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Most women in Scotland not accessing free period products
Despite Scotland’s free period products law, research finds reusable period products remain little used, with only 3 per cent in Scotland relying on reusables.
Dominique Haig, a master’s student at Queen Margaret University (QMU), has investigated why take-up of reusable menstrual products stays low, despite the Period Products (Free Provision) (Scotland) Act 2021 encouraging their distribution.
The findings reveal multiple obstacles – from institutional issues to education gaps and poor infrastructure – that stop organisations properly understanding and meeting the Act’s goals around equity, sustainability, and choice. (Reusable menstrual products include menstrual cups and washable pads.)
Haig, a student in QMU’s Institute of Global Health and Development explained: “We found that while reusable products are technically available across colleges, universities and public organisations, they’re often out of sight – sometimes hidden behind reception desks or restricted to student unions.”
This type of gatekeeping, combined with poor signposting and limited education, means many students, who may be particularly vulnerable to period poverty, don’t even know they have the option of accessing the free sanitary products.
The research discovered that students most likely to benefit from reusable products – including low-income, disabled, and trans/non-binary individuals – encounter major obstacles.
These include:
- Patchy menstrual education and insufficient teacher training, leaving students unaware of their entitlements and product options.
- Parental influence, which can shape attitudes toward menstruation and product choices, especially when stigma or misinformation has shaped communication.
- Inadequate washing facilities and lack of private spaces, which make using reusables impractical in many institutions.
“One teacher told us that students often don’t receive menstrual education until halfway through the school year,” Haig explained.
“By then, their understanding is shaped mostly by what their parents have told them.”
Additionally, student input rarely influenced procurement practices which led to purchases of reusable products that didn’t match students’ needs for quality and appearance – wasting budgets and maintaining dependence on single-use sanitary wear.
“We spoke to one university procurement officer who confirmed that students had to go to a specific location to collect reusable products,” Haig added.
“That alone can be a deterrent, especially if the space isn’t welcoming or inclusive.”
Haig concluded: “The availability of free sanitary wear across Scotland has been an excellent way of improving equality for women across the country.
“However, without targeted interventions, Scotland risks entrenching its dependence on single-use menstrual products, which ultimately undermines the environmental and social equity goals of the Period Products (Free Provision) (Scotland) Act 2021.
“We are therefore calling for improved menstrual education and teacher training; inclusive procurement processes that reflect student preferences; better infrastructure to support reusable product use; and clearer signposting and more accessible distribution methods.
“This will help protect the dignity of everyone who menstruates and the sustainability of service provision, ensuring every student has real choices.”
Scientists say they have ‘rejuvenated’ human eggs, in work that could improve IVF success rates for older women.
The team reports that an age-related defect causing genetic errors in embryos may be reversed by supplementing eggs with a key protein.
In eggs donated by fertility patients, microinjection of the protein cut the share showing the defect from 53 per cent to 29 per cent.
The findings were presented at the British Fertility Conference in Edinburgh by researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Multidisciplinary Sciences in Göttingen.
The technique is being commercialised by Ovo Labs, co-founded by professor Melina Schuh, who led the research.
The approach targets problems in meiosis, the process where eggs halve their genetic material before fertilisation.
In older eggs, chromosome pairs can loosen and separate too soon, leading to embryos with too many or too few chromosomes, known as aneuploidy.
The researchers found levels of a protein called Shugoshin 1, which helps hold chromosome pairs together, decline with age. Microinjections appeared to restore this “molecular glue” and reduce errors.
Professor Schuh said: “Overall we can nearly halve the number of eggs with [abnormal] chromosomes. That’s a very prominent improvement.
“Most women in their early 40s do have eggs, but nearly all of the eggs have incorrect chromosome numbers. This was the motivation for wanting to address this problem.
“What is really beautiful is that we identified a single protein that, with age, goes down, returned it to young levels and it has a big effect.
We are just restoring the younger situation again with this approach.
Declining egg quality is a major reason IVF success rates fall steeply with age.
UK figures show an average birth rate of 35 per cent per embryo transferred for patients under 35, dropping to 5 per cent for women aged 43 to 44.
Dr Agata Zielinska, co-founder and co-chief executive of Ovo Labs, said: “Currently, when it comes to female factor infertility, the only solution that’s available to most patients is trying IVF multiple times so that, cumulatively, your likelihood of success increases.
“What we envision is that many more women would be able to conceive within a single IVF cycle.”
The approach would not extend fertility beyond menopause.
The team is in talks with regulators about a clinical trial.
Dr Güneş Taylor, of the University of Edinburgh, who was not involved, said: “This is really important work because we need approaches that work for older eggs because that’s the point at which most women appear.
“If there’s a one-shot injection that substantially increases the number of eggs with properly organised chromosomes, that gives you a better starting point.”
Women with two to three children live longest, while having more than four is linked to shorter lives, research on biological ageing suggests.
The study also found timing matters, with pregnancies roughly between ages 24 and 38 linked to more favourable ageing and longevity patterns.
Somewhat unexpectedly, childless women showed faster ageing than women with a few children, though this may be explained by other lifestyle or health factors.
Doctoral researcher Mikaela Hukkanen, who conducted the study, said: “From an evolutionary biology perspective, organisms have limited resources such as time and energy.
“When a large amount of energy is invested in reproduction, it is taken away from bodily maintenance and repair mechanisms, which could reduce lifespan.”
The research, conducted by the University of Helsinki and the Minerva Foundation Institute for Medical Research, followed nearly 15,000 female twins born between 1880 and 1957. Participants completed a questionnaire in 1975 and have been followed regularly since.
A novel aspect was measuring ageing biologically using epigenetic clocks, which detect ageing-related cellular changes by analysing chemical markers in blood samples. These can identify signs of biological ageing years before death.
The epigenetic analysis of more than 1,000 participants supported the mortality findings, showing women with many children or no children were biologically somewhat older than their chronological age.
Dr Miina Ollikainen, who led the study, said: “A person who is biologically older than their calendar age is at a higher risk of death. Our results show that life history choices leave a lasting biological imprint that can be measured long before old age.
“In some of our analyses, having a child at a young age was also associated with biological ageing.
“This too may relate to evolutionary theory, as natural selection may favour earlier reproduction that entails shorter overall generation times, even if it entails health-related costs associated with ageing.”
The researchers emphasised that the findings apply only at population level and do not demonstrate cause-effect relationships.
Dr Ollikainen added: “An individual woman should therefore not consider changing her own plans or wishes regarding children based on these findings.”
An NHS GP and menopause specialist has urged women to do three monthly health checks, examining their chest, vulva and moles.
Dr Carys Sonnenberg, an NHS women’s health GP and founder of the Rowena Health Menopause Clinic, shared the recommendation on TikTok, suggesting the first of each month as a good time to perform the checks.
She said: “It’s the first of the month, so it’s a really good day to do your chest check, to do your vulva check, and also to examine any moles that you have on your body, not forgetting your head.”
“When you are looking at your body, it’s really good to know what’s normal for you.
“So the CoppaFeel! website has got some brilliant information, with teaching you how to examine your chest properly, and knowing what problems you might be looking for, and anything that you need to report to your GP.”
CoppaFeel! is a breast cancer awareness charity that encourages monthly chest examinations.
The charity states: “Be aware of changes to your breasts and chest that might be signs of breast cancer.
“Getting into the habit of checking your chest every month is an easy way to stay on top of this.
“It’s also important to understand that some of these changes happen naturally, like during your monthly cycle.”
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