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 think the point is that sanitary products should be tax exempt?

"are people changing them before they need to?"
Yes, that'll be the problem.....

bananafish
She’s actually almost 10 now.
I’m so sorry to read that. I had no idea some women had no endometrial lining. Your story absolutely deserves to be heard.

I don't want to derail this thread, but I am at my wits end with the type of pain I have been getting in. Its similar to very late stages of labour, where I felt the head was pushing down on my vagina and anus. The pain in my anus has been really sharp too. As there are alot of people with severe period pain in this thread, may I ask, does anyone know what it could be? I have been fobbed off my multiples GPs and consultant.

Applauds SomeDyke, brilliantly put.

Danielle Rowley wrote an article kind of explaining how she got to that figure (different size tampons and pads but doesn't say that she'll be able to use the excess next month, replacement pants and tights, painkillers, drinks!) so that explains how she spent 25 this week on it (www.newstatesman.com/politics/feminism/2018/06/i-told-parliament-i-had-my-period-here-s-why) but it still leaves me no closer to understanding her saying that the average is 500 a year and I think shes kind of done a disservice by claiming this is the average.

It will cost some women that much a year, maybe even more and its fine to give the upper end of the figures as well but shes made it into a debate on what the average period costs rather than the fact that some people can't afford the actual average of a few pounds or more a month

I have heavy periods and probably spend about £20 a month on towels, tampons, painkillers & extra loo roll!

@TatianaLarina

Why the 'ick' comment? How rude of you to imply lack of hygiene.

I have 2 heavy days when I might get through 4 including 1 at night so that's 8. (A pad lasts me 3-4 hours at least or longer.) That leaves 4 for 2 days, and sometimes after day 3 I can use liners only. Even if someone use 2 boxes of Infinity that's £6- so no way can people spend £25.

Everyone's periods are different and the key word in this argument is average...
1 in 10 women suffer from endometriosis. Thats quite a lot! This disorder can cause very heavy, irregular and long painful periods. And many more others have PCOS and other menstrual problems.
I can see it being quite easy to spend £25 a month when you suffer with such extreme periods that often feel normal to women in the position of suffering with them.
I have gone through 18 day periods (whilst taking the contraceptive pill back to back to decrease their severity) and they can be heavy and unexpected and painful.
I take lots of painkillers because i take them everyday and I always have to have a variety of pads available in case I start bleeding (I cannot use tampons due to the pain they cause and mooncups are out of the question too). Although pads are relativley cheap, I still go through quite a lot.
As others have said, own brands just don't work the same as branded and often cause irritation too - especially when leaving them on to try not to use so many.

UnderBlue

Sorry to hear you are having problems. I have endometriosis/adenomyosis and get a lot of pain but also pressure feeling. I say I feel like I go through labour every month. I think you should go to your GP and get a referred for an internal scan and they will be able to see any problems with your womb/ovaries etc. It's miserable but you may be able to get some help if they can find something wrong on a scan.

WonderfulWonders Try the sensitive always in the pink packet - no scent! x

I probably spend far to much a month on this, I wear pads and tampons and I change EVERYTIME I go toilet. I'm currently having problems at the moment where I keep having mini periods/spotting in between periods so am having to buy more bits in. Probably sounds odd but when I'm wearing liners I have to wear 2 at a time so I can make them longer (3 if there very small pads) I can't use cheap tampons as they irritate me and make me sore so I have to by the pearl ones whatever the price, so I reckon I spend close to this each month

New rule. No-one is allowed to say they have heavy periods without describing what that means. Hint: if you even contemplate buying light towels, you might not have "heavy" periods...

I'll go first. My flow has varied throughout my life. I used to have light daytime flow, which meant 5-6 days of bleeding. During this time I would be able to use sanitary towels on their own and wear white trousers in perfect security. Towels would need to be changed 4-6 hourly. Tampons- I would use Regular absorbancy, and change them at intervals of between 6 to 8 hours.

I now have heavy periods. When I say heavy, I mean that I can completely flood through a Super absorbancy tampon, plus a night-time pad plus right through my jeans in an hour. A Super Plus tampon can last less than 2 hours before fully saturated and Super Plus Extra lasts about 4-6 hours.

I have a lot of menstrual products- pads, Lillets tampons, disposable sanitary pads, supermarket own-brand tampons, and reusable pads in various absorbancies, but funny thing, the 'reusable light pads' don't get used much.

Even if someone use 2 boxes of Infinity that's £6- so no way can people spend £25.

2 boxes....lol ! Read the thread.

I spend about two quid .If I was going though that amount of money on knickers pads/tampons and pain relief then i imagine I’d be pretty Damn miserable and opt to go on some sort of contraception to stop it my periods

The thing that annoys me about this campaign is that NOTHING IS FREE!!!! if sanitary protection were prescribed it would be funded by the tax payer !!! And if we started prescribing sanitary towels and tampons what would be next, loo role ???

The reason people are banging on about mooncups is because they’re so good. And people are banging on abou thencosts of periods and don’t actually bother to try them.
I have serious PCOS and swapping to a mooncup has cause a huge difference in the pain I feel. They don’t leak. They are comfortable. They are much cleaner.
Either that or get washable sanitary liners.

Or don’t moan about buying disposable crap.

£1 for towels, 26p paracetamol. Maybe the rest is for all the crisps and chocolate I get through?

The thing that annoys me about this campaign is that NOTHING IS FREE!!!!

Prescriptions are to lower earners/people in receipt of certain benefits.

At the very least san pro should be free to those suffering period poverty.

I use a mooncup myself. It's good for me but surely anyone with a modicum of intelligence realises that they might not be universally good for women, no? And if you try one and don't get on with it you've flushed the better part of 20+ quid down the toilet. I mean, DUH!

Sarahrelly, what an arrogant post. Stop telling other people what they must or mustn't use. I couldn't care less about your medical history or circumstances and I'm not interested in your opinions of what other women do.

If your tiny mind cannot wrap itself around the fact that there are myriad reasons why women do not use mooncups, then that is just too bad.

So, respectfully, take your marvellous mooncup and see if it will double up as a gobstopper.

A mooncup isn't suitable for everyone so that's a bit shitty trying to say its the one for all answer its not. I have heavy periods (or did before i got pregnant) and even i could use just one pack of always nighttime pads for an entire 5 day period costing me £3 per month a pack. And my periods were heavy to the point i could fill a pad up front to back and spill over the sides in about 4hrs so unless your changing it everytime you go to the toilet or when it isn't even full i don't get how people go through so many of them per month.

Nothing is free but there shouldn't be VAT on a necessity like san pro.

At the very least san pro should be free to those suffering period poverty

What about fuel poverty? Should gas/electric be free?
Should food be free?
Should housing be free?

I’ve been diagnosed with adenomyosis which is like endo but in the uterus wall - it’s a major cause of painful heavy periods but really difficult to diagnose. Mine was picked up by a very experienced person doing an ultrasound.