To ask who is spending £13 on sanitary products per month?

[avocuddl]

Just watching This Morning on period poverty. I appreciate this may be a real issue but I just can't work out the costs stated on the website under 'The Facts' www.freeperiods.org/mission
£18k over a lifetime which equals £13 per month.

The MP said she'd spent £25 on one period?

I buy the always £1 pack and they're fine! A pack of paracetamol is like 20p?

Sorry if this has been done before but aibu?

I spend about £6 as my periods are very heavy and long. I have to double up and even then will flood occasionally.

I spent 2 years in a homeless refuge as a teenager. I didn't have a spare 5p, couldn't afford anything past rent and some tesco value pasta because even refuges aren't rent free. Luckily kind people donated period products or it would have been wadded up toilet roll for me. It's all very well and good saying "it's only a few quid a month", but many people don't have a few quid. Choosing between food and hygiene is a horrible position to be in, for anyone.

£13 sounds pretty reasonable to me! I have on more than one occasion while at work had to go out to buy new trousers due to leakage! Can’t use tampons and £1 pads just aren’t any use to me!

Yes,I've found only one brand of pads I'm feeling comfortable with that does the job adequately for my horrendously heavy periods and I get through 4 packs of 18 as my cycle is long.The pads are unfortunately a leading brand,I use to use a supermarket brand until they changed the design and materials and they were less absorbent and less comfortable.

I have endo and my periods can last up to 14 days. I can spend £13 easily on one period, more if it's particularly vile.

I hate, hate the whole "I don't spend that much so I fail to see how any woman does" attitude some women give off. Fabulous; you have light periods you're able to skip about in tight, white jeans in. For some of us we bleed all over office chairs and mortify ourselves in ways I imagine you haven't even considered, so perhaps offer fellow women a moue of sympathy rather than crowing that it's wasteful to spend so much money on something you simply don't have the biological need for. It doesn't make you better than the next woman simply because your body functions differently.

I appreciate that some women clearly do spend that much, although I'm not sure how. But wow! I don't think I've even spent that much per month in the last 9 months where I've had a constant period due to contraceptive implant (and doctors turning me away after 5 months )

^ Should probably add, a fairly light 9 month period. (Thank the fucking lord)

@PookieDo if you're having those prescriptions every month you would be better off with a prepayment card.

I think it’s important not to get too caught up in precisely how much each woman spends, be it much or little. The point is that some families are so short of money that sanitary products are unaffordable and teenage girls are in some cases skipping school as a result. It doesn’t matter if she only needs £1, if she doesn’t have £1 then it’s a problem. And that is the shameful thing, that in a wealthy country many people struggle to manage the basic things required for a decent life, food, toiletries, sanitary products etc.

I spend about £2-£3 a month on tampons and the same again on top for sani pads (I use both because I can be very heavy without realising some days). However, my mate spends around £10-£15 a month as she has been bleeding every day for a few months.

£13 would be on a light month for me. I need Tena pullups for the first 5 days, they are £7.99 alone. Disposable bed mats for night time, and heavy duty pads for the next 3 days before scaling right down to pant liners. My bathroom shelves look like a gynae store.

Sorry just seen that's already been mentioned

Since age 13 I have had my period.
1 pack at least of sanatry towels per day must buy always night pads which are £2.50
Nurofen long lasting pain killers 1 pack last 2 days ( have to have them or the pain is unbearable)
New knickers every other month because after boiling and boiling they end up ruined £20
Not to mention clothes, bedding and days off work
I know I’m an extreme case but there are 1000’s like me so I know I’m average the amount is right

Slight derail- any cup users here to advise? I generally can feel tampons howere I insert them lilets the best but can still feel them which I don't like, I think I must just be short in the vagina department! Is it likely I will have the same issue with a cup? This is the only reason I've avoided one so far but if could be comfortable I'd be willing to give it a go.

