“Period poverty is another myth. There is no one in the UK who can’t afford £13 per year for sanitary products. Might not be the ones they want but they will do the job.”

This was a recent tweet posted by a man who has never had a period. Comments rolled in, bashing him for daring to assume he knows what it’s like to have a period and the cost it takes to buy appropriate products. To most of the comments, he responded with a picture of a cheap pack of 16 tampons to prove his point that period poverty is a “myth” – that every menstruating person can afford to take care of their period even on a budget.

“The tweet is really frustrating because we’ve heard similar comments so many times in recent years,” said Rachel Grocott of Bloody Good Period. “But to hear that right now when it’s so clear people are under immense financial pressure – it’s shocking.”

The man’s post just points to a wider issue about the lack of education around menstruation and period poverty.

“Period poverty is about more than just financial access to period products,” Grocott said. “It is about shame and stigma as well. Even if you make products available, unless you give people education and normalisation, those products aren’t used.”

To address period poverty in the UK, according to Grocott, society needs access to both period products and education about menstruation. Both of which are still lacking.

A third of the British public said in a recent YouGov survey that they have never heard of the term ‘period poverty’, with men substantially more likely than women to say they have no knowledge of the term. A further 11% have heard the term, but don’t have an understanding of what it means.

At the start of April, the National Education Union called on the government to do more to help disadvantaged families after they conducted a poll of 18,000 teachers, many of whom said poverty is affecting children’s learning. Of those surveyed, 68% said they are providing period products for pupils in school.

According to the charity Bloody Good Period, the demand for period products rose by 88% in 2022, with the charity giving out 56,000 more packs than in 2021. Women say that they are “using socks, newspaper and old bedding as period products” as the cost of living crisis forces people to choose between buying period products or food, gas, electricity, rent and fuel. 

So Mr Period Poverty Is A Myth, you are very wrong. Period poverty is a reality for thousands of women and girls in the UK. 

First and foremost, the stigma around menstruation needs to be dispelled if any headway is going to be to eliminate period poverty.

“We need good quality menstrual health education from a young age for both girls and boys so talking about periods is not an issue,” said Tina Leslie, founder of the charity Freedom4Girls. “Then people can say without embarrassment that they are having issues managing their periods because of financial constraints.”

Whereas periods are often kept quiet among boys and men, they should be freely discussed to dispel myths around periods. 

Recently, a man told Grocott that he thought people just bled for one day a week. Another queried whether you can just ‘hold in’ a period.

“People hide periods away,” said Grocott. “Use code words. It’s something to be ashamed of. You add on lack of education and stigma for people who don’t have periods and that has consequences for everybody. For how we feel about our bodies and how we access the products and support we need.”

Without education, someone who has never menstruated before will not know the cost of managing a period, and might not understand the financial cost of having a period.

“Everybody deserves a bloody good period,” said Grocott. “And that doesn’t mean the cheapest products available. It means products that people have chosen themselves, that are safe for them to use and are effective for their specific circumstances.”

People may need extra-absorbent products, plentiful products, sensitive products, specially fitted products.

“It’s about caring for your body in an appropriate way,” Grocott continued. “And that goes back to a lack of education.”

If men know more about periods, they can be part of change.

“We live in a male-dominated world with little period education to support changes needed at the top,” said Leslie. “If they understand and, more importantly, want to understand what periods are about and how having to manage them is a struggle, then we are halfway there.”

When men in leadership, both on political and grass-roots levels, understand periods, then we are likely to see a trickle-down of period protections for people who menstruate. 

In 2019, a newly formed Period Poverty Taskforce met to focus on tackling the issues of period poverty and the wider stigma about menstruation in the UK. The fact that the taskforce existed proved those in power recognised it was an issue that needed addressing. And there was progress as a result of it: a scheme was introduced to provide free period products in schools in England, the tampon tax was abolished and NHS England announced it would offer free period products to any hospital patient who needed them. In addition, it was promised that £250,000 would be spent to develop solutions to period poverty.

But then in March 2020, the Period Poverty Taskforce paused, and three years later, it still hasn’t reconvened.

In May, Bloody Good Period is launching its Period Penalty campaign to hold the government to account for its inaction on the ever-worsening problem of period poverty in the UK.

Although encouraged by the Period Poverty Taskforce in 2019, Grocott said: “The steps they have put in place are great first steps, but they’re not sufficient.”

Even the steps that were taken previously are falling short. A report commissioned by Girlguiding revealed that almost a third of girls and young women in the UK can’t access free period products at their schools or colleges. The money saved by women from the abolition of the ‘tampon tax’ has reportedly gone to retailers, rather than consumers.

“And where has that £250,00 gone?” asked Grocott. “We have no update on it whatsoever.”

Then there are the people struggling with period poverty who aren’t in schools or hospitals.

“What about refugees and asylum seekers?” she queried. “What about people using food banks? What about those on Universal Credit? Or people in work poverty? There seems to be this perception that period poverty is primarily an issue for young girls in school, which is important. But there are all these other people as well and they’re being completely disregarded. The government has said the next steps will be announced in due course. But we’re still waiting.”

Images: Getty