MENSTRUATION isn’t just a women’s issue: it has an impact on our whole society. We need to talk about how it affects lives and consider how we can help. Feminine hygiene products aren’t luxuries. They’re necessities and they cost money. Some women can’t afford them. The cost per month varies, to which sometimes can be added underwear and pain relief. 

Food banks often provide free menstrual products. Vicky Pattison of television fame advocates donating to a period poverty bin in supermarkets, observing that many women struggle to buy period products. Approximately 21% (or 2.8 million) of women who menstruate in the UK have difficulty in being able to afford sanitary products. Some resort to using toilet paper and other dodgy, improvised solutions. One website suggests using a sock! 

All state-maintained schools and 16-19 education settings in England can access free period products funded by the department of education. Yet, independent research shows that a third of teenage girls miss school because of periods; of those, more than 1 in 10 said they had no access to sanitary products and 11% said they can’t afford them.

What about the other women? Well, Morrison’s will provide a couple of sanitary pads if a customer asks for ‘a package for Sandy’ or ‘a period product pack’. Well done, Morrison’s! (Great name!) That package will stem the flow for a day or two, depending. Harlow’s Playhouse makes sanitary products available; other facilities may do something similar. 

Some councils offer free period products, since 2019 in one case, explaining that it’s important that women and girls should access such items easily, in a dignified way. Periods are still a subject which causes embarrassment. There’s still a period taboo. In 2025! Cost-of-living challenges continue to make what should be essential purchases unaffordable for some, so local authorities aware of the need can provide support appropriately and sensitively. 

We need to do more.