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 bought a cup when I was 15, and one of the benefits of my body's ineptitude at having children is that the cup still does its job now I'm 45. All being well it will see me all the way to menopause..... Must have saved me thousands!

I’m a lecturer in Scotland and we’ve had free products in all student toilets for years now - there are brown paper bags so students can pick up boxes/packets of supplies. During Covid they could request to have them sent out to them by post when everything was online. There’s a staff member who goes around with a cart replenishing the stocks during the day.

All “public buildings” (not sure that’s the right term, but places like libraries and art galleries) have them too - it’s funded by the Scottish Government. Most coffee shops etc have little baskets in the loos but presumably they fund those themselves.

I need night or heavy ones, sometimes 1 an hour and my period lasts 7-8 days, sometimes a tampon and a pad together
a £1 pack goes nowhere, the heavy ones usually have less pads so if it’s 10 pads I can use those in a day plus tampons

I bought a mooncup 19 years ago. I reckon that's saved me a few hundred quid in period products.

You may be all smug about this, OP, but some of us need these hormones. I first went on them in my teens when I practically bled to death every period. Now that I am in my forties, I am back on them, because the same thing is happening as I am heading towards menopause.

I am glad you don't need them, but not all of us are that lucky and it doesn't make you a better person or us lesser than you.

I wish we had this in Australia! Here your taxed for pads and tampons because the government considers them a luxury item! 😡

Mooncup and period pants here, haven't touched a disposable product in well over a decade

You could at my work too but I assume they’re just there if you need them. There’s no reason anyone should be supplied with an endless supply of period products any more than you should be supplied with an endless amount of food by your workplace. I can buy my own and the cost is minimal if you stick to non branded

That’s not typical though.

I've been using reusables for the past ten years so also don't buy products.
Our work provides stuff for emergencies but I wouldn't rinse them for it.

That’s a waste of public money imo. I understand why we might have them in toilets in case people need them but why are public funds being used to post out sanitary pads to random people?

It’s not normal but it’s not uncommon
NHS gynae wait lists are so long as well that it’s likely to go on for some time if you do have a period issue

wot?

No, men don't choose to shave either but they buy razors.
We don't choose to smell - but we all buy soap and use water.

you see where this is going?

Not really
I can’t think of something men have to buy for a function their body does that women don’t have
you can smell and stay hairy but you can’t really go about with blood dripping out of you
Men don’t have that

I was in no way smug about that. Please don’t assume or put words in my mouth. I have reasoning that I don’t need to go into detail about on here. But thanks for assuming that I was smug and rubbing it others faces…not my intention at all!

I’ve used period pants and a cup for heavier days for years. Got them cheap on offer and work brilliantly. Very long lasting.

Please don't tell me how to feel. I read your words and to me they sounded smug as hell.

It reminded me of these TikTok influencers showing off their vaginal thermometers and boasting about "not using artificial hormones", like you did.

You’re doing it again, I didn’t tell you how to feel. You know what I said when you read it. I merely said I refuse to pump hormones into my body. I have my reasons. My reasons and choices are not a dig at those who don’t have the same reasons/choices. We just see things differently.

I use a menstrual cup and period pants so not only do I not have to pay for sanpro anymore, I'm also not polluting the environment unnecessarily.

I used menstrual cups from when my periods returned after having my first baby in 2006 until they finally stopped for good in 2023.

Ok so I’m a bit unclear as to what is meant by banishing period poverty - I don’t take it to mean that all women should be supplied free period products for their entire lives! I agree with a PP that’s a waste of government money. I thought the first step was removing the Tampon Tax to make period products cheaper & more accessible especially those in poverty/low incomes/students/women & girls unable to access them otherwise. I doubt reusables are offered in the public spaces pple are saying they’re freely available now due to cost?? May be wrong tho. Thankfully no longer in need of them myself but period pants would have been such a game changer for me as a young woman who frequently bled through tampons & towels & felt that constant sense of angst about leaking especially when doing sport etc.

I’m fine with ‘pumping hormones’ if that’s how you want to describe it. Been taking cerazette for 16 years and not a drop of blood in all that time. No messing about with sanpro. No pain. No PMT. No hassle. Fabulous.

Fair enough with you not wanting to take them yourself and fair enough that you didn't mean it as a dig at people who do.

Can you also see it from my side? I also did not intend my message as you are reading it. This is simply the reality of putting something out there and having other people interpret what you are trying to say. Just because you are sending the message with certain intentions, doesn't mean it will be received as such.

You read my responses as "putting words in your mouth". This was no more my intention than it was yours to have a dig at people who take hormones. I simply didn't like your phrasing and read it as being smug. You did not like my phrasing and keep accusing me of "putting words in your mouth".

I guess that makes us both a little hypocritical.

Yes well - our employer has decided to provide them for free and I see not issue with it. They provide toilet paper, soap, no issue with them supplying these either. I am sure most people prefer to use their own but them providing this is harmless.

I have only used them when caught out in an emergency and I suspect that’s when my female colleagues use them too.