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.

Should gas/electric be free?
Should food be free?
Should housing be free?

Assistance is given on all those things in some way or another.

I would have no issue in an increase in tax to be able to provide san pro for those who aren’t able to buy it. It’s a basic human right isn’t it?

There should be free sanitary protection, suitable for the woman, for every woman unable to provide it for herself, the cost of doing this in real life will be a lot less than it would be if you use the £25 as an average. Surely using a correct & realistic figure would mean it’s more likely to happen - ie more likely at £2-3/per person per period than £25.......

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.

Have you had ultrasound, checked for endo, cysts, fibroids etc?

While £25 is a bit on the high side, I could easily spend £15+ . With replacement knickers, I can see where the £25 comes from. In any case, why should we all have to buy the very cheapest supermarket brands?

For those who don't have heavy periods, be grateful you don't.

@LyingWitchInTheWardrobe

Ah, what a hypocritical little witch you are. Best you get back into that lonely wardrobe of yours!

I have no issue with people saying they don’t work for them...although I do know most people I’ve met who say that haven’t actually tried them. But, hey ho.

My issue is that if you’re not willing to give a reusable and affordable option a go then you damn well shouldn’t be moaning about the cost of sanitary towel.

I would have no issue in an increase in tax to be able to provide san pro for those who aren’t able to buy it

In practice, I can't see how this would be workable. I think it would be great if it was freely available in schools and that's easy logistically I'd imagine. However, for the adult population, how would you administer such a scheme?

I think the point is that sanitary products should be tax exempt?
They are taxed at 5%. Most people would consider deodorant, soap and toothpaste to be essential items too. Poverty is the problem.

I know people who use the moon cup and say it’s great but honestly, they don’t have bad or painful periods.
When you have any kind of condition that causes pelvic pain and huge slimey blood clots the last thing you want is to be dealing with a moon cup (unless you do which is totally fine if you can handle it).
I wouldn’t want sanitary towels on prescription - presumably we all have our favourite type etc (I just couldn’t cope without always with wings lol) but we shouldn’t be paying tax on it and there should perhaps be some lower income voucher.

There’s a very persuasive societal attitude that we should all martyr ourselves to our periods.

About 6 years ago I had enough.

So I don’t. I am very open about the struggle. If people question why I need another loo break I explain. I am sick of menstrual issues being a dirty little secret that nobody is willing to discuss.

YABU in that I don't think it's very useful to deflect this debate onto the specific cost mentioned by one woman. Instead of debating the specifics of the campaign and working out what can be done to better the situation we're mired in an inconsequential numbers game.

I've had £2 periods and £30 periods where I've bled through a dress at work; there's no representative figure. But I'm very grateful that I've always been able to meet those costs, never been without sanpro and never felt I had to miss out on anything as a result.

That's not true for everyone, and it can limit the potential of some women. That shouldn't be happening in this day and age.

However, for the adult population, how would you administer such a scheme?

Periods packs available via foodbanks for a start. The donations of san pro are the first item to go every week. Meaning many women miss out.

I’m actually working on starting a project with our local foodbank to do just this.

Im the same as other readers unfortunately, I have to buy painkillers, 3 packs of pads, two packs of liners and tampons- I spend a good £15.00 a period

Sarahrelly... not your call to make and you have no point. You don't get to dictate what other women use. End of.

Sanitary products aren’t like toothpaste, deodorants, electricity etc they are a women only issue - the others are gender neutral.

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

Thank you for actually bothering to qualify what you mean by 'heavy'. However, please be aware that while that is definitely not 'light' flow, there are plenty of women with heavier periods who would reach the overflow point on a nightime pad long before four hours had passed.

Naturally these women will have to change their pads more regularly or double-up with tampons, and so they will need to spend more than you did.

My issue is that if you’re not willing to give a reusable and affordable option a go then you damn well shouldn’t be moaning about the cost of sanitary towel.

And if they don't have the spare dosh to put aside for the initial cost of these reusable products then fuck 'em, eh? What a narrow-minded attitude you have.

JacquesHammer that sounds a great step forward. I've often wondered about donating san-pro through foodbanks. Mostly it's Trussel here and the volunteers at supermarkets request that people follow the list that they're given.

My issue is that if you’re not willing to give a reusable and affordable option a go then you damn well shouldn’t be moaning about the cost of sanitary towel.

Oh bugger off.

@Mummyoflittledragon congratulations on your DD in that case! :)

I do have some womb lining - but it is very thin and fairly non responsive. We did manage to get it to thicken with a shitload of different fertility drugs enough to have a transfer on two occasions, but I miscarried both pregnancies. It appears the lining breaks down and somehow reabsorbs. So even if we can get the lining to grow, it's getting it to shed as a menstrual bleed that's the issue. In my third cycle my endometrial thickness actually got to a whopping 10mm at egg collection! It was a freeze all cycle so no transfer - however I still didn't get a menstrual bleed. I just got some black gunk - then a scan showed that was my period, as the lining had thinned to 3mm.

Womb looked in tip top condition in both hysteroscopies, but obvs not because it's very very broken. No clinician understands what's going on - the top professor who's the leading researcher into womb lining said I was one of the strangest cases he'd ever seen, and had never seen this before in any patient (and he runs a specialist womb lining clinic that people travel to from afar). So I am very much an outlier.

The only way I can have some kind of actual bleed is with a combo of heavy duty fertility drugs and a copper IUD to generate inflammation (the reason many women with a copper coil have much heavier periods). Even then, I didn't even get close to enough bleeding to have filled a Mooncup across the entire period.

Thin endometrium is pretty unusual - but the Prof said I was more than unusual, I was apparently one of a kind. So a very unrepresentative example of someone with light periods.

Praisebe

Filling a pad gully as you describe in 4 hours isn't what I would call heavy !

*fully not gully

@clyd I use one and have PCOS. I Have very heavy and long lasting periods. I regularly need iron and platelet transfusions because of the amount of blood lost.

@LyingWitchInTheWardrobe I’m not dictating what people use. Learn to comprehend written writing. I am saying if people CHOOSE to use disposable then they shouldn’t moan about the cost. Because it is an active choice they’re making to buy disposables. Witchy maybe you buy one and keep your tiny mind in it?

My issue is that if you’re not willing to give a reusable and affordable option a go then you damn well shouldn’t be moaning about the cost of sanitary towel.

Women in poverty can't afford to pay for the laundry or the water, so pull your head out of your bum and give it a wobble.

Still hope there's a way for you to become a mother if that's your wish, banana.

As I said...if you can handle a moon cup then go for it but personally it would have been out of the question due to the pelvic pain from adenomyosis.