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?

@thedisorganisedmum

absolutely not. I have no interest in rinsing away blood soaked clothes and running special loads of laundry. If some women prefer them, by all means, but I am not.

I don't rinse anything, nor do I do any special loads of laundry, all washable pads just get chucked in the normal wash with other clothes. I use a biological powder but no conditioner (we have a water softener). We don't get leaks onto bedding, so there is no extra loads of washing, all pads just tuck into the same machine load they're not of any volume. In our household any pads go in the next wash so @LakieLady they're not hanging about any more than a day.

You can cut the number of washable pads by using a cup if washing bothers you that much (honestly it's easy : bung in machine, shut door, turn dial to normal cycle not the short one, pour in powder, press button, when done open door hang to dry Just like any other washing really).
Cups and washable pads save a fortune and for some they appear to reduce duration an lessen pain, nobody can prove why or for definite but there does anecdotally seem to be a lot more people saying this happens rather than it doesn't.

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.

Not everybody wants their body pumped full of chemicals.

I am bipolar, interfering with my hormones is a sure fire way to send me manic. Not to mention how they make me gain weight, get super spotty etc. I can't take NSAIDS like ibuprofen or mefanamic acid as I have GERD from taking long term medication to control some of my auto immune diseases. My OH could feel the coil thread when I had that fitted and then my son was born with it wrapped around his toe 9 months later.

I don't want to take drugs to control my periods. I just want a bloody hysterectomy!

lol at 40+ lady having lighter periods and further apart

I laughed at that too. Imagine the poster is quite young and thinks "ladies" who are near 40 are dried up old bats!

I try not to read these threads because they infuriate me. You could expect such ignorance from men, but from other women?

I suffer from bladder incontinence, I use on average 4 pairs of adult pull ups a day, costing £7.50 for a pack of 8 pairs, spending roughly £105 every 4 weeks. I've asked my GP to be referred to the continence service so I can get my products on prescription but my doctor won't refer me.

DSD goes through a mountain of sanitary products per month, and painkillers. Her periods are horrendous. She uses both pads and tampons, and I am not exaggerating when I say that over the 8 days she is on, she goes through at least 100.

Meanwhile, I am only on for a day, sometimes 2 (when I do get periods, implant has stopped them now) and use a couple of tampons.

I get why it seems so unbelievable to some the amount others go through, but some do have a horrendous time of it.

I hate that on these threads rather than people going 'my period only costs me a couple of quid, thank goodness, other people experience much worse. I'll chuck a few packs of always in the food bank box for them' its just arguing between women about how a period can't be that bad/that long/cost that much. Women are already historically not listened to by health professionals, those with endometriosis in particular. Can we at least listen to and believe each other?!

Fibroids here, periods were 2-3 really heavy days followed by 3-4 lighter ones. On heavy days I need a super Tampax (other brands tried and don't work so well) plus night-time/maternity pads and I have to change them at least every hour. By day 4 I can go to every 3 hours or so then after another day or two just the pads til the end.

Frequency of changing plus cramps and low iron levels and blood pressure mean I normally have to take at least day 2 off work, sometimes more, if it falls on a weekday. (I'm self-employed and go to clients' premises to do my job. Day 2 getting from the sofa to the bathroom can be challenging)

I buy "puppy pads" to sit on at home and in the car, and have a special waterproof mattress cover for period week. I need extra painkillers, and a hot water bottle. Despite all this I often leak so badly that my (cheap supermarket) knickers are not worth saving. Clothes are sometimes ruined. I wear a lot of black!

Doctors shrugged and said I don't qualify for a hysterectomy as fibroids are benign. Tried a few varieties of the pill, got horrendous headaches and only a small reduction in bleeding.

£18/month is small change for someone like me

I'm now into the menopause and I am so relieved - I've been like that every month since I was about 25.

I have long heavy periods and very sensitive skin, the only pads I can comfortably use are almost £4 for 10 pads so a period can easily cost me £12-16 not even counting pain relief

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.

Being on the pill didn't make my periods any better. I suppose it depends on the person and the type of pill.

Oh plus the extra iron supplement I have to take to keep me at almost normal levels (I’m very prone to anaemia) the only one I’ve found that works and doesn’t make me feel sick is around £10 for a bottle that only lasts about two weeks

Ariela
I wouldn't wash blood-soaked pads with any load, I couldn't leave blood-soaked items with normal clothes in a laundry basket. I already deal with my stained underwear when there are leakage, I honestly don't want to do anymore than that.

I would probably have considered it when I had light periods, even if I did prefer tampons then, but currently no.
My periods are just as bad as a miscarriage (one of mine anyway). The least I deal with all that, the better!

