

I had pretty much constant pain for four weeks, longer than usual after a surgery. And then the contractions started. Every day, around lunchtime until 9pm or 10pm at night. And I don’t mean a bit of a twinge, I mean take your breath away, can’t talk through them, agony. Even on morphine and other meds.

I went back to see my consultant. He said it was impossible that the coil was causing it but had no interest in finding out why it was happening (because he blatantly knew it was the coil - look at the materials talking about “ensuring compliance” in the early months). He said I had to give it three months.

Just before three months I called the GP surgery to arrange removal but as it required a doctor and a nurse I had to wait almost two months for an appointment. I find speculums very painful so was dreading it but I was in agony. After five very painful minutes thinking it must be nearly over, she explained the strings had been cut too short. She tried for half an hour, it was horrific, there were implements involved etc.

In the end she referred me to have it removed under sedation. I got a letter for What I thought was a consultation but no, they attempted to remove it without sedation. The doctor actually laughed when I said I find speculums painful and didn’t use a small one as I requested. She tried for nearly an hour and when that failed she pushed her whole hand into my vagina and started basically thumping me in the stomach. When that didn’t work she agreed I needed a general anaesthetic to remove it.

It took around 12 months in total to get the fucking thing out, meanwhile I’d lost my dream job and was pretty much housebound due to the pain.

So yeah, apologies if I roll my eyes a bit every time I hear that the Mirena is the solution we are all looking for.

I think some people need to read this:
www.mumsnet.com/Talk/mumsnet_classics/3269641-Period-symptoms-no-one-talks-about

You think stating that youre menstruating is akin to stating that you have a fucking erection?!

I honestly despair of some women.

@WaggyMama she wasn't at an interview, she was speaking about the problems of periods for many women

An erection doesn't cause financial hardship and I don't believe I've seen reports of young boys unable to come to school because they can't afford their erection.

It's normalising periods, that's all

£25 does sound like a lot, but a pack of 20 tampons is equally unrealistic. When using tampons we should be having the correct for our flow this means I have super plus, super and regular for a period and also need to use pads for back up.

20 for an entire period made me laugh out loud, my last periods (recently had a baby) I was changing hourly and using a pad too.

Moon cups and similar are great, but no good for heavy periods, I haven't bothered trying but my bf did as her dsis recommended but was much to heavy for them.

Also I don't think women on prescribed medication is rare at all, perhaps I have a skewed view but of my four closest friends all of them have at some point been prescribed tranexamic acid and I have to have prescribed co-codamol for pain relief and this was prior to having a baby, nowadays I could happily have some morphine.

Maybe she is adding the chocolate to eat 😊

Next thing will be how dare you use tampax pearl if you’re on benefits. You’re only allowed Asda saver or Aldi. Fucking profligate twmpon users with our tax payers money

But doesn't it make sense if you have a limited budget, whether due to benefits, low income or decent income but high rent/mortgage/commuting/childcare costs to use cheaper but perfectly satisfactory products?

Seems to be a lot of entitlement here - 'I must be able to use huge amounts of the most expensive products available plus treat washable underwear as disposable, plus I must have only expensive branded painkillers not identical supermarket brands at a fraction of the cost plus don't you dare suggest I might get a prepayment certificate if I need prescriptions or use a mooncup or washable pads that will pay for themselves in one or two months either'.

It's normalising periods, that's all.....too much info, I can't the image out of my head of her in a small Westminster cubicle, one leg on the rim of the loo trying to push a tampon up her foof. I suspect many others have a similarly disturbing image. We don't need to know that.

She's not suffering period poverty no it's not relevant, she could have easily said there are thousands of women on their periods today blah blah

cheaper but perfectly satisfactory products?
But they’re not perfectly satisfactory or even usable for some women.

Even using foam core sanitary towels, i have open wounds by day 7. The heaviness of bleeding means that normal towels / reusables can’t draw liquid away from the skin fast enough. If I use cheap or even big standard always towels, my skin has started breaking down on day 2, which is untenable if your period lasts 10-12 days.

It’s this sort of thing that people who don’t experience heavy bleeding simply do not understand, and frankly all the “why don’t you try” or even privilege suggestions are fucking insulting - I’ve bren fe

too much info, I can't the image out of my head of her in a small Westminster cubicle, one leg on the rim of the loo trying to push a tampon up her foof. I suspect many others have a similarly disturbing image. We don't need to know that

Changing a tampon is a disturbing image?

People like you are the reason periods need to be normalised

I’ve been dealing with this for 25 years, it’s definitely not a fucking privilege and I’ve alreadh tried more things than you can imagine.

@BarbaraofSevillle

There is ONE brand of tampon that goes anywhere near controlling my periods on the heaviest days. It isn’t for want of trying cheaper brands.

And of course the one thing that we do know, whether or not a woman spends £5 or £50 per period, £10 a year or a £1000 - for men that cost is £0. Nothing. Nought. Zero. Zilch.

Yet for women that are on a low income this difference in essential expenditure from men is not taken into account, exacerbating the poverty experienced by women in comparison to men.

I tried the council for months, it kept slipping down and it felt like it was going to come out. I cut all the stem off but that didn't help. It also gave me bad pelvic pain. I really wanted to work as I have heavy periods but I finally gave up

Council=mooncup😳

*And of course the one thing that we do know, whether or not a woman spends £5 or £50 per period, £10 a year or a £1000 - for men that cost is £0. Nothing. Nought. Zero. Zilch.

Yet for women that are on a low income this difference in essential expenditure from men is not taken into account, exacerbating the poverty experienced by women in comparison to men.*

And when you take into account that the recent benefit cuts have disproportionately made women worse off it's a pretty depressing story.

I used to have Very Heavy periods before I started using the mooncup and 4 years later got a coil fitted. Before my heavenly mooncup, I could easily spend £20 on sanitary protection each month as I needed super plus tampons plus towels, often doubling up during the night so I could get at least two hours sleep at a time rather than dashing to the loo every hour. I couldn't use own brand products as they just didn't absorb enough for me so Tampax and Always (pre-scented days!) it had to be

Waggymamma - I don't put my leg on the loo