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?

Acupuncture didn’t do a thing for me sadly, I’ve tried almost everything.

I’ve ended up with a blood transfusion I became so anaemic from the blood I was losing.

I take prescribed painkillers so strong that I then can barely lift my head from the pillow so have to write off almost a whole week.

The only ‘cure’ is a hysterectomy, I have been told this several times. Except they won’t do a hysterectomy because I’m “too young” and as a female obviously unable to control my own body and reproductive capabilities without a man deciding when my childbearing years are over.

Those women saying they can’t understand the cost should think themselves lucky! And those saying they have “heavy” periods and yet spend £1 on a single pack of cheap sanitary towels need to redefine their understanding of a heavy period.

Once upon a time I had easy periods, 4 days long, first day awful then steadily easing off.
Now I am peri menopausal.
Its god awful
Am now 3 weeks into this period. I want to curl up and die.
Nurofen plus is expensive but it actually works on the pain,
I can't do tampons anymore (never did like them) so its pads. I am unable to use a toilet for a couple hours each morning so it's a full everything pad. Not cheap.
Probably this far I am £70 in and no sign of it ending.
If I then add chocolate and wine, well remortgage.

I offered to make some reusables for our local food bank and this offer was rejected. I offered to buy some and donate and this offer was also rejected. Pity, really.

Someone so poor that they are using a foodbank might well find the laundering costs prohibitive. And if they are using launderettes, they might only go weekly.

I'm not sure I'd fancy used sanpro hanging around for a week.

Fair enough, @LakieLady . I'm sure laundry generally might be an issue. Dirty sheets? dirty underwear? Not sure I see a great deal of difference in managing that and managing reusables. But if that's the position, not much I can do.

To ask who is spending £13 on sanitary products per month?
The original study to which you are referring is a 2015 survey by vouchercodespro.co.uk. In the original survey the amount GBP13.00 was the average amount the respondents spent ON THEIR PERIOD. IE not ON SANITARY PRODUCTS. The GBP13.00 includes all of the things that many PPs have already mentioned, clothing, medication, different sized sanitary products, washing products etc. That this figure and study is now routinely being incorrectly used is not helpful to anyone. And in any case what does it matter that some of us (DD1 with PCOS, me with peri menopausal symptoms and ovarian cysts that have meant four week periods and require tranexamic acid to manage), spend even more than that GBP13.00? The point is that, for the poorest women and girls in this, our rich western society, one in ten cannot afford even the GBP1.00 own brand pack and the 20p paracetamol.

Oh god, this takes me back to my school days and beyond, when I would often nip into toilets to use wads of toilet roll, because I didn’t have the money for sanitary wear. When the endometriosis kicked in, in my mid 20s, I was able to buy tampons but often not pads at the same time, so relied of the toilet roll to prevent being suddenly caught out. Thankfully I was able to but both by the time the gushing started. I would actually feel a gush of blood!

It’s so sad to know some females are still going through this.

Hate these threads. I can’t understand why it is so difficult to comprehend that women have different period symptoms and experiences.

My periods are significantly better now than they used to be, but I still get through around 3 boxes of Tampax Pearl at approx £3 per box (although I do buy in bulk if on offer). I have tried others and don’t like them. Not a problem, I can afford it.

Over the years my cycle has lasted anywhere from 20 days to 35 days, all within normal range according to the gp, and my period has lasted from 1 week to 12 days, again all normal range. Surely it is not beyond the realms of possibility that a woman spending nearly 2 out of every 3 weeks on a period, who uses a particular brand of sanpro could quite easily be spending £13 a month? That’s without the extras (another one here with chronic anaemia). And the accounts on here are also indicating that those experiences are not the rare occurrences you might think.

I can’t really complain about my periods, it was a bit shit when I was younger, but my dm had been through it all herself and was amazing, and my choice of sanpro was always readily available to me. I can’t imagine how terrible it must be if that isn’t the case. There is no argument here, and I don’t really think it matters if the figures are accurate or not. If school age girls are suffering as a result of period poverty, sanpro should be provided foc for all young people who need it.

@PookieDo the worst by far was when we went camping last August. Me, OH, our youngest and her best friend. I hadn't had a period in months due to my medication and I was delighted. We got to deepest Wales and the second we put the last tent peg in the ground I just felt it and knew I was going to come on. I lay down quick and had to send my other half and the kids to find me towels and tampons. 60 minutes later he came with a packet of medium/light flow tampons and a packet of pads. Luckily he had thought ahead and got baby wipes, nappy bags and a bottle of wine. The following 3 days was horrific. We were all stuck in a field with a loo block hundreds of metres away. No lights and I had to pee in a bucket and try to do damage control in the dark, in one room tent with two kids Sleeping. Luckily I was in so much pain I barely slept so as soon as it was even a tiny bit light I could clean up the carnage. It looked like a whole family of vampires had been murdered in an abattoir. And we were totally stick there. I would have leaked through onto the car seats and we were hours and hours from home so it just seemed more logical to stay there. Dark times indeed.

