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!

The ones DD gets are £4 for three pairs or £1.50 each, depending what she fancies at the time. Last time I bought a tub of Vanish it was £4.99 in Home Bargains and I ended up using bleach anyway because it didn't take the stain out.

It was a hair dye stain on the aforementioned designer duvet cover. Much drama ensued.

Doesn’t matter what the cost is, sometimes it’s simply unobtainable.
It doesn’t matter why, but if it is unobtainable then maybe we have the responsibility to ensure that women can get these necessary items.

What is the world coming to when grown ups are more concerned with saying there’s no problem, than fixing a problem that affects young girls and women.

No just let them roll up toilet tissue and let them get thrush and bloody knickers/trousers/bedsheets instead, shall we?

hungryhippo, quite agree. I can't believe some of the comments on here.

Mooncup FFS

Gosh you are either extremely ignorant or perhapsvwilfullu

DownstairsMixUp Thanks for your very clear and informative post (kind of what I was trying to say, but I waffled... ).

Thanks also for your charity work to support women and girls in this situation.

I confess I am a bit baffled by all these people ruining their knickers with periods. Vaginal discharge can ruin knickers (though when I couldn't afford to replace them, I wore them holes and all - better than nothing! ), but I genuinely didn't realise period blood could be that acidic. Surely it's the other weeks of the cycle that are expensive on knickers?

@Frequency Not sure why posters are attacking you about your daughter throwing underwear away.

I remember using a product called biotex to soak my knickers in as a teenager when I leaked even though I doubled up sanitary protection. (Everytime I've see the product in the supermarket it brings back unpleasant memories.) However some of the leaks were floods, and I just threw my knickers away as I was just rinsing blood out.

No teenager, even if they have had good sex education, wants to spend a few times a day trying to rinse blood out of their knickers especially if they have a skirt and tights, trousers or PJ/nightie and bedding to get the blood out of as well.

Oh and if you stain knickers more than a couple of times you end up having to bin them anyway as the stains don't come out.

I was actually lucky I had older sisters and extended family, as my sisters had to fight to get as many showers as they needed when on their periods. My mum was a single parent watching the pennies, so while she was ok buying sanpro or giving us the money for it she initially thought they were wasting money by having 2-3 showers per day on their periods. Extended family members then had to explain to my mother why they weren't being extravagant.

I was put on the mini-pill after being found to be anaemic and it made my periods worse. I was then put on the combined pill which had different side effects. It was only just before I became pregnant over 20 years later a female GP finally decided to try and investigate why my periods are so screwed up. Nearly every GP I had seen before just refused to believe my periods where causing problems
even though I've been anaemic a few times since then and/or that hormonal contraceptives causes me side-effects.

@Chouette if you leak or flood and can't rinse them out asap then the blood dries and stains them. If you flood you are likely to stain your outer clothing as well and as this is more expensive, it is better to concentrate on getting the blood out of that than the knickers.

While the statistics have been countered (one I saw with similar figures included all additional purchases even loosely connected to menstruation including chocolate.), that just means that the numbers need a closer look and more research might need to be done, not that period poverty doesn't exist. I'm not sure how the idea that most likely don't spend £40+ each time means no one does or that no one struggles with menstruation costs. I don't see the benefit in "not accepting" period poverty or any other type of pain is a reality for people.

When I was a teen, there were regularly times I didn't have sanpro. My grandparents were great about it generally when I lived with them but the funds for it came from my parents. My mother only bought for herself so I either had to steal hers or buy out of my lunch money. My father was financially very controlling and the years I lived with him I'd literally have $20 to make last 2-3 weeks for all my food, transport, and other needs when he went out of town which was frequently. I still remember the last day of 9th grade a really clueless dude tried to say I'd bled through my trousers for attention, why he would think anyone would really do that is still beyond me.

Now, as an adult, I literally keep a large very visible drawer full of disposable sanpro so none of my kids' friends or other guests have to worry about it. I used mooncups for over a decade but can't anymore (they, along with my cervical cap, became really painful to use with low-e levels in my late twenties), I find disposables really hurt my skin now so I spent quite a bit on cloth pads which can be used for menstruation or stress incontinence which has made each cycle for me cheap after the initial high outlay costs. Not everyone can afford that though and some just get through it on creams, painkillers, or just grin and bear (and pass out).

I don't see the benefit of this race to the bottom 'look how little I use and how big my pain I handle without' rather than having some empathy and care and trying to figure out how to make things easier. Menstrual health issues are a heavily underfunded area of research, girls and women are constantly told to put up with shite because 'that's just menstruation' and end up going years without care for their current and long-term health risks. I'm not particularly bothered if the stats could be improved upon, more research would be great, I'm more concerned that girls and women today aren't able to access a range of options to make their health needs more manageable and people are telling them to just make do and shut up with cut up shirts and unsuitable products because they're cheap. Seriously, we deserve better than that.

Chouetted I have a regular cycle now (aged 37) so pop in a pad the day before I know I'm due. Sometimes I'll get through as many as 5 or 6 pads before the period actually starts, so those are essentially wasted, but I use them to prevent staining my underwear, clothes, bedsheets, and being embarrassed by a visible bloodstain (and uncomfortable). However, I can afford to do this. I also buy expensive pads, as I find them the most comfortable and effective. I have light/medium periods so I don't need to use heavy duty pads or change every hour, and the bleeding only lasts 3 days, (then 2 of spotting - when I can get away with a panty liner).

Nevertheless, I will often (let's say every other month) leak out of the pad at night, and stain my pants, nightclothes, and bedsheets. I soak them all as soon as I discover the stain, but it's not always effective.

