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.

There may be some women (homeless etc) that struggle to pay for period items and I agree yes they are cheap but surely child poverty in general is more important than focussing on a period!

I know they're not affordable /desirable/practical for everyone but give reusable pads a go if you can - I've been using some of mine for more than a decade and they're still fine.
A full period set costs about £50 for good ones - works out at pennies per period.

@Boulty - period poverty is part of child poverty! If a young girl is from a poor family who can barely get by for food, where do you think the money for tampons and/or pads will come from? This is where the campaign about period poverty has been trying to campaign, as some girls who cant afford products miss school as a results. How sad is that? I am so privileged to have never worried about it, so I donate sanitary products to my local food bank - not saying that to be all 'I am so amazing' but because if it helps one girl not need to miss school or wear old socks in her pants because she can't afford a pad, then I damn well will!

I have endometriosis so easily spend £25 per period (sometimes I get 2 a month!) on pads, tampons, pants, extra laundry, painkillers, supplements, cake....

Also. saying a period costs £25 downplays the fact that even the true cost of couple of quid is simply unaffordable to women living in poverty and can be literally a choice between buying protection, or eating.

Exactly this.

CAKE AND FUCKING CHOCOLATES DO NOT COUNT TOWARDS PERIOD EXPENDITURE FFS.

Changed name but just wanted to say in terms of losing work. 3 of my previous managers took great issue with my periods, all female. My latest role is male dominated in every way, I'm a probation officer and one of very few women and the bosses, coworkers and even rehabilitating men have been sympathetic. I sometimes can't hide the pain and have been asked many times if I'm ok or if I need a moment.

Other than one boss these men are generally young, maybe the younger males will be better than the previous generation. The women however, pretty despicable attitudes across all ages

I have a mooncup which has def saved me a lot of money, but my flow is too heavy on days one and two for the mooncup to cope with, so I use pads for day one and two (a whole packet), plus sometimes use them overnight on days three and four.

Plus painkillers. Plus cost of replacing knickers (and sometimes when I was younger skirts and trousers) when I flood.

Some people can't access cheap, own brand supermarket products because they don't have a car and don't live within waking distance of a supermarket. My corner shop only sells branded sanitary products which are more expensive. Fortunately i can walk to a supermarket or pay for an online supermarket delivery, but not everyone is in that position.

Oh, and I've lost count of the number of days I've had off work due to periods.

Something hand spun by vestal virgins under a full mooncup perhaps

Toilet rolls to keep clean,
Water to wash,
Sanitary items,
Clean underwear,
I'd say between £5 -£15 max.

But then I'm forgetting women with period related issues aren't I? I had a friend who bled everyday for 4 months. That would of cost an absolute fortune when you think about it.

Something hand spun by vestal virgins under a full mooncup perhaps

Ever get the feeling that we still have to battle against tiresome women who find the difficulties other women suffer amusing.

Ikeep You can work through the pain and function if you really have to, but you can't stop the damn bleeding.

Actually in some cases you can't even work through the pain. Not when you can't stand up because yor legs are jelly, you're throwing up with the pain, shivering violently to the core, and just... mentally in a totally different zone, where all there is is pain. Sort of delirious. And that's with diclofenac and tramadol...

As an aside, does anyone else sort of turn into an animal when the pain is bad? I get urges to strip off all my clothes and hide in a nest to die.

I don’t see why extra food doesn’t count.

Being so poor that you can't buy decent tampons is poverty.

PotatoesDieInHotCars I was talking about myself not other people, if someone needs to use both I am not saying they are wrong, for me i only use one that's all I was pointing out! which is why i only spend £5

For heavy periods, solutions have been suggested:

Get a Mirena coil.

• The coil only works if a woman’s uterus isn’t very enlarged. It comes in one size only. The only way to correctly check a uterus is with up to date equipment and fully trained staff. A fully qualified gynaecologist is the best person for the job as they can pick up conditions like adenomyosis, which has only recently been visible on vaginal scans. If a vaginal scan shows abnormalities, it is then best to ask the gynaecologist to order an mri.
• many women do not get on with the coil
• the coil is a very low dose continuous levels of progesterone directly on the site. I was very dubious of using this as the depo pro injection gave me abnormal cells and although this is far lower level hormones, the gynaecologist couldn’t guarantee this wouldn’t happen again.

Had I been satisfied with this, the first gynaecologist would not have referred me to a surgeon, who ordered an MRI and would have inserted one. This is the lapsadasical try and fail approach adopted by the NHS.

Get an ablation

• this also only works on a normal sized uterus. It will do a bit in the middle near the bottom of the uterus and miss a lot of the top and sides.

I went through every possible scenario before having my hysterectomy.

Gynaecology is so far down the agenda in this country it is disgusting. I have read on here countries offer an annual vaginal scan. I had adenomyosis. Likely for years, definitely more than 10. It’s only recently been diagnosable pre hysterectomy. And it’s common and basically endometriosis but lining developing in pockets of the muscle wall of the uterus causing it to expand slowly as the lining fills with period blood, which can no longer escape. The uterus may develop lots of sites or just one major site.

Jacques
Yes. I was particularly upset with the poster, who laughed at my health costs. They haven’t bothered to explain why. I wasn’t doing it for sympathy but to illustrate some people spend a lot more than £25. But I can see after more recent posts some women enjoy other women’s misery. Sad.

couldn't agree more, and that's one of the reasons why feminist screeching "equality" really piss me off. I don't want women to be treated in exactly the same way as men, it would be a lot more beneficial to recognise our differences and adapt accordingly. Some women might really struggle for a couple of days a week, and shouldn't be penalised.

Clearly you utterly misunderstand feminism if you think that feminists aren’t fighting to reduce the impact of periods on inequality.

FFS. It’s really simple. Some women spend less than £1 on sanpro per period. Some women spend upwards of £40+ a month on sanpro. This is not based on your financial situation but on the hand you are dealt biologically.

This is not difficult to grasp.

Agreed, it was a point of discussion with a couple of my female friends this morning and we all couldn’t understand how it would cost £25 a week. Even if you had a seven day period and bought a whole box of tampax a day (not sure how anyone could get through a box a day but there you go!) it would only be around £18. Painkillers are very cheap. I am fortunate not to have ridiculously heavy periods but even so, I buy cheap pads and I’d say a period costs me £2-3 a month max.

So then read the thread, where many people break down their costs. You’re very fortunate if OTC paracetamol and ibuprofen and a few cheap pads / tampons are sufficient.

But I can see after more recent posts some women enjoy other women’s misery. Sad

I'm reminded of another thread where someone laughed at me because I couldn't access the health care I need for various spurious HPT "rules".

Imagine being THAT person

Some women may spend large amounts, but there's plenty who don't. I buy a pack of tampons for about a quid or less...I think the lidl ones cost less. So I probably spend about a tenner per year. No need for the outrage over the cost...eating food is also essential and costs me a dam sight more.

I'm peri-menopausal, heavy and flooding and periods lasting longer than a week! I change my towel every couple of hours, have to buy thick ones for night, extra washing, laundry bleach, ruined underwear, extra eating because of hormones, extra baths/showers because I feel grotty and smelly... It all adds up and you are lucky to spend so little but very unreasonable to assume everyone is just like you.