As a teenager I was told on more than one occasion that there was no money for sanitary protection and I'd have to manage, no girls/women should have to put up with this.

Easily! 14 days of heavy bleeding means changing pads every hour during the day and 3-4 hours overnight (for at least 10 of the 14 days). Prescription pain medication (3 types), regular iron tablets for anaemia and only 10 days off in between. OP I’m glad you don’t suffer like this as I wouldn’t wish it on anyone.

If you have heavy periods and/or easily itchy you'll need to change say, 5 times a day.

Pack of 20 x2 amonth is about £7.

That's not taking into account those who use it as they have light bleeding between periods, they get lots of discharge or they sometimes leak urine.

Put that together and I would say it's possible.

I had on and off bleeding the whole month with the coil in. £13 seems about right.

Okay so £13 sounds average.

Does it not annoy you that the study includes the following which actually works out at £41 per month?

'Pads/tampons/panty-liners/menstrual cups - £13
· New underwear (due to spillages) -£8
· Pain relief - £4.50
· Chocolate/sweets/crisps - £8.50
· Other (magazines/toiletries/DVDs etc.) – £7

Taking these monthly estimates into account, researchers were able to work out that the average period costs £492 annually.'

I think including chocolate/magazines and dvds really trivialises the issue

I can’t get on with non applicator tampons or even cardboard applicator. It’s such a pain because I end up having to buy branded ones which are also plastic applicators 😓 pads are horrendous I have to put three on sometimes!

My period is long, heavy and painful.

Still only cost me £4 ish

Tesco’s own super plus tampons - 3 boxes, 1 box of super and one box of regular. I will use all of those. They are 80p a box.

Pack of paracetamol, probably get 2, and it costs me 35p a pack.

I don’t wear pads as an extra because they feel like nappies, so I change my tampon every hour during my heaviest days.

I also have period knickers. Knickers which I dig out once a month, big, black granny pants from primark. 3 packs of 5 twice a year - cost me £12 a year. Some of them do have a faded crotch area now but so what 🤷🏻‍♀️ They do the job.

I dread to think what I use to spend monthly, thankfully I don't have to worry anymore as mine are much lighter and shorter now.

When I was round 12/13 yrs I use to have to double up with tampons and night time pads for at least the first 4 days of my period, I had to change both tampon and pad every 1-2 hours otherwise I'd leak through. First couple of mornings I'd wake to bedding completely ruined. I'd usually miss 2 days of school too due to really bad cramps that paracetamol never helped with or if I did go in, i was usually sent home as I was in a lot of pain.

This lasted a few years before I eventually was given contraception pills (which I had to lie why I needed them).

Women are not all the same. They do not bleed the same. I am sick to death of people saying how on earth do people spend so much when they bleed for 3 days and only spend £1.00 on value pads. Fuck off!

I am on the mini pill and spend nothing. My periods have stopped. I am 46 and have been taking it 2 years - it’s blooming marvellous!

For many years I chose not to take hirmones. My periods were horrific lasting7-10 days. Heavy and painful. I used extra long or nighttime pads with wings and super plus tampons - branded so shoot me as they worked the best, reducing irritation and improving protection. I tried all the cheap ones but they were rubbish. I had to make frequent changes.

At night, I wore tampon and pad, 2 pairs of knickers and pjs and had a towel on the bed at the worst. I would wake in the night and change / often underwear as well as tampon / pad. If I slep through it would be pjs and sometimes bedding too. I have seen threads saying oh I just wear a tampon and sleep naked! Well good for you.

I also took tranexamic acid, mefanamic acid and sometimes iron as well as paracetamol.

Never bothered costing it out but I am sure it would have been more than the average quoted in the OP.

On a positive note, my sons primary had free san pro in the girls toilets.

Yeah that is ridiculous.

Can see pain killers/heat patches/underwear replacement as fair enough but nobody needs dvds or chocolate - how bonkers!

Should add, I also think including DVDs and magazines to any figures is bonkers.