When I was younger and had irregular periods and was less wise and experienced I leaked more often at night as well as during the day, and my period would come on without any warning. If I went say 4 or 5 hours without going to the toilet and discovering it, the stain in those pants was never ever going to come out. Black pants obviously are a wise choice as after a soak and wash they can be worn again without any visible staining.

DN4GeekinDerby Excellent post.

I'm not sure why they are either. Her pants are cheaper than the sanpro she uses each month. It's honestly not an issue. If she doesn't want to wear stained pants, I'm not going to make her.

She's a teenage girl. She has enough to deal with without being denied stain free underwear.

I have, and have always had, very easy periods. Pre-child, I would have light bleeding for about five days, and post-child, I actually get moderate bleeding for three days. As a young person, my mother made sure I had adequate amounts of tampons available to me. As an adult with a professional job, I can afford the san-pro I need. I believe I am extremely lucky.

I have 11-13 year olds in my class from very low socio-economic backgrounds, and from certain religious backgrounds that won't accept their child has started their period. They won't provide for them. I have a cupboard behind my desk that they can help themselves to. I have to restock it at least once per week. These young people are living in homes that won't provide for them. It's often embarrassing enough getting your first period, but imagine getting them in a family that won't acknowledge them or buy you anything?

People need to step out of their own bubble and realise how big of an issue this is for so many women.

I find it hard to believe that period poverty is a widespread thing too.

I know benefits could be higher and I know that there can be delays getting them/ going onto UC, but surely they are high enough for San pro, especially if buying from Aldi/ Lidl etc. Are families spending their cash on things they should be prioritising below making sure that family members have access to protection??

A homeless girl asked me to buy her tampons once, she was waiting outside boots. I asked her to come In with me and choose some different sanitary products, and bought her twice as many as she asked for, and got her some wet wipes too.

Great that you don’t struggle, but it is a real problem.

However a realistic cost for disposable products is probably around £3 per month.

Maybe for you. Not everyone is the same which.has been repeated several times already.
And again and again if you do not have £3 spare at the end of the week wtaf are you supposed to do?

£3 would last me 2 days out of my 10 -14 day normal period!

The idea of school girls using a moon cup and having to wash it out in a school bathroom sink, the mind boggles!
Better still use loo roll, your parents are obviously useless so its no more than you deserve.

Ffs this country is rotten to the core. Empathy, charity, treating others as you would want to be (or how you would want your daughters to be treated) seems to be beyond some people now.
Sad indication of our times.

I asked her to come In with me and choose some different sanitary products, and bought her twice as many as she asked for, and got her some wet wipes too

What a lovely thing to do

@Downtheroadfirstonleft have you even bothered to read at least a quarter of the thread? Those wide eye faux innocence questions have been answered.

And frankly it's irrelevant wether the reason is can't or won't. It's not the girls' fault. It doesn't change their situation. There isn't a secret fund for the "deserving" poor. You don't feel cleaner in hard worked for toilet paper "pads" than " sky tv,holidays and a goat" toilet paper "pads".

I know benefits could be higher and I know that there can be delays getting them/ going onto UC, but surely they are high enough for San pro, especially if buying from Aldi/ Lidl etc. Are families spending their cash on things they should be prioritising below making sure that family members have access to protection??

Yes maybe while they wait 6/8 weeks for thier u.c. they are prioritising paying for food/going to food banks, utilities and rent? Shame in them.

Please read the many examples of how poverty affects people right now in this country on this thread and the other one about u.c. running.

Apologies for my naivety, but does flooding mean heavy periods? Which you may struggle to contain within a pad/tampon? Staining underwear etc?

Is this not something to see a doctor about? There is medication for very heavy periods surely? The contraceptive pill maybe.

A lot of this isn't period poverty, it's parents not buying for their daughters whether is it be apathy, religious reasons or buying cat food instead of sanpro; or posters making up the fact that anything to do with a period is embarrassing for a school girl like washing out mooncup. You are projecting your embarrassment onto others.

Someone with no money & no sanpro isn't going to throw out their last remaining pair of knickers because they are blood stained - they wash them out and reuse them.

@2up2manydown try getting doctors to care 🙄

Is this not something to see a doctor about? There is medication for very heavy periods surely? The contraceptive pill maybe

1. Try getting a GP to take it seriously
2. Medication doesn’t always work
3. The contraceptive pill isn’t suitable for everyone
4. Recent cuts to “non-essential” NHS Services include two more treatment for heavy periods

I have a menstrual condition. I don’t meet the PCT conditions for treatment.

@downtheroadfirstonleft - as people’s have already pointed out on this thread, cheap sanpro being available in big supermarkets/Aldi/Lidl is of no use if you don’t live near one. If you have to get the bus to get to a big Tesco, then your cheap sanpro can’t have a big bus fare cost attached which makes it expensively, in practical terms.

There are stories on here from people who have worked in schools and have encountered young women having to use loo roll because they have no san pro and can’t afford to buy any - do you think they are lying?

There is a charity that has already been mentioned on this thread - the Red Box charity, which puts boxes of free sanpro in schools, to tackle period poverty - why do you think such a charity would be set up, if period poverty didn’t exist?

I am lucky - I have never been in the position of having to choose between spending my last few pennies on food for my children or san pro for me - but that doesn’t mean that some women are not in that dreadful position.

Maybe you have never encountered such grinding poverty yourself or amongst your friends and acquaintances - that doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist!!. Thank your lucky stars that you have not had this experience, and try to have a little empathy for people who are in this awful position, instead of denying the existence of this issue.

2up2manydown Are you taking the piss here? Even an teenager would know what flooding means.