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!

yes I would rather have fashioned a make shift pad out of Izal medicated toilet tissue (government issue) than out of cotton wool. And I did. At least it didn't stick to my minge.

Impact of unhygienic sanitary practices on women’s health
Poor menstrual hygiene can cause fungal infections, Reproductive Tract Infection and Urinary Tract Infection which might lead to cervical cancer.

97 per cent gynaecologists surveyed believe that sanitary pads can act as a preventive measure against reproductive tract infection.
soothehealthcare.com/wp-content/uploads/pdfs/Cervical-Cancer-Research-by-Ms-Divya-Ramaswamy.pdf

Cotton wool Tell you what, you shove some cotton wool down your knickers on your next period and let us know how quickly you get thrush and/or a UTI, yeah?

@Dottierichardson you got the wrong end of the stick here, but that's ok because I can see how passionate you are about the subject.

As for the others..ofc I used cotton wool since that's what was readily available. In fact I used it so much, pads felt weird,uncomfortable and not covering/absorbent enough once I had my own money to buy whatever the fuck i wanted.

(Checking my previous replies on this thread wouldn't be amiss...at least you'll know which side I'm on and not waste time preaching to the choir. Unless you enjoy making me feel ignorant and stupid?)

RebelRogue please accept my apologies, but the problem is that the people arguing against period poverty in the last few hours haven't read through, so if you post 'cotton wool' without a context it's something people like that will jump on as another reason why we shouldn't bother providing sanpro for poorer families. I post in reply to them but also for the lurkers. I don't want anyone (can't do much about the wilfully ignorant/prejudiced) to read this thread and construct more arguments against people who are in need.

I love how people keep ignoring the fact that a lot of us can't get by on the cheap products.

These people will never understand anything that hasn't happened to them. It's pointless.tdying to explain.

POVERTY EXISTS! believe it. Do some reading up if you don't understand what poverty means. Hopefully you'll be able to find a nice, simple explanation.

Also two other posters got 'the wrong end of the stick too' so why just call me out?

@Dottierichardson because I have the attention span of a newt, which is why I replied to you first and then addressed the other two as "the others". Only the first paragraph that mentioned you by name was directly aimed at you.

Thanks Rebel

You know what, having read this and seeing that there is no redbox project near me, I’d like to set one up. Is there anyone here who volunteers at one and if so, what is the work load like? I wouldn’t like to start and not be able to follow through

I used to have to use toilet roll as a student, and even that wasn’t comparable to the crushing poverty a significant (and rising) number people in this country face. I had a path out, they don’t. You need to recognise and understand the considerably privileged position you are preaching from. I really don’t understand why it annoys you so much that teenage girls living in poverty need assistance from society to maintain some kind of dignity. Why do you begrudge them it? Seriously, you really need to reconsider your motivations.

Also, I used toilet roll as it was more reliable than the cheap my Tesco value ones, however disgusting it was.

I agree with the OP and a few subsequent posters on this thread.
There are a load of ifs and what happens whens in a lot of the responses, but I am sure most women's periods fall into the relatively normal category, so most women will buy a few packets of STs a month to suit their budget.
Most woman do not need heat pads, expensive sanpro and painkillers at £7.50 a pop. Most women do not take time off work.
I appreciate that some women do suffer badly, but that doesn' t mean all do.
Most teenagers do not have alcoholic parents who refuse to buy sanpro.
Some do, but a tiny minority. You can't base laws and benefits payments for everyone to accommodate a tiny minority of people.
I am getting a little fed up hearing about how some people can't afford to feed their children, can't afford sanpro, can't afford this, can't afford that, and people like the vast majority of posters on this thread just accept this as fact, and shout down anyone who dares to disagree.
The NMW is now nearly £15,000, I believe, with benefits on top of that.
I am not saying that's a fortune - far from it - but it is not so little that £1 should be an insurmountable amount of money to find. It's called budgeting, and it's a skill that seems to be going out of fashion, because there is always a pressure group wringing their hands on your behalf.
I have been really hard up in the recent past, but I have never been without a storecupboard and sanpro for myself and my daughter.
Sorry, I just don't get it.

