Psychiatric patient made to pull down her pants to ‘prove’ she was on her period
The ‘undignified’, ‘disrespectful’, and ‘degrading’ treatment people received while menstruating in psychiatric units across the UK has been laid bare for the first time.
A new report, published by the National Survivor User Network, includes the testimony of dozens of patients who were denied access to period products or forced to change their pads in front of staff.
Hat Porter, a former inpatient who wrote the report, said staff in some of the hospitals they stayed in would ‘lock away’ pads and tampons for safety reasons, meaning they had to resort to wadding up tissues in their underwear or wearing the same pad for days at a time.
While one staff member surveyed as part of the report said some patients use sanitary items in self harm, others said they didn’t speak about menstruation with patients unless the patient brought it up first, and one said menstruation was ‘just not something I had thought about’.
The report includes guidelines, endorsed by a number of mental health and period charities, which they hope will encourage psychiatric staff to prioritise patient dignity and provide support for period pain.
Speaking to Metro.co.uk, Hat said: ‘This research has highlighted the stark injustices faced by patients in mental health wards when menstruating, however this is part of a wider context of how menstrual health is overlooked in healthcare and society more broadly.
‘The findings also spoke to the gendered inequalities and harms experienced by patients in mental health wards.’
Hat, 26, explains in the foreword of the report that their experiences of menstruation in mental health wards made them feel like ‘my body was the problem and I was burdensome’.
But throughout the research, having heard other stories of patients feeling shame towards their bodies, Hat says their shame ‘morphed into anger’ and adds: ‘I’d say “shame on you” to the people, systems and structures which have failed to meet our needs.’
Surveys filled in by both patients and staff found that 70% of patients said they never had access to sufficient information about menstrual health, compared to only 26.9% of staff who believed the same – a stark difference in patient and staff views of the same issue.
Just under 29% of patients said their menstