We work to end period poverty by giving products and providing menstrual education to those less likely to access it.

Gabby Edlin founded Bloody Good Period when she realised that food banks and drop-in centres were not supplying menstrual products in the quantity or at a frequency that was required by a menstruator living in poverty (i.e every month), and most were not thinking to supply them at all. “The stress of being a refugee has led to me having heavy and irregular periods: I don’t know anymore when I am going to bleed.” Female Refugee, 2017, from “Meeting Point”, Leeds Menstrual products are essential - and unlike toilet paper, are not free in public areas (or in GP clinics, like condoms), leaving many to go without pads and tampons, using toilet paper, rags, socks, or nothing at all. Asylum Seekers often live in extreme poverty. They are not allowed to work and are entitled to just £37.75 per week to live on. Many report to have heavy and irregular periods, thought to result from the trauma of displacement. A heavy and/or irregular period could cost around £20 per month, almost a quarter of an asylum seeker’s income. Female asylum seekers are not offered any extra funding to purchase menstrual protection for themselves or daughters. If a person does not have access to menstrual products, they essentially become a prisoner in their home, for fear of leaking in public, or can develop infections or rashes from using inadequate products or homemade methods.