Another one adding my voice to those who say they spend so much more than that, as an average it seems low/fair.

Just because you can't imagine bleeding that heavily doesn't mean that millions of women don't.

Endometriosis has massively interrupted my life in every way possible. I hope this recognition of sanitary needs is just the beginning of addressing the biological barriers that stop women being able to even begin taking part in life as equals.

I wish i was only spending £13!

I have adenomyosis and bleed very heavy (I have to wear always size 4 nighttime pads and leak through them within 20 mins) for 16 days a month.

I spend well over £50 on pads, buy packs of parectamol every month, and £8.80 prescription on iron tablets,
£8.80 prescription on tranexamic acid (to help blood flow ease slightly) £8.80 prescription on some strong painkillers for the 3 agonising days I get.

This is why I’m looking forward to the hysterectomy I’m finally booked in for! It’ll save me so much money.

LakieLady I really don't want anyone to be so poor they can't afford food, let alone not able to do their laundry. However, washing blood out of stuff properly, so it doesn't stain isn't rocket science or that difficult. I have done it probably 100 times, if not more, over a lifetime of periods, particularly when I was a student and had fuck all money. You need cold water and soap - any old soap. Nothing fancy is required.

Of course I know there are many reasons why people can't/won't take the pill, but surely some of you can to ease your terrible periods?? DD had very heavy, very painful periods, went on the pill, problem sorted.

I started using a mooncup recently and it fell out when I was relieving myself, so that was a terrible waste of money. It also made me wonder if there is something wrong with my pelvic floor, or something!

My sister has sever endo and goes through a super plus tampon an hour plus pads. She also has a 7 day bleeding period (awaiting a hysterectomy). She can easily spend this in a month.

The tampons I buy are £4 a pack and I buy 1 pack one month and 2 packs the next.
I also have always nighttime for the first two nights of my period as it's really heavy and I go through a tampax every 4 hours. I probably buy one pack of them every 3 months at £3.
I buy feminax for pain relief for me and dd about once every other month at £4
Dds sanitary wear is about £6 every other month.
So on average about 12 per month.

Of course I know there are many reasons why people can't/won't take the pill, but surely some of you can to ease your terrible periods??

Stop policing what other women do with their bodies! We get enough of that from misogynists, we don’t need women telling us what to do.

but surely some of you can to ease your terrible periods?? DD had very heavy, very painful periods, went on the pill, problem sorted.

does anyone know where you submit an application for a Nobel Price in Medicine? I think we have a winner here.

However, washing blood out of stuff properly, so it doesn't stain isn't rocket science or that difficult

This..... never thrown away pants/clothes/bedding. Ace bleach is really effective too.

Thank goodness there are posters available to tell us how we’re doing our periods wrong.

Yet another hard of thinking, GF thread. 'I don't get it'. You really don't? You really don't get how periods are different for every woman and therefore the cost to them? I call bullshit. Just wanted a chance to be sneery and judgemental and condescending to other women, and I'm one of those who thankfully never suffered from heavy periods and use a mooncup with no problems.

However, washing blood out of stuff properly, so it doesn't stain isn't rocket science or that difficult. I have done it probably 100 times, if not more, over a lifetime of periods, particularly when I was a student and had fuck all money. You need cold water and soap - any old soap. Nothing fancy is required.

And if you're in B&B accommodation with a shared bathroom, because that's all the council could find for you?

At least these threads will also be read by non-judgmental people who simply didn't know, and are discovering what periods can be for some women. It's not a complete waste of time.

@PookieDo
So do I .
It's like the 'feeding a family of 8 on £1.00 a day ' threads
Competitive in all the wrong way !

DD had very heavy, very painful periods, went on the pill, problem sorted.

No, it didn't. It masked the cause of her heavy, painful periods, some causes which can also mean she is infertile or her fertility compromised and won't get the bottom of why until she stops using the pill and trying to get pregnant.

I have endometriosis so very easily that much and more. Can last up to 7 days or have it happen every 2 weeks.
Prescription meds x3
Heat pads if can't use water bottle
Tens pads
pads, if anyone can recommend a reusable one that doesn't slip about for lighter days that would be great and if there's one that's suitable for very heavy flow too.

The reusable pads I have slide up and down and are really bulky feeling and not great for heavy days.

Can't use a cup or tampons anymore due to pain.