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.

Shocking details, but I fear pointless. Some people live in their own little bubble.
I hope things are better for you now.

@JacquesHammer your argument works both ways!!! Ladies who are quoting very high figures for their experiences are just as guilty of extrapolating than those quoting the lower end of the scale!!! The fact is none of us have done a valid survey to investigate the average cost of periods!! This is ALL anecdotal!!!!

clion very true. Thankfully I eventually got sent to a gynae who was concerned. I'd tried all the hormonal treatments and they did little to help. Sometimes I'd get a few months of relief then back to normal. This gynae did something that no other one did - gave me a transvaginal scan, instantly found my problem and offered me the ablation. Oddly enough my ferratin count, which regularly dipped to low and needed treatment most of the time, has finally reached a 'normal' amount and stabilised since then.

Suppose I should add in the prescription costs for Iron now I think about it - that takes me well over £25 p/p.

Ladies who are quoting very high figures for their experiences are just as guilty of extrapolating than those quoting the lower end of the scale!!! The fact is none of us have done a valid survey to investigate the average cost of periods!! This is ALL anecdotal!!!!

You've misunderstood the entire thread.

It isn't about saying "I spend £25 so everyone does" - it is about responding to the OP (and countless other posters) who suggested that wasn't possible because they didn't.

I know many women don't spend anywhere near that. That doesn't mean if a women suffers from heavy periods and NEEDS to spend £25 she always has the disposable income to do so.

Periods would be difficult enough to manage on a low income anyway without adding in extra circumstances.

All those people going on about a pack of tampons or pads costing a few pence and lasting for 2 periods. If I used those I would be changing every 20 minutes and still leaking through my clothes. I have to use industrial strength products which cost 10.99 for a pack of 12. I've been to the GP and there isn't much they can do. I'm not the only one, if you read this thread you will find several posters saying similar things.

I guess my point is that Danielle Rowley is well off, so she can afford to buy new pants and tights in her lunch hour if she has a leak, she can afford to buy extra drinks and snacks if she feels like it, she can afford expensive brand medication because she prefers it, she can afford to buy different types of tampons and pads to suit her flow. She can afford all this without thinking twice about it.

For many women in the UK they cannot afford such luxuries, so they manage without. A single mum on NMW with two teenage daughters isn't spending 120 pounds a month on periods. It's just not feasible.

I think that Danielle Rowley meant well with her speech, but it was muddled and confusing. She would have been better off explaining that the average British woman spends 10 pounds per month on their period with some, like herself, needing to spend a lot more. For many women and girls in the UK, even 10 pounds per month is just not affordable and they are forced to stay home from school, use socks or toilet paper as san pro, or use the same pad for days on end. This is what period poverty is about and there should be a system in place to provide free menstrual products for those who cannot afford them.

I wish her message on this had been clearer.

I wish that other women would support Danielle in this campaign against period poverty and girls missing school, but I fear they won't.

@user56
What are you talking about? Op said £25 was bs and no one spends that much. We contradicted her and then a whole bunch of people called bs on us.

It doesn’t work both ways. It’s all one way. A minority of women with light periods belittling the experiences or even bullying women with heavy ones. Thus proving people don’t have to be male to be a mysogynist.

@Clionba Please do show me a post that accurately demonstrates the maths because I've not found any. People have mentioned wrecked underwear as though that should be considered part of the cost but nothing that shows how a normal period costs £25.

Menorrhagia can be caused by a variety of medical conditions all of which are covered by NHS treatment and can be often managed with hormonal treatment or the pill free of charge.

Don't get me wrong, I know period poverty is real. Tampons should be subsidised for people on low incomes and free of VAT. But I don't believe anyone is paying £25 for a normal period. Tampons cost 10p or less each and heavy pads a bit more.

I have extremely painful periods although I no longer use prescription painkillers, I combined paracetamol and ibuprofen is enough for me to function, I still don't believe the maths adds up

Menorrhagia can be caused by a variety of medical conditions all of which are covered by NHS treatment and can be often managed with hormonal treatment or the pill free of charge

Not so any more certainly. I can’t access the treatment I need although ironically I’m costing them more in management of it.

I’m sure you recognise many women won’t be able to use hormonal contraception.

You'd have to look through these pages.
I never had all that bother and cost, but I was lucky.
We'll never get women and girls out of period poverty, I've realised. I've contacted a local charity and am going to Boots tonight to buy a shed load of quality sanpro to donate.

@hiphopfrog There are 35 pages of women explaining how their period costs them more than a couple of boxes. There's even a post on this page! The fury at the maths and not the fact there is such a thing as period poverty. If you're so sure it doesn't cost that much, and you thus have money to spare given the ease of your periods, then donate some tampax to your local food bank!

JellyBaby666 some people just can not think outside their own experience.

@hiphopgfrog what an unbelievably arrogant, narrow minded, ignorant post!

Umpteen posts by women like me EXPLAINING why for some women - yes it can cost £25 MINIMUM in some cases - NOT even inc replacing underwear but JUST sanitary wear and meds.

Do some reading - not just here but also even on the forums on the support sites for the women suffering from the conditions causing heavy, painful periods. He'll just go look on the women's health, family planning and menopause boards on THIS site.

I hope to god you don't have daughters suffering this, and if you are really a woman then like pp I wonder if when you reach menopause yourself you'll find you're eating your words!

Fuck me! And still you continue!

There's also umpteen posts - again inc mine EXPLAINING how fucking NIGHTMARISH it is to even be BELIEVED by Drs let alone get treatment!!

