Campaigners call for employers in North Yorks to give staff free period products
It's as a new survey suggests 1 in 10 skipped a meal in the last year to pay for them
A new survey from the PHS Group has found one in ten people who have periods, skipped a meal in the last 12 months to pay for them.
More than a thousand women with a menstrual cycle were surveyed for the data, which found the cost of living crisis continues to force women into period poverty.
Nearly one in 10 (9%) students aged between 13 and 18 say a parent or family member has gone without in order to buy them sanitary products or they themselves have used their food money to cover the cost – with 7% unable to afford lunch as a result.
Kelly Greenaway, period equality lead at phs Group, said: “It’s important to recognise that huge advances have been made in giving access to free period products in schools and workplaces across the UK.
"It’s quite clear from our latest research that the affordability of period products is still a major issue for far too many, and that the cost-of-living crisis has exacerbated this problem.
"It’s unacceptable in this day and age that anyone is having to choose between meals or tampons, that families are sacrificing spending on other essentials to pay for them, and that many are risking their personal health to save on the cost.”
Poppy Green is a volunteer at the York Hygiene Bank: "If we could just talk more openly about periods and menstruation as well and boost that education around periods I think that would really help people to have more open conversations about them. Free period products would be the ideal, so if we could get to that point that would be fantastic."
"The shame and stigma attached to periods - if we could abolish that we could have this really open conversation not just in work places but schools as well that would really help to push the agenda that period poverty is just not right and an issue that we need to sort."
She's also calling for employers to make sure their staff have access to products: "You could put a box in your toilets so people can help themselves, so it's free period products, tampons and pads, and it's discreet so people can help themselves, that would be a real benefit."