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.

You think four pads day Is heavy! Wow you must have v v light periods. 4 a day would be very light day nearly at end for me easily get through pas every 1-2h usually with super tampon too

Unemployed cervical shock is not a reason not to have a Mirena. I had cervical shock following a procedure. It's not that serious and they could do your Mirena under a GA if your periods are that bad.

Obviously everyone is different and so every period is different. Personally I need to keep my knickers in the fridge during my period as I get so hot and the cool helps.
Could I claim for loss of fridge space?

To be fair, before I had my hysterectomy, periods were very expensive - I went through multiple packs of tampons, pads, mega strength painkillers... sometimes time off work... plus other bits and pieces to get through it... but I had the periods from hell. I think generally - the worse your period is, the more expensive it is. I was always amazed by girls/women who breezed through their periods with light flow, hardly any pain if any.... completely alien to me. Mine were unmitigated hell from day one until I had my uterus taken out - and cost a fortune.

Akire you need medical help then. That is not a normal period. Most info on periods says that a box of pads should last a whole period and blood loss is 80mls max ( for a normal period.)

Just totting what mine was up as thankfully due the the Mirena I don't have periods now!

Period lasting 10 days - Tampax Super plus, change every hour. Whilst wearing tampon, wear Always Ultra purple as leakage was common - yes I did need the brands as believe me 30 years of periods I knew what I NEEDED.

I'd say I was nearing the £20 if not over. Add that to night time mishaps in spite of the best protection, bloody sheets, bloody mattress, washing costs, new underwear....

I always wanted to be a small yellow tampax girl!

4 pads a day would be normal, I've never known anyone not to change at least 4/5 times a day. Even my friends with light, easy periods change every 4 hours as recommended. Pretty manky not to. The smell. Eugh.

My box super tamping here says each one holds up to 12g so you saying a full normal period over 7 days should only use 6 tampons? Think they sell them in box 20or 40 for reason lol

when i had periods mine were heavy, as in i stood up and it was like someone turned a tap on, constantly on night time pads, (could only use certain ones due to some irritating me) i would use 3-4 packs as mine lasted 7 days, when going to bed wrapped in a bath towel incase i flooded through to my mattress (happened previously with a mattress protector on) i also have pcos so passed huge clots. cost no more than £6-£8 for my pads a month. until i bled for 6 months as in everyday for 6 months that cost a fortune, tried lots of different tablets the only one that works is norethisterone which i have now been period free for 4 years. they only thing i wanted was chocolate of course the bigger the better bar haha!! now the only thing that annoys me is why should condoms be free when sex is optional and a woman has no choice when she gets her period she has to pay for pads and tampons

Doctors don’t really do anything go help women with heavy periods though. Let’s jut be idealistic

I think this stat has been floating around for a while. The radio 4 statistics show More or Less looked into it a while back and if I remember correctly it came from a self- reporting survey of quite a relatively small number of women so not the most rigorous source.

*lets not be idealistic

Respect to all of you struggling with dysmenorrhea but as PP says £25 must be close to maximum, not an average.

Women experiencing poverty shouldn’t have to go with the cheapest (often least effective if your periods are heavy) sanpro though. Lil-ets Ultra and a pad means I can go 2 hours without flooding. Cheap-as-chips own-brand don’t come up to scratch.

It’s an important issue and I salute the women campaigning on it, just don’t think exaggeration helps (and nor does saying everyone should just use a cup because they don’t work for everyone!)

For the average woman (and the vast majority of women will not need to use tena pads or need to change their tampon every half hour), I would say sanitary products are no more than about five pounds a month, if you take advantage of the offers that are always on or buy own brand. Definitely nowhere near £25 and it's silly to use that as an average figure.

At the same time, I do realise that many women do suffer period poverty and I think there should be an initiative for them to get free products and I think mooncups should be handed out at schools in deprived areas and to women who use food banks. I know some women can't use them, but most can and they save so much money and are much better for the environment too.

I don't think working women like this MP should get free tampons to be honest. I pay for prescriptions, eye tests, glasses, dentist etc. All of those things are for stuff I can't help but I can afford it so I should pay.

Now there will just be some arsehole guy writing an article about how women claim to need 10 packets of sanitary towels for one period and everyone will laugh and nobody will take it seriously.

@QueenoftheNights

No. She's fine. You need to change yourself more often.

Yes I certainly don’t spend that on my periods. Much much less.

It’s fantasy to suggest these products should be free. Why would anyone produce them if that were the case? And I don’t want the government providing them for me, I prefer to choose them myself. But perhaps this should be considered in universal credit payments. This is one of many areas where women have a worse deal than men.

I buy one pack of towels and it lasts 2/3 periods. My period lasts 2 days... one where I change pad about every 3/4 hours so 3 pads. No pad needed at night. Next day it's so light really i can get away with one change or none. No painkillers needed. Done chocolate though 😁 So yes mine costs pennies. I realise this is not the case for everyone

I can see why some people with very heavy periods can get close to that, but there's no way that £25 is the average cost.

I use a mooncup now, but when I didn't (or when I've been away and forgotten it) then one pack of tampax is sufficient (I'd use a mix of super and regular but about half a box of each so still 1 in total per period IYSWIN) so a cost of about £3.

I wear 2 pads that I change every four hours (as most hygenic women do). Will usually use 10 pads per day. Which makes 48-50 for the week. That costs 4.50. Plus there’s the cost of 2 ibruprofen and 2 paracetamol per 4 hour period. So usually go through a couple of boxes of each per period - usually about 1.50. I then spend more on washing my clothes because I leak out every night - probably need to do at least one extra machine load per day which probably adds £3. Then there’s the extra loo roll I have to use - often can go through 7 big rolls per period, so that’s about £5.

That’s a total cost of £14 per period.

I saw the £25 figure quoted recently for PMDD sufferers, and it did just relate to tampons/towels.The same person wanted to refer to women as ‘menstrators’ though, so they could have just been talking shite.

Some women just have heavier periods nothing is wrong. I couldn’t take hormonal pills with other conditions so not much could be done. I tried mooncup couldn’t really get on so painful. Emptied it 7 times first 24h full. It’s meant be big enough hold entire period. Though if this was case surely make them much much smaller!

Each period costs me precisely nothing as I use a Mooncup and have been using it for over 10 years

Surely that cannot be the average though? I totally get that not everyone can get away 2 for £5 Tampax and that’s it (although I could easily spend the extra £20 on wine) but £25 has to be the upper limit and the previous posts on this thread seem to illustrate that. I think she likeky misspoke and that it should be women are spending up to £25 per month, not that the average woman spends this.