One day of my last period cost me nearly £40. Because I flooded through TWO skirts at work and had to do an emergency dash to Sainsbury’s for a new skirt/knickers etc.

Jokes aside I think £25 is a bit steep.

@hiphopgfrog my post of 12:29 gives a breakdown. I'm far from the only person on this thread who's given one too

I'm not sure why some people are arguing that VAT should be abolished for all san pro. That would therefore mean that those who can afford it and even the very well off would also he avoiding paying tax on them too. Do we really want the wealthy to be avoiding tax ????

Repeating myself!

A woman now experiencing what I did in the past will easily be getting through

3 packs of pads - £2.85 X 3 = £8.55

If I had to pay prescription costs -

£8.80 X 3 (pain + flow control + migraine) = £26.40

TOTAL £34.95! and that WAS every month!

AND there's many others posted need/ed to use more than me!

For those who can't be arsed to read the thread BUT think they know better than ALL THE OTHERS WHO'VE POSTED:

DRS OFTEN FOB WOMEN OFF - GETTING DIAGNOSIS LET ALONE A TREATMENT THAT WORKS CAN TAKE YEARS

REMEDIES/TREATMENTS LIKE MIRENA DO NOT WORK FOR EVERYONE THEY CAN EVEN MAKE THINGS WORSE

A SIGNIFICANT MINORITY OF WOMEN SUFFER VERY HEAVY PAINFUL PERIODS PLUS OTHER SYMPTOMS

AS A RESULT THEY NEED TO SPEND FAR MORE ON:

SANITARY PROTECTION (CHEAPER PRODUCTS, REUSABLE PRODUCTS DO NOT WORK FOR MOST OF THEM ) mooncup evangelists - great they work for you, happy for you - but PLEASE stop DENYING other women's experiences!

MEDICATION (CHEAPER, OTC PRODUCTS DO NOT WORK FOR MOST OF THEM ) NOT JUST FOR CRAMPS BUT ALSO OTHER SYMPTOMS - MIGRAINE, BOWEL UPSET, ANAEMIA...

REPLACING CLOTHES/BEDDING - STAIN REMOVAL ONLY GOES SO FAR - AND EVENTUALLY THE EXTRA WASHING, THE PROTEINS IN BLOOD BREAK THE FABRIC DOWN AND THEY DO NEED REPLACING

And that was how I lived for the majority of over 15 years except for pregnancy and short times where hormonal stuff helped before failing.

Clionba is nicer than me, HipHog, I hope you get the shock of your with your periods - and it can happen. Post back then, you'll be glad that most of us will not disbelieve you, nor ridicule you or tell you that you're doing women a disservice.

Your posts are a disgrace and they show you up to be an ignorant and narrow-minded person with absolutely no ability to understand that other women's experience is not the same as yours.

I mean, to keep bleating on the same point, pages and pages into the thread, that's the sort of thing a troll would do, just for shits and giggles so they can give their thighs a little rub...

"Do we really want the wealthy to be avoiding tax ????"

In this case if it means poor girls & women can afford ESSENTIAL items - yes

It really is mind blowing that some people (tbh especially women) would doubt women’s accounts of their own periods - which have presumably been posted in a useful way as part of a debate. As in, why would any of us lie?!

I had an ablation last year after years of dreadful periods, flooding, spotting between periods etc. My cycle lasted 7-10 days and I could go through a pack of always per day for at least 3/4 days with a further 2/3 packs for the rest so basically up to 7 packs per period.

I’ve ruined countless knickers - no such thing as period pants really when it’s half your month, stopping and starting again just to catch you out!

My mattress looked like someone had been murdered despite sleeping on towels - I eventually resorted to sleeping on plastic! I once bled all over the floor rushing to the bathroom and ruined an entire carpet.

I tried all the pills etc but they made me ill. The coil got physically stuck inside me and the injection made me bleed solidly for 9 months. I love the nhs but it’s a joke for gynocology issues - next to impossible to be even seen. Luckily I work from home or I’d have had no career for the last 5 years.

I’m only 36 so not even peri. The ablation has worked in that my periods are lighter but still 7+ days long and now I have adenomyosis so I’m not sure where I’ll end up with it all.

My friends periods last 24/48hrs. I believe her...

Can I just throw this into the mix! I have the implant and am suffering from many of the side effects. Periods that last three weeks out of four, hellish mood swings, weight gain... because it would take another three weeks of bleeding before I could have it taken out in the first appointment available I am going private. £180 to get it taken out and for me to feel normal again.
We are on low wages at the moment as my DH has been out of work for five months but I have to spend this so I can hopefully be happy again!

Hiphopfrog, 'I don't believe anyone is paying £25 for a normal period'...

The mistaken belief that there is such a thing as a 'normal period' is a major problem that women need to challenge.

There is an artificial benchmark, certainly. It involves a regular 28 day cycle, period lasting 5-7 days, 8-12 teaspoonfuls of blood lost.

The majority of women fall outside of this description. You can have a cycle lasting 21 to 35 days and still be considered normal. You can have 2 to 7 days of bleeding and still be considered normal. You can have a regular or irregular cycle, painful or pain free period, and still be considered normal. Someone with a 21 day cycle, with a period lasting 7 days, who experiences severe cramping, serious bowel issues, nausea, headache - normal. Someone with a 35 day cycle, 2 days of bleeding and nothing else - normal.

But clearly one woman is going to be spending far more on her period than the other is.