To not accept that there is 'period poverty' in the UK.....?

[rosetree7]

Fully expecting to be told I am BU, but I genuinely do not get this 'period poverty' malarkey.

Some reports say periods cost £42-45 a month (£500 a year.) Never in my life have I - or anyone else I know - spent £42-45 a MONTH on their period. Not even a tenth of that actually.

Some of the things they (supposedly) spend money on are tampons and STs (obviously...) You can get a pack of sanitary towels for less than a pound. Less than 50p in some shops!

And also mooncups.

Although mooncups cost £16 to £22, most mooncups will last 10 years, so you'd only buy 3 or 4 in your lifetime!!! And they also spend on pain relief - but paracetamol and ibuprofen are 16 to 26p a packet from Wilkos. And plenty of other shops sell them for a similar price!

Oh and apparently, they have to keep spending money on new underwear every month. What a load of shit.. I have bought 18 pairs of underpants in 5 years, (at a cost of around £25 for the entire 5 years!) 5 pairs of them are dark coloured - and I wear them for my periods. Never in my life have I bought new underpants for every new period.

So what is this all about? And how on earth are they coming up with such a ludicrous figure as £42-45 a month?! I mean, some girls are apparently using toilet roll as they 'can't afford' sanitary towels? In most cases, toilet roll is more expensive than sanitary towels FGS!

Unbelievable! A woman with heavy periods could easily use 10 tampons and 10 towels a day. Also if they have fibroids, your clothes and everything can get ruined by flooding.
Its utter bullshit that a pack of budget pads will be o.k for a whole period. They wont last even a day for a lot of people.
Personally I think pads and tampons should be free and given out at health clinics to any woman who wants them.

Well I’m in my late 30’s and I’ve never heard of a moon cup until I googled it .
Some people can’t afford 50p sanitary towels that could be spent on bread milk etc so don’t judge .

@MrSpock ask your doctor to prescribe 6 months of medication at a time & you’ll only pay the same £8 charge. This shows who is eligible for free prescriptions.

It's disgraceful that they are subject to VAT though

Well this thread has honestly changed my understanding of the issue.

Which led me to thinking: if a lot of period poverty is due to chaotic homes, and if I'd like to start donating more pads etc to food banks, will these children actually get it!?
Don't they still have to rely on a parent to go down to the food bank, think about what they need, and bring it home? There's going to be some girls that even that doesn't happen for, surely?

Then what?

For most women with standard periods lasting 4/5 days, a fiver should do it most months. Come on

Cannot believe there're are still people who don't know that a fiver is a fortune if you don't have it. And that a lot of people don't have it left when they've struggled to pay for everything else.

How do people end up with their heads wedged so far up their own arses?

If you have never been in a situation where adequate sanitary protection is unavailable to you for whatever reason you should be saying "Thank fuck - Hallelujah" not throwing the women who are in that sorry position under the bus by calling them liars.

Of course period poverty is a problem in the UK.

It's not period poverty, it's plain poverty. Too many people can't afford to buy food, heating etc. That's the problem. The current government has, in various ways, left far more people unable to afford the basics. Calling it period poverty makes it sounds like it's just about periods. It's worse than that.

Mnhq I say delete it. There's several other threads searchable on the subject that aren't as goady or arrogant.

Which led me to thinking: if a lot of period poverty is due to chaotic homes, and if I'd like to start donating more pads etc to food banks, will these children actually get it!?

What a twisted excuse for not helping people.

For me, this thread has made me realise the importance of donating sanitary products to food banks to help women in poverty.

Will do it tomorrow.

Yabu however I’m glad for you that your periods are so straight forward. Some women literally need to change every hour, need new under wear and even clothes. They may miss time from work and need strong pain killers. I’m happy for you to be so naive.

Maybe cos its the government's fault they have no money to buy any

Yes heaven forbid the parent actually provide themselves

I get circumstances can change but many could gain work or work more hours but don't want to as it's easier to claim benefits instead.

Just because someone can have a child doesn't mean they should. Failure to provide the basics is neglect, no point blaming it on others. You should be prepared as a parent to do whatever it takes to provide the basics as a bare minimum.

Dottierichardson

Oh don't be silly, didn't say I'm not gonna do it did I.

I think I'll do both. Donate, and ask the question. They're not mutually exclusive.

will these children actually get it!?

What do you think people are going to do with the pads other than stick them in their pants redecorate?

Period poverty is not due to chaotic home lives it is due to poverty. It's due to universal credit and the five week waiting period, zero hours contracts and the fact people can't afford to feed themselves.

Agree KatieKittens I'll put some extra in too, I know the summer is really hard for a lot of people on low incomes.

Even new clothes . Not wow women on period needs clothes.

Just to add to the chorus, with one parent deceased and the other disabled my memories of managing my periods with bugger all money mean that Dd has a sizeable storage box of sanpro that is constantly topped up. I absolutely believe that the price is beyond some people's wallets.

I have very very heavy periods and use a pack a day , i have been in a situation where we had very little for our grocerys years ago , getting a bus to buy cheap products was too expensive so i had to buy from a small chemist that is overpriced and it would blow most of our available money , i used to dread my period back then , i now have more money and often buy 20 packs of the 50p ones from home bargains to give to the food bank because i will never forget how horrible that was

JustPutSomeGlitterOnIt well since two posters interpreted you in the same way, seems like it's your post that was 'silly'.

I'm not counting this episode of bleeding after surgery for ectopic pregnancy but when I'm on my period I go through 4 boxes of pads (always non scented 'memory foam') which is 10 pads per box in 3 days as my periods are short and heavy. I have to wear 2 pads at once as despite being the most absorbent I've found they're not enough on their own.

These are £3.99 per box x 4 = 15.96 + 3 prescriptions for codeine, naproxen and tx acid.. and that's an all in total of £40.56

On the one hand I agree with the premise that period poverty in the UK doesn’t or shouldn’t exist, but then I know that lots of people do live in poverty and due to said poverty they end up paying more for things like pre-pay gas and electricity and buying food from convenience stores rather than bulk buying from cheaper out of town supermarkets which means they have nothing left over for sanitary products.

I can’t help but think that a great deal of period poverty is down to parental neglect rather than actual poverty, because surely any parents living in poverty would be claiming child benefit and tax credits as a minimum so surely a few pounds for sanitary products should be put aside before any other “luxuries” no matter how small, are purchased.

Frequency agree, don't believe people don't see that, think either they lack empathy, are indifferent, or just don't want to see it.

velour well, no. I mean, if this is partly due to chaotic homes, then even if the products are in food banks, they still ain't gonna reach the girls are they.

They still need to rely on an adult to go and get it. And some are just too chaotic to even get to the food bank, no?

Where we live I see a lot of parents who I'm pretty sure don't know what day it is, never mind what time the food bank shuts, or what they need to get from there.
So I don't see how food banks would help their daughters.