To celebrate that I don’t buy period products anymore and wish that it was this way for all women!!

[Loveduppenguin]

I’ve just realised that I haven’t had to buy period products for well over a year! My workplace now provides them free in our toilets, so a surprise arrival in work is catered for. Lidl Ireland now provide free sanitary products once per month to each customer. It’s actually amazing and I feel like it’s a great change. AIBU to think this should be the case for all women!? Anyone else have them free at work? Long may it last/continue!

I have endo so suffered with very heavy bleeding for years, I’d love to know how much ££ I spent on period products! I have a mirena coil now which has changed my life and I hardly have to buy pads now. When I’m at home I use period underwear - another game changer!

I don't understand why people seem to be missing the free Lidl packs (that you have mentioned multiple times). That sounds amazing! I wish our Lidl did this as I spend so much on period stuff. I use period pants but it's unfortunately not enough for me and I need tampons and pads too. I bleed a lot and for about 10 days, it really really sucks and is v v expensive 😭😭.

Unless work were providing the organic, unbleached organic kind of pads, I'd still be providing my own to avoid irritations. Just waiting for menopause to find me now, though it doesn't seem to be in a hurry.

Save your money so you can afford tena when the time comes OP

Scottish government has a goal to eradicate period poverty with free sanitary products available to all woman and girls available in Health centres libraries etc.

My old work place, a university, provided free sanitary products in most of the women's toilets. The stock was always regularly topped up and accessible for everyone! I took a couple of packets when I left but I agree it's the little things that make life better!
More work places should do it!
Shame I'll need to buy them again now 😕

I use a menstrual cup. Spent about £20 a few years ago and haven’t had to buy sanitary products since. Like you, there are free products at work if I were caught short without my cup.

As an aside, I find cups Sooo much better than tampons. I hadn’t been able to get on with tampons for years, I found them uncomfortable and they leaked. None of that with a cup.

Fabulous. Use that money you save and sponsor a similar programme for more deprived areas 😉

I have bought any either. Only use washable period pants these days.

I get them free at work (Amazon) but I don’t use them as I prefer the ones I use. Feel more protected with them. It’s a fantastic thing though and more workplaces should do it

Moon cup and pants all the way. Haven't put a drying/dyed tampon up my fanny in ten years and she's very glad.

I did once flip a full to the brim cup all down my front in the bog of a posh restaurant in Portugal with my in laws. Looked like i'd been shot. Otherwise, plain sailing.

Free at work was the small ones - no good for the heavier flows

I buy my own as I will only use organic cotton tampons now, but it is nice to know my work has them, especially as it’s a long walk from my desk to the toilets if I forgot!

I thought this thread was going to be about finally getting to menopause and having your periods stop naturally! If only...

I haven’t bought any period products for donkeys as I use a menstrual cup. I’m around menopause now and my doctor was recently suggesting we change my HRT so I don’t have to suffer anymore periods and I said no as my periods are not particularly annoying. One day of heavy bleeding and then a few days of low bleeding. Can’t feel the cup. No leakage. It’s honestly the easiest thing in the world and I’ve spent no money for at least eight years on period related products.

Ha the type my work provides would last about 5 minutes for one of my periods - they have become so heavy I need a think nighttime pad changed every hour (or sooner…) on the first two days. The thin liners at work are good for an emergency but I couldn’t use them instead of my own.

I didn’t get on with a menstrual cup, it was uncomfortable, and didn’t want to spend lots of money trying to find one that works for. Period pants however have been life changing, and I usually just need to double up with (organic) tampons for one day.

It’s good for convenience but I don’t understand the period poverty movement. You can buy a pack of towels for less than a £1.

I’m with you op theres always loads in the loos and signs saying please take what you need for now and later. Restocked daily. I use a cup so more just in case pads for heavier days. They want the stuff to be used / taken. That way HR can tick the successful box and it’ll be kept going. If no one ever uses the items it’ll be abandoned due to low uptake and funding will vanish.

They have them for free in the toilets at the Arsenal ground and they always seem to be topped up.

I'm well past the age of needing to worry about periods and I no longer have all the necessary bits anyway. My university library provides free supplies in the loos, something I'm very pleased about; back when I was an undergraduate, they'd have spared me some disruption and wasted time. I normally remembered to take a couple of spares out with me, but not always and I sometimes had no choice between the vending machines (which didn't always work) the high prices at a local shop and doing without. It's good that young women no longer have to put up with this carry on and can sort themselves out and go straight back to their laptops etc.

I never get this argument. There are all sorts of bodily functions that people have to do and no one suggests that they don’t pay for them. Toilet paper is the obvious one.

Our work provides them too, as many as you want and organic

I used one every half an hour to an hour, I also doubt they'd provide the big nighttime ones that I have to use during the day 😫 costs me a fortune.

This is who supplies staff and customers at my work
they also donate some profits to endometriosis uk

https://www.totm.com/