Image via Jay Black
Annoncering
Annoncering
At the time, Zoe was so underweight that her periods were often irregular. This sounds bleakly fortuitous, but that irregularity meant that she "wouldn't have one for ages" and it would then "come really unexpectedly and be so painful. It would make me feel really weak. I'd be shaking." She visibly recoils as she's talking. "I've put all this to the back my mind because it was so embarrassing and so horrible," she says. Listening to her, the idea of experiencing those hot, disabling cramps while wandering the streets because you're scared of staying in one place makes me wince.How on earth are we in a position where women – who, it bears repeating, have absolutely no choice over whether their womb lining sheds each month – are having to sneak into McDonald's toilets and make do with stuffing toilet paper into the knickers to stop them bleeding through their clothes?
Annoncering
Annoncering
Annoncering
Access to provisions is one thing, but if you're on the streets, privacy becomes a distant memory, too. Washing in public toilets, as another woman at Bethany House told me, becomes the norm. However, popping to the loo to do that can be tricky when you need to find somewhere busy enough not to be noticed. Also, with most of those grey, spaceship-like public toilets now charging up to a pound per use, it's hardly surprising that McDonald's toilets are a sanctuary.We give out condoms for free for good reason – safe sex and preventing against the transmission of STIs is an absolute imperative – but why can't we do the same for pads and tampons?
Annoncering