Buying something to protect yourself at the time of menstruation seems simply indispensable. And yet, this is an extra expense for women. So that the most precarious sometimes dispense with it. But for the first time in the world, tampons, sanitary napkins and menstrual cups will be distributed free of charge to women with limited incomes. It is in Scotland that this will happen, from August 2018.

The city of Aberdeen in the north-east of the country has already experimented with this initiative in 2017. Free periodic products have been provided to more than 1,082 women and girls with limited incomes. On Wednesday, May 30, 2018, Equal Opportunity Secretary Angela Constance said on the government website: "The trial in Aberdeen helped us understand the barriers some people face when it comes to accessing products. (...) It is unacceptable that anyone in Scotland can not access it. "

18,000 women will benefit from free protections

Also, the Scottish government has decided to benefit 18,000 women victims of precariousness of this operation, throughout the whole country. He will therefore donate £ 500,000 to the FareShare association to carry out this project.

Girls will also benefit from free intimate protection. In schools, stocks will be made available to college students and university students. This initiative echoes a much-publicized situation in Britain in 2017. Poor young women had been forced to leave school or to be bought for hygienic protection by their teachers.

The rules are also expensive in France

In France, if the buffer tax was reduced in 2015, the purchase of tampons or sanitary napkins during a menstrual cycle amounts to paying between 5 and 7 euros per month per woman.

Recently, the student insurance company LMDE took a big step to fight against menstrual precariousness. In April 2018, she proposed an unprecedented initiative: that of reimbursing up to 25 euros per year for the periodic protection of young girls affiliated to the mutual society under presentation of a receipt.

Today, Restos du Cœur remains one of the few associations to collect and distribute menstrual hygiene products free of charge.