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.

Do people really buy new underwear every time it gets a bit of blood on? Just buy dark coloured knickers or soak in cold water until you wash them.

Progesterone only contraceptive pill stops periods completely - may be an option for some on this thread?

What about all the chocolate? And boiling the kettle for hot water bottles

Really though YANBU

Lidl tampons are really good for those spending a fortune on tampax. Much more comfortable.

I reckon I use about 12-16 tampons in a period. Different absorbency (I keep a selection in stock) but I never use more than a box each time. So that’s about £3 a month. Mine are only heavy for a max of 24hrs then very light.

Anyone that goes through £25 of period towels tampons needs to see a Doctor urgently

Hahaha! Because GPs fall over themselves to assist with menstrual issues

I wouldn’t use a mooncup if you paid me! However I did buy some branded (Bodyform, I think) pads for 89p in savers today so I’m always a bit confused by period poverty, as when I worked with homeless people, about 10 years ago, they were able to pick up their benefits in cash on a daily basis from the job centre.

They shouldn't be free.. but they should certainly be VAT-free. Taxing a necessity is adding insult to injury.

I’ve had periods since I was 9 and am close to 39 now. So that’s 14 x 12 x 30 = £5,040 so far in my lifetime minimum (it’s probably more because pads were more expensive when I was younger). As I have pcos I am more likely to have a delayed menopause so I have another 10-15 years to look forward to.

£25 is a lot just for supplies, I spend about £5.

I do however take 1-2 days off a month because of period symptoms. So really I'm loosing £300 a month. The curse of being a woman

Sounds like some of you should be at the doctor's, not at the supermarket. You do realise that using 10 tampons in 24 hours is abnormal?

No shit Sherlock!

Short of being pumped with hormones via the pill or the mirena, or having a hysterectomy there is not much hope.

I loved all those internal scans inspection my fibroids.

Be glad you don't have to experience the suffering rather than making dickish comments about something you clearly have no idea about.

Perhaps they worked it backwards and divided the total epos sales of sanitary protection by the number of period aged women. If that's not what they did, then hey should have. They will have access to accurate sales figures.

Progesterone only contraceptive pill stops periods completely

No it doesn’t. It may stop periods but also can cause irregular bleeding etc

Prior to the surgery I had last year I was needing to change my pads every hour and I bled every day between January the 8th and July the 15th. Then I had to buy more pants as my flooding was terrible. Needed to buy stain remover, do extra washes because I had leaked over the bedding, my pj's. Often had to wear 2/3/4 sets of clothes a day. Often had to shower between changes of clothes.

It's a relief to need nothing now and not live my life panicking about a flood and if I could make it through a night out or stay at work all day without needing a change.

Hah. Mooncup. I love the idea, but the reality is that I just can’t get the fucking things in.

Periods certainly cost me in terms of not only sanpro and painkillers, but also in terms of loss of earnings. On the bad days, I can’t work, so I don’t earn. I realise this is not something figured into the £25, but I wish someone would think about it.

Mooncups are not just extremely uncomfortable they are unsuitable for clots. I’d be constantly going back and forth to the toilet with them.

I use 30-40 pads/tampons. The most I can imagine buying in one month would be something like:

Always night (10pk) - £1.30
Always normal (16pk) - £1.30
2 Tampax w/ applicator (20pk) - £3.50
2 packs of ibuprofen - £0.60
Total - £6.70

I'm sure there are some women who spend £25, especially if you include prescription meds or new clothes, but £25 must be much higher than the average figure.

I think that saying sanpro costs £500 when most women spend a lot less harms the credibility of the campaign. Which is a real shame because I think it's a really important campagin.

Progesterone only contraceptive pill stops periods completely - may be an option for some on this thread?

Yes, that definitely sounds like the best option for those on here who have to change their super plus tampon every half hour. That is extreme bleeding, to the point of haemorrhaging and must be depleting your iron levels immensely. If you really soak your super plus tampon in half an hour, even in one day, you would be losing 10 times the amount of blood of a woman with a reasonably heavy period. I am shocked that the doctors have not suggested something more drastic. How can you work or go about your daily life if you lose that much blood?

YANBU. It's a load of horsepoo that one single period costs £25.00.

These are the same people who say the average yearly wage in the UK is £30K and the average house price is £230K.

People who number crunch and waste public money to come up with average figures, and end up with a load of bollocks that applies to virtually no-one.

Having 3 females in the house costs me quite a bit. Dd1 and I both have heavy periods, one pack of pads probably lasts 2 days, I often have to throw away underwear and bedding gets stained. There’s also the large amounts of chocolate I need to buy to keep us all from killing someone

I had no idea some people had to use so many products every time - that must be utterly horrendous.

I reckon I spend about £7 per month

I have around a 40 day cycle and period I would say is average, I don't think it costs even £25 per year, let alone month.

Anyway pregnant now, so £0.

I really feel for so many of you having such a horrid time each month.

I get through about a pack of body form secure night and part of a pack of their day (I tend to use the night ones all the time and just changed from always as react to their new scenting).

They are often on offer so probably only spend about £2 or so a month on average using branded ones.

Mirena stops periods though. Allowing 6 hours for sleep, what the pp is describing is going through 36 super plus tampons a day. Even if her period only lasted 3 days, that is over 100 tampons. I would be extremely worried.

I'm on my 3rd Mooncup. I lost 2

Before then I would used a pack of pads plus half a pack of nighttime ones. Just went for whatever was on offer and unscented.

I can see how "good" I've got it, going by this thread.

My periods have only ever lasted 2 or 3 days, so use about half a box of cheap tampons. I've never needed painkillers either. I think I spend less about 50p a month on mine. I do everything on the cheap.