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.

My periods last 7-10 days. they are heavy, and at least 2 days are like something out of a horror movie. So, at least 5 packets of always plus pain killers. Tampons are no good. I envy anyone who only needs 1 packet of tampons. So yes £25 makes sense, all told.

Isn’t the campaign to abolish VAT on sanitary products, rather than make them free? Which would be ridiculous?

clyd - same here. I have adenomyosis and couldn't handle a moon cup.

Bananafish
Wow you’ve really been through a lot

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

Ok I’m going to have to use tiny words here. Biology dictates what women can and cannot use. I cannot use a mooncup. Not won’t. Can’t.

Sarahreally, I'm comprehending you just fine. You're small-minded and judgemental. Either people TRY the mooncup OR they forfeit the right to complain about the cost of disposable options.

Did I miss anything? No. Not your call to make.

Really, don't bother replying it's tedious.

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.

An ultrasound can show fibroids, cysts or adenomyosis

Endo isn't necessarily detectable using ultrasound, unless you have a very visible endometrioma - because endometriosis is when the lining of the womb grows outside the uterus. The only really accurate way to diagnose endometriosis is via laparoscopy. And even they can be useless if they're diagnostic rather than therapeutic. My friend had a lap to investigate endo - which they found, but didn't laser any of it off while they were in there!

My gynae quite literally wrote the book on endo (he authored one of the major endometriosis textbooks), and used to run an endo and fibroids clinic at a major London teaching hospital

He said it's criminal how women get fobbed off by GPs who tell them heavy periods are normal, or just try to put them on the pill or mirena, without investigating the underlying causes. He said so many women who come to him with infertility turn out to have undiagnosed endometriosis - and if diagnosed and treated earlier, may not have progressed to the stage of affecting fertility (as well as alleviating suffering sooner).

He says women's health issues are woefully managed in primary care, which this thread certainly backs up

A bit (a lot) more funding towards gynocolgy to help cure the root causes of debilitating periods would be good for the environment too

I can easily spend around 25 a month! I have to use tampons and pads for at least 6 days. Would love to be able to use cheaper brands but they are just not absorbent enough and I'd be in the loo every hour! Not to mention painkillers - and no bog standard paracetamol don't touch the pain.
I've been through various tests and treatments via Dr/hospital. At end of the day I just have to get on with it!

I was lucky my periods were light but my teenage daughter can go through 2 / 3 packs Tampax and 2 packs bodyform night time (although I try and stock up on these when they are on offer as you only get 10 in a pkt ) a pack of nurofen every month I can spend £10-£15

In regard to the woeful treatment and treatment of women’s issues at primary care level - by the time I paid to see a consultant privately I was bleeding between periods, had constant pain and was severely anemic (iron was 2 for nearly 3 years - gp had refused to do any test other than bloods. Within 24 hours I was referred into the nhs to have emergency scans and my consultant later told me it was because I ticked every cancer warning checklist except age and he was genuinely worried it could be very serious.
It was an absolute (obvious) relief to ‘only’ have adenomyosis and some seriously shit periods.
Apparently the consultant wrote to the gp to complain that the outcome for another patient could be very different - I’m very aware that only a few years ago I could have never considered going private, even just for a consult.
This is much bigger than how much we spend on sanitary products.

Well, no wonder periods don't get taken seriously. Since I joined MN, I've realised I may have been the only fucker in the country who realised her light periods were just that, light.

Personally, I thought it was bloody obvious that the women buying thicker and more expensive pads and tampons must have heavier flow than I had so far experienced, but apparently it isn't. Apparently lots of women who have light and moderate periods think that women must buy products like super-plus, super plus-extra and such tampons for the fun of it?

I agree with banana and clyd, there are plenty of studies that show that doctors don't take women seriously. Something has to be done but there is plenty of disagreement about what. In the meantime we continue to fall through the cracks.
Getting any government go acknowledge and respect the fact that half the population have a period and require something to deal with it (moon cup or tampons or sanitary towels) is a start. Since periods are required to produce a child (who will grow up to pay taxes) maybe the government should support females before the point of conception. We are valuable members of the population even if we don’t have a penis!!!

Mooncups aren't suitable for everyone and they aren't the complete answer to period poverty, but I'd love for nurses to be able to give them out in the same way that they can give out free condoms

(As an aside, Tres - your cervix shouldn't have any bearing on whether you can use a mooncup or not - it doesn't go high up like a diaphragm)

JessmembardKingdomBrunel - not cashmere, but maybe pearl tampons

Pull them out of my fucking fanjo?

Nah, you’d need a bigger absorbency for that

I’m so sorry proudestmumm that must have been bloody horrific

I've been thinking about the products I use and realise that I use different things at different times within my period.

Day 1: Tampax Pearl Super - pad (any, Aldi night-time are quite good I think, but any long one or two regular ones)
Days 2-4: Switch to tampon - Lillet - these are the super, heavy flow ones, orange box, that I can't buy in shops so buy from ebay/Amazon. They cost a fair amount so I buy 4 boxes at a time and use one per period. Pads as before
Day 5: Tampax Super Plus and pad
Day 6: Tampax Super and pad
Day 7: Just a pad to make sure it's over finally

Using multiple products is expensive but that's what I need to do. Some of stories here of what other posters are going through are just horrendous, it makes me realise that even if I think I have heavy periods, they're not really that bad and could be so much worse.

Women need far more support about this and periods need to not be 'taboo' or something to feel shamed about. We all get through it as best we can and nobody has the right to dismiss how we cope.

Scented tampons??? I'm itching at the thought

I’ve never worked it out on a monthly basis (for a start mine are irregular so they’re not every month!). I buy the sanitary towels in bulk as it’s cheaper that way so buy two boxes of super, box of normal and box of pantyliners in one go. It costs a fortune but at least I can afford to spend that much a couple of times a year and have room to store it all.

Of course, I’d literally just stocked up when I discovered I was pregnant!

People need to start Mooncupping (or similar!). The cost (both financial and environmental) of pads, tampons etc is appalling.

Agree. Also think they should be free but not sure £25 is accurate. (Though I'm sure it is for some people.)

I spent a fortune on Thinx pants which are totally amazing.

Mooncups are horrible and rub and hurt and leak. And no it's not because I'm putting them in wrong.

Now I take the progesterone pill and haven't had a period for two years. Absolute bliss. Not sure if it healthy to do that forever, but I feel like I've done my 'time."