^ I just find that such a harsh response to hearing some of the stories on this thread.

I’d also like to see your tiny minority stats.

You carry on believing that, @cathf - I am sure you are right and everyone’s could live easily on the money they have - no-one in the U.K. is so poor that they are having to use food banks, all poor people are just feckless and don’t know how to budget, and no girls use loo roll because they have no STs. Enjoy living in your comfortable, rosy world, where’s no-one is genuinely suffering, and you don’t have to find a shred of empathy for anyone worse off than you.

Ignore everything on this thread that might upset your Apple arts - facts about not being able to afford to get to a supermarket, and having to rely on more expensive convenience stores. Facts about benefits being cocked up, and payments stopped for no good reason, leaving people in absolute penury. Facts about people having so little money that if anything goes wrong they have to rely on very expensive lenders or companies like Brighthouse. Facts about the poorest people having to use keys for their meters, which tie them into the highest tariffs. Facts about charities having to provide sanpro to schools, or teachers buying it for their pupils, so they don’t end up missing school.

I am genuinely angry that some people seem so willing to deny this problem exists, and to bash the poorest in society. I would be ashamed to be so heartless.

I am getting a little fed up hearing about how some people can't afford to feed their children, can't afford sanpro, can't afford this, can't afford that

Esp this. One day that might be your children. Most of us are just two or three wage packets away from needing help. What if you get cancer? What if you suffer a tragedy? If one day your kids can’t eat and people say they are fed up with them and you for daring to be hungry, maybe you’ll reflect on this. Wow.

@cathf then you weren't hard up enough. It's that simple.

I work in a school in a deprived area. I don't get my info about poverty from others or the papers or tv or whatever groups you are blaming. I see it every fucking day at work. And tbh I don't give a shit if the girls suffering and missing out is caused by neglect,"real" poverty, "pretend" poverty, lack of budgeting or whatever mental gymnastics you want to apply.

It's irrelevant to me and it's irrelevant to them. They need help,they deserve help and I find it appalling when some people would rather turn a blind eye and completely dismiss them than (at the very least )accept their reality and experiences ,if not actually help.

Rebel have seen Cathf on other threads, one of those end free school meal types. She reminds me of Mr Brocklehurst in Jane Eyre the one who ran the school for poor girls and gave them barely enough to eat. Can't believe these Victorian attitudes still circulating. Seems that some people ignore examples, facts, figures, sources, pity she seems to be from the UK, she seems like a prime Trump supporter!

Interesting that data from Trussell Trust, Joseph Rowntree, Red Box, Period Poverty Campaigns, The Guardian, and the BBC as well as numerous examples from posters' experiences don't count as 'fact' in people like Cathf's world. Wonder what does?

Not to mention The Times.

at Mr Brocklehurst. I agree it's a very old fashioned attitude and disappointing to see.

Interestingly Cathf claims that the people who've actually backed up their positions with facts and examples are the ones supposedly 'shouting down' opposition; while Cathf's post based solely on anecdote, unfounded conjecture and personal opinion is supposed to represent some mythical truth. I suppose if you live in a fantasy world and decide to ignore reality in favour of your personal bias, then assertions and prejudice must count as authoritative sources?

If period poverty is a non-problem affecting only a tiny minority of girls and women, then it isn't going to cost much to make their lives immeasurably less complicated.
If it is a big problem then we need to do something about it as it would be shameful as a nation to ignore.
Either way, I don't understand why some people are so unwilling to help.

Some women don't even have spare money for Basics STs. I didn't. We were living on Marmite on toast FFS.

Don’t know if redbox runs in Scotland but heygirls.co.uk have started campaigns in DDs high school offering both disposable and reusable SP as well has having an online shop where for every pack of SP sold they donate one to the charity arm