Surely this thread has brought out some extreme cases. I have heavy periods and i invested in a moon cup. Its been amazing. Plus ive not had any leaks since using it!

Heavy periods plus allergies so have to buy specific products

I see this argument that periods just require one tiny pack of protection often enough that it is starting to feel like period shaming.

"Doctors shrugged and said I don't qualify for a hysterectomy as fibroids are benign"

You need to go back and wave the NICE guidelines at them. Which say that menorrhagia has a serious effect on quality of life and that women should not be left to 'just put up with it'. We should have some kind of campaign for heavy bleeding in this country (whatever the cause - fibroids, endo) to draw attention to the fact that so many women are being left in dire straits with no help.

The infuriating thing is that there are some new treatments for fibroids that involve day surgery only - there is a machine that can just nip them off quickly while you're under a light general.

I have had terrible menorrhagia, which involved bleeding every single day. I probably spent more than £13 a month on products when this was happening. During a heavy period now I will use a box of super plus tampons and two packs of night time sanitary towels, which is probably about £6.

Thank god there's someone here to share the miracle cure with us all. How the fuck I missed that despite many years of medical training, I don’t know

FYI if someone isn’t taking hormonal contraceptives, it’s almost certainly because they can’t.

I have heavy periods. Every two months I buy 1 pack normal pads, 1 packs night, 1 box super, 1 box super plus tampons. Plus pantie liners so total, £12 ish. I take naproxen or ponstan, and use heat pads (£6) so around £9 a month average

But you wash out the worst in cold water under a cold running tap, stick some stain remover on and bung the used towel in with your knickers or whatever to wash. Or look at a moon cup. Even easier to keep clean. Look, if you don't want to , you obviously don't have to do either. It's a personal thing. It's your period, your vagina. But it might be an idea to take a look at other options.

I don't know who said it further up thread about Tampax Pearl being the only thing she could use but Lidl do a dupe for them with plastic applicator. Not great environmentally admittedly but needs must.

Also IKEA if you can get to one that stocks the range sell cheap "Nacktan" towels. Jysk do a similar range too. The guest towels are around 35p/50p (IKEA/JYSK), bath towels around £1.25/£1.50 and bath sheets around £3.00/£3.50. IKEA also do a Haren range which is slightly more expensive but tops out at £5 for the bath sheets.

Someone else mentioned charcoal heat pads (discreet and long lasting sticky pads that keep their heat for 8 hours plus). Wilkos sell two in a box (either pretty pink or red for women or men with absolutely no difference between the product inside...) for £1 a box, and Amazon have some via Prime that work out less than £1 per pad but buying in bulk. Wilkos and Asda also have their own dupes for Femfresh range of products.

Lastly Tesco sell packs of 300 nappy sacks for 30p. They're lightly fragranced and maybe not as strong as the 100 for £1 ones but do the job.

Studies have been doing showing Ibuprofen is a little more effective than paracetamol for period pain, but not that paracetamol doesn't work.

Hope this helps someone. :)

I suspect these threads are sponsored by mooncup and Aldi brand pads - the ultimate cures for heavy, painful periods.

Too late now downcast I am 55 and haven't had a period for 14 months (and counting - fingers crossed!)

When I was first diagnosed, in my mid-20s, it took 2 years for them to confirm I had fibroids because apparently I was "too young". They looked for pretty much everything else first ffs even though I had textbook symptoms. Then I was denied a hysterectomy because I was "too young" despite knowing I didn't want any more DC after I had DS at 21 and knowing that the fibroids would have made it more difficult to conceive without treatment - doh.

Bear in mind this was 30 years ago. Hopefully things are different now.

Buy resusable pads on Amazon, better for the environment and saves you money!

Bear in mind this was 30 years ago. Hopefully things are different now

Nope. I’m still unable to access treatment for mine.

I get quite heavy periods but buy the cheapest store brand tampons and towels, certainly don't pay anywhere near £13. I wonder if it's other costs bringing the average up, like painkillers and if a woman had horrendous periods that caused her to go sick but she didn't have sick pay?

I have heavy periods as a side effect of being sterilsed and am on medication for them. But I've never spent loads. I go through a pad an hour for the first 2 days and then when it's lighter I use Aldi sanitary towels. They are 47p.

Different people have different ideas about what constitutes a heavy period. If you are changing at least once an hour, that's heavy and no mooncup is going to cope with that. I did use cloth sanpro and it was ridiculous, didn't even come close to working as I was going through so many and the blood bucket of soakers next to the bathtub was a bit vomit-inducing for the rest of the family. No way would I put them in with the rest of the whites unless I wanted pink laundry.