Period poverty fussing a cover for our imploding health service
Dr Ciara Kelly
HMMMMM... tackling period poverty. To be honest, I’m kind of calling bulls**t on this new ‘initiative’.
Last week Health Minister Simon Harris set up a ‘period poverty committee’ and I am less than impressed. Do not get me wrong — half of the population between the ages of 12 and 50 years of age have periods, and not only that, they have them for up to a quarter of the time.
If you do the maths, that’s about one in eight people in that age group menstruating at any given time. If you compare that to how often someone goes to the bathroom to do a poo — one in eight visits is probably a rough equivalent. And we would never have a debate on whether public toilets should stock free toilet paper in case it was needed. It is an absolute given that they should.
Sanitary products are the exact same. It is completely unfair to require girls and women to carry tampons or sanitary pads in their pockets or bags — in the same way we shouldn’t have to carry toilet paper in a zip-loc bag in case we need it while we’re out and about.
Young girls, when they first get their periods, often find themselves sitting in classrooms terrified that their period is about to come unexpectedly and their skirts could be stained, often in a mixed school setting. Not having sanitary products available in the toilet is wrong — cruel even.
All women know the experience of being somewhere and having to ask their friends for a tampon, or trying to make do with a wodge of toilet paper, and this lack of ready availability is a far greater problem than period poverty.
I don’t say that because I am a smug, well-off person who doesn’t understand poverty. A box of 20 ownbrand tampons in Tesco costs approx €1.10. So even if you buy more expensive brands, or have a heavy period, it’s likely that you will spend between €2 and €5 on your period per month. While this is not nothing if you are already in dire poverty, the truth is, if €2 per month is beyond you, then you have bigger problems than period poverty.
The issue is not one of cost — it is that we wouldn’t dream of inflicting this ridiculous, unacceptable inconvenience on other bodily functions; and that is rooted in the social taboo of talking about menstruation.
The idea that public buildings should be required to stock sanitary products doesn’t go far enough. Any toilet open to the public should have them as the norm. Any toilet that requires toilet paper requires sanitary products in exactly the same way. And they should all be stocked with them now. End of story.
But the reason I’m calling bulls**t is because this right-on window dressing is running cover for the Department of Health. They cite a study saying half of 12- to 19-year-olds said they are experiencing period poverty. I find this surprising considering, in the main, it’s not that age group who are buying the products, but their parents. And I suspect self-conscious teens are probably nearly afraid to admit they don’t suffer from period poverty as it becomes a cause du jour.
But in a health service that is imploding around us with outrageous waiting lists, an out-of-control budget and a frontline staff recruitment crisis that is only getting worse, rolling out a smiley PR campaign saying: “Look we’re tackling the (non) issue of period poverty, Aren’t we super”, is like someone pointing out their new, compostable, hemp curtains while their house is burning down.
How incredibly irritating that we are being taken for fools on this. The hope clearly being that if we all ‘get behind’ such a politically correct PR campaign, then we will be distracted from the massive problems within the health service.
We are getting nowhere with problems that are far more serious; indeed, we are going backwards.
This campaign is happening while we are still failing to implement a cancer strategy diluted by parish-pump politics. While profoundly disabled children have no proper home-care support or a proper plan for their needs. While half of our mental health services are run on charity.
While there are no 24-hour cardiac services available around the country, despite so many of us dying of heart disease.
While we can’t open operating theatres or wards because nurses and doctors don’t want to work in our system. And while sick and dying elderly patients still lie on trolleys, under fluorescent lights, surrounded by drunken violence in our emergency departments.
So I refuse to be impressed by a committee formed to deal with the pressing issue of period poverty.
I’m not saying periods aren’t important, I’m just saying this comes so far down a list of priorities, it’s actually a joke.
Maybe get on with sorting out the real and urgent problems of the health service in this country and I will be more impressed with photocalls and right-on PR campaigns.
And stop wittering on about period poverty — just start stocking the jacks with tampons as the norm.
‘Let’s stop wittering and stock the jacks with tampons’