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.

Ha yes approx £2-£5 on sanitary products and double that on chocolate

I use contraception that stops mine now and I was lucky prior to that, that whilst my periods were horrendously painful (and I swung between crying and wanting to kill someone) they were never particularly heavy. I doubt I ever spent more than a fiver per month on tampons/pads. I did try a mooncup but it never worked and felt really uncomfortable. My cervix tilts to the left though so may be why. Anyway, whilst I was lucky I have friends with gynae problems that could easily spend £25 or more. Many have 3 week long periods and have to change every hour even with a pad and tampon.

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.

This is what the NHS says is usual.
Your period can last between 3 and 8 days, but it will usually last for about 5 days.
You'll lose about 30 to 72 millilitres (5 to 12 teaspoons) of blood during your period, although some women bleed more heavily than this.
www.nhs.uk/conditions/periods/

Based on this, mine are typical, not light. Obviously some women will have heavier periods, but I don't think £500 a year is typical at all.

Surely it would be much cheaper for us hard pressed taxpayers to just provide one mooncup for each woman claiming period poverty?

Sali Hughes, who is one of the founders of Beauty Bank, which aims to cover hygiene poverty, talks about this here:

www.instagram.com/p/BklaR4VADMs/?taken-by=salihughes

"We can rarely use them. Very many of our clients don’t have washing machines, easy access to hot water. We also deliver to charities staffed by unpaid volunteers, many of them men. It’s often really inappropriate for those men to start discussing methods of sanitary protection with young girls. There are also religious and cultural implications we have to consider with much of the sanitary protection issues. It is miles more complicated than people imagine."

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?

Yes of course. But I had no idea that women could have such very very heavy bleeding that they might need to wear a super plus tampon AND and a heavy pad AND have to change the tampon hourly!LOL. Someone who wears a super plus tampon and changes them 6-8 hours is different to someone who has to get up hourly in the night to change their super plus tampon AND extra absorbency pad, surely?

I still don't understand tbh how there is so much variation tbh! The average total endometrial thickness in most women is 8-10mm. So how does that translate into pint glasses of blood in one woman versus an eggcup full in another - it very evidently does because there is SO much variation. I'm just really curious about the biology of how this variation actually works at a physiological level

bananafish
That’s criminal that your friend wasn’t treated while under GA. What is this world coming to?

I was also fobbed off by my gp. Just heavy periods you know. 🙄. And yes, it was criminal. I wrote about it pages ago.

As for detecting adenomyosis, the gynaecologist, who found mine told me it was a job for experienced scanners. This is why upthread I recommended getting a referral to a consultant gynaecologist.

@Angelil
What everyone? Everyone should use a moon cup or similar? Did you even bother to read the thread before you put such a stupid post up?

Mooncups can be difficult for women without regular access to a shower or private washing facilities.

I haven't read the thread, but I assumed when I heard this she was possibly talking about stained clothes or something unrelated to sanitary towels or tampons.

bunbunny that's exactly the point I was going to make and I haven't seen it on this thread. Danielle Rowley actually claimed it had cost her £25 already this week. I find that hard to believe and would like to see how she arrives at that sum.

This thread has turned into a competition of “who has the worst/heaviest period”
🙄

@bananafish81
This is my understanding. Please feel free anyone to chip in with more accurate info. It’s because the body doesn’t just shed the lining, the blood vessels that feed the endometrium continue to bleed once menstruation has started. It is the contractions of the uterus that slow and stops the blood flow to the utters. Heavy bleeding can therefore be a sign of a uterus not contracting properly.

This thread has turned into a competition of “who has the worst/heaviest period”

Really? It rather seems to me it is an indication of which posters are particularly hard of thinking.

Omg! I didn’t realise how common very heavy periods were. Awful for some of you.

I’m lucky in some respect as always had relatively light then after a d&c after DS birth I have very light. The thin lining caused issues conceiving DD so it’s not always been a blessing.

I can use a pack of pads and tampons every two months and genuinely didn’t realise how expensive it was for other women. I too think the figure doesn’t help the argument, which is disappointing as we had a place at the table so to speak and now may have lost credibility to the debate

crispysausagerolls
No it hasn’t. It has been women educating other women on the variation of menstrual flow and other related symptoms. Had every woman, who posted on this thread been away of the variations in flow and symptoms, there would have been no need to explain or contradict posts and dismissive / unkind comments.

I thought it was a competition for how little some people spend! I think £1.26 is the least amount per period quoted, but someone will come on here and accuse her of wanton profligacy!

Really? It rather seems to me it is an indication of which posters are particularly hard of thinking.

It’s also 25 pages of people not accepting that other people have different periods to them/can’t use specific products/can’t use mooncups etc etc

I think £1.26 is the least amount per period quoted, but someone will come on here and accuse her of wanton profligacy!

Well quite. £1.26 is disgusting quite frankly when you could use moss.

My last one must have cost about a grand, I was hospitalised

On meds to stop any bleeding now, the NHS must have thought 'no, no, keep her away from us'.

I would have thought the average period would cost a few quid but not £25 unless you're factoring in doctor's appointments etc

Clionba

It seems to be that too!

It’s also 25 pages of people not accepting that other people have different periods to them/can’t use specific products/can’t use mooncups etc etc

Um yeah. I know. Hence those being hard of thinking given the same fucking point has been explained in increasingly small syllables over countless pages.

JaquesHammer!! My mum was brought up in rural poverty and told me that they used to use rags and soak them in buckets. No doubt some would think that's still a good idea!

@Mummyoflittledragon that makes perfect sense! Thank you so much for explaining, that's really clear and helpful

JacquesHammer

No need to be snippy, I was just voicing agreement with what you had said!

^Your period can last between 3 and 8 days, but it will usually last for about 5 days.
You'll lose about 30 to 72 millilitres (5 to 12 teaspoons) of blood during your period, although some women bleed more heavily than this.^

This is probably literally true. The key word is blood. Periods aren't just blood. This blog discussion of the subject cites a reference that only 36% of the total fluid of a period is blood.

rubycup.com/blog/how-much-blood-during-period-scientific-research/