Why periods aren’t just a woman’s problem

News flash - periods are a man’s problem too. 

According to The Royal College of Nursing, Period Poverty is: “the lack of access to sanitary products due to financial constraints. This can be caused by a wide range of life events that negatively impact a girl or woman’s ability to access sanitary products to manage the most intimate and regular occurrence in her life.” 

Let’s uncover some of those life events and see why we’re still struggling to talk about periods. To reiterate: periods are “the most intimate and regular occurrence” in a woman’s life. 

It has recently been announced that all schools in New Zealand will offer free period products from June. Following closely in the footsteps of Scotland, which in November 2020, became the first country in the world to make period products free for all. Labour MSP Monica Lennon had been campaigning to end period poverty since 2016. Her long battle was finally won and now free sanitary products are available in all public spaces for anyone who needs them. 

These incredible new laws have certainly marked a moment in history for female health, but there is still a lot of work to be done. During lockdown last year, Plan International UK found that three in 10 girls (54%) could not afford or access sanitary products, and over half of those girls used toilet paper as an alternative. But remember all of those stockpilers who selfishly hoarded enough toilet roll to absorb a small flood? 20% of those girls found their periods harder to manage due to the lack of toilet roll in shops.

Well done stockpilers. 

I know I’m not alone in thinking that if men were to experience the pain, the mood swings, the mini murder scene in their underwear every month, then menstruation would be a more widely and openly discussed topic. Chronic conditions such as premenstrual dysphoric disorder and endometriosis and polycystic ovary syndrome would not take years to diagnose, and tampons and pads definitely wouldn’t have been considered luxury items and would most definitely have been free for any man who needed them.

Women’s health has long been overlooked and symptoms are often ignored or dismissed by doctors. As standard, only male bodies are used in research but it’s widely known that women experience pain differently to men and present different symptoms.

E*, a 22 year old woman from Sheffield who has polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) and experiences painful menstrual cycles dealt with the Gender Pain Gap first hand when she received a misdiagnosis a few years ago. During her final year at university, E went to her GP with abdominal pain which she felt was associated with cysts - something she is very familiar with - and was assigned a male doctor. 

E said: “He completely ignored me and made me do a bunch of unnecessary tests and disregarded what I was telling him, even though I am obviously very familiar with my body and with cysts.” 

The doctor diagnosed E with IBS, a condition with symptoms such as bloating and pelvic and abdominal pain, which are usually present in patients with PCOS too. However, the doctor did not consider that there could be another issue. Frustrated with the doctors complete dismissal of her pain, she later phoned the GP and requested another appointment with a female doctor instead. 

“Once I had an appointment, I explained the situation to her and she immediately made me feel listened to. She did a pelvic exam, and scheduled me to have an ultrasound within three weeks”, explained E. “Having that experience means that any time I have something PCOS or menstrual related, I now request to see a female doctor.”

*name changed for anonymity 

Period Poverty and The Gender Pain Gap are not the only problems we face as a nation. Attitudes towards periods are still mostly stuck in the old ages and many girls find themselves too embarrassed to discuss their periods with friends, teachers and parents. Arguably, this is the fault of the education system - the fact that menstrual health has only recently been made a compulsory addition to the sex education curriculum in English schools seems unbelievable, especially considering that periods are just as normal a bodily function as erections, for example.

However, the new changes to the curriculum are LGBT inclusive which is a huge step for sex education. Alex Svendson a transgender man living in London, was 11 years old when he first started his periods and describes them as “incredibly painful”. 

Alex says: “trying to transition while still having to buy tampons isn’t the most ideal scenario.” But so far for Alex, his transition has been an incredibly smooth process and he has never come up against any issues with menstruation and seeking professional help. 

Whilst there are still a lot of hurdles to get over, a lot of progress has been made. There are amazing activists out there who are constantly campaigning, educating and raising money. Thanks to charities such as Bloody Good Period, The Red Box Project and more, most young people are able to get the products they need so that they can continue life as ‘normal’.

Bloody Good Period has distributed 60,000+ packs of period products since the first national lockdown at the start of 2020. These products were sent to everyone from refugees and asylum-seekers to people in homeless shelters and frontline NHS workers. However, the charity is still desperately calling for donations and support as periods don’t just stop during a pandemic. 

With more allies, our voices become louder. With more activism and campaigning, we pass bills and make laws. Periods aren’t just a woman’s problem - they’re your sisters, your mothers, your aunties, your friends and your daughters - and that means they’re the prerogative (a basic right) of everyone.