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!

As an 11 year old when i started my period my father could easily afford to buy me sanitary protection but refused. Instead I was expected to save my 20p a week pocket money and buy it myself. I had horrendously heavy periods from the off. I often resorted to toilet roll. It didn't work. At 14 I left due to other abuses and neglect and was fostered in my family who received money for my upkeep but told me if i wanted to stay I had to buy my own food, clothes and any other costs. I got two jobs and still being a child had no idea how to budget. I also struggled to replace pants and clothes that were soiled not to mention bedding.
Period poverty is about more than the cost of a lack of towels.

@Nebularin you're right, and a brilliant point to bring up, thank you.

I'm not sure of OPs opinion, but my post was in reference to the estimated cost of £42+ per period.

That some cannot afford the cost of even cheap sanpro I do not doubt.

And although my kids are below teenage age I have a very well stocked cupboard in the downstairs toilet. Anyone in my house is welcome to take as few or as many pads/tampons as they want, no questions asked.

I believe my kids school also keeps a 'help yourself' basket in the Y5/6 toilets, topped up by the school healthcare lady who is just fab and really cares about her pupils. It has pads, pants and nappy bags in it

And I am now leaving the thread coz I can't be arsed to keep repeating myself, and arguing with the crazy histrionics on here.

Thanks to the (MANY) posters agreeing with me,

I am sure this thread will disappear soon as I am SURE people will have reported it, because they don't like to hear people voice opinions and views they don't like.

Ta ta.

Enjoy carrying on with the debate.

The £42 a month is bollocks.

I use 2 boxes Lillets Ultra £3.50
2 boxes super extra plus tampons £2
1 packet night towels as I leak £1

Chaotic households that won't buy Sanpro are probably not laundering underwear which girls may have to buy too.

Yay. 'Aibu because..?'

Other posters 'yes you are because...'

'Fuck you you're all idiots, i'm out'

Typical

No good trying to show proof of how cheap sanitary towels are though

Which part of people are going without food unless they can access food banks was too difficult to understand? If they have no money to buy food i ask again how do they get san pro?

Odfod.

Oh school holidays!

OP - You don't know me. You have NO idea what my periods are like. When I say flooding I mean flooding for about 4-5 days. Not a little flood then nothing but a light/ regular period.

I've USED the cheap brands and they are as useful as a hat with sleeves. They do not absorb like I need them to so I may as well go around with my flange free and dripping on the floor and furniture.

But if it makes YOU happy and conforms with your ideals of what someone should spend on their period maybe I should just use useless cheap products and heavily bleed over my furnishings and floors and down the street and on public transport as long as you are happy to pop over and follow me around and clean up after me for a week.

No? Not happy to do that?

Then try and get your head round the fact that some women have very very heavy periods and the products they have to use are more pricey but without them they would be stuck at home like lepers or crippled in pain.

Also understand that some ppl have to choose between feeding their kids or putting the heating on so they don't freeze . 50p can buy 1kg of rice to feed their family. So sometimes they have to make a choice. Feeding their kids or putting that 50p into the meter for some heat or buying a luxury like sanitary towels.

If you are incapable of understanding this and what others are telling you then you are really just being a bit of a troll at the end of the day.

Period poverty in the UK is an utter load of BS. I thought it was a joke when I saw the advert on TV the other day. I pay £1.80 for 30 tampons from Superdrug. And on offer they are buy one pack get one free! Get rid of some of your 'luxuries' (sky tv, mobile phones, coffees etc etc etc etc - I could go on) and this is a pittance.

How much does one pile of cotton rags cost? Presumably if you cut up old sheets or t shirts, nothing

Women in developing countries who do this end up with infections in their vagina. I know that people used rags historically but it's a dangerous practice.

I agree with somebody on here who said this issue isn't poverty, it's neglect.

If you have even £20 a week, £10, 10p, whatever, at the end of the day, you have a teenage daughter and some of that needs to go on pads.
And if it's not happening, it's not down to society it's down to her parents not looking after her.

It's like me not buying my toddler clean knickers, or my babies nappies.

@rosetree7

Just reading back your last post it's obvious that you're completely ridiculous. You say few posters agree with you as if that's incontrovertible proof casually ignoring the many more posters who disagree with you.

I don't usually even have a crazily heavy flow but will quite often ruin a pair of underwear or a sheet on my period. Fortunately I can afford to replace them - I guess it's tough luck if you can't.

I don't understand how anyone could be so stupid as to imagine that people who are using food banks and have a very heavy flow can't afford sanitary products - you'd literally have to be deliberately ignorant or a complete idiot not to be able to understand it. I suspect you are the former but am happy to be corrected.

I think this has many layers to it.

If we are adding prescription, expensive painkillers, lost earnings into it then these figures don't apply to most teens.

For a lot of the teens that 'period poverty' does apply to are likely to have grown up in households where many of their needs were not met previous to having periods. Giving free sanitary towels is just a sticking plaster.

I can well imagine some W/o me s periods are costly, if adding in time off etc. Although I don't believe that figure did include that and I do thing that figure was exagarated as an average figure. Well many women will spend a lot, there will be many that don't.

we do not all live in big towns to buy chain store stuff easily The bus fares are horrendous so nothing gained by travelling 45 mins to get cheap tampons
It's the local extortionate general store or nothing round here

Supeerdrug deliver free over £10. Don't tru and make excuses.

I think the annual sum of £500 seems exaggerated however that could be a worst case scenario. If woman has long very heavy periods using towels and tampons together I could see how this adds up.
When I was on the pill I spent very little on periods as they were light and fairly short. Now they last a week and I have one or two heavy days where I get through a lot of tampons so spend more now. I use own brand ones and the cheaper ibuprofen but it's still quite a few quid each month that people could struggle with especially a family with say three daughters. These are essential items! Are the cheap towels bulky? If so girls will especially be self conscious they may show through clothing.
It's awful anyone is living in any sort of poverty in 2018 but those that are shouldn't he made to feel awkward.

I have friend whose benefits were stopped. She has literally NO income whatsoever and is relying on friends/foodbanks until her ESA is reinstated on appeal (if it ever is but that's a whole other thread).

Zero income.

So, there you have someone who cannot afford sanitary protection. Even the cheapest.

The OP is goady. He/she (I have my suspicions with all the "calm downs" and "histrionics") and clearly is not looking to see the truth about the situations of many women.

Once upon a time San Pro cost me a couple of quid a month. As I’ve got older and all that shite it’s more like £10 a month (not right now, I’m pregnant).

That’s not counting the extra washing powder etc for washing the bedding and having to pay for new knickers.

It does mount up. And I didn’t get on with a mooncup sadly and I gave it a bloody good bash (literally), they aren’t cheap.

OP: l'm not U, tho
Everyone else: yes you are, example a, b, through to z
OP: I'm not, mih mih mih (insert smug, unempathetic bilge here) mih mih mih miiiiiiiiiiiih

🙄🙄🙄🙄

savvy not many companies deliver out here and as you don't live here you wouldn't know would you and no I'm not making excuses

I spend £30+ per period. I can't use the cheap pads, i'd flood through them in minutes. I use the tena lady pants with a tena lady pad in as well, it's the only thing that doesn't leak. They cost an absolute fortune compared with normal sanpro. Then there's the paracetamol, ibuprofen and a prescription for tranexamic acid. I'm lucky as it's just me in our house who has periods but if I had 2 or 3 daughters who had periods like mine it would be difficult.

My incredibly heavy flooding period happens every 2 weeks.
So double your estimates for a month and that’s me.
I used to use toilet paper at school as well as towels. My periods are heavier and some days I just sit on the toilet as it’s that heavy. There’s no point getting off as I just flood. Every two weeks.

Did you see the thread where one girl asked to go to the toilet to change her pad and her teacher said no?

I’m really not sure how you can’t see how things are for some.

We do not all live in big towns to buy chain store stuff easily The bus fares are horrendous so nothing gained by travelling 45 mins to get cheap tampons
It's the local extortionate general store or nothing round here

Also, if this was the case for tampons, wouldn't this also be the case for everything in your life that you buy?

Surel, move!???

And no, not somewhere more expensive. Just somewhere not in the arse end of nowhere with silly shops that clearly don't meet your needs.

Like, what a silly place to move to! Of course you could never afford to live off the bloody village shop!

I spend about £20 a week more than I earn at the moment. My money goes on childcare, petrol and food. Before my circumstances changed, I swapped to cloth sanpro so have no period related outgoings anymore. BUT had I not done that I a) could not afford the £5 a month for disposable sanpro OR the £30-40 I initially paid out for cloth.

The figures might be financially misleading but the facts are still true - many people in the uk cannot afford sanpro. It’s all well and good it being cheap, but it’s still not a priority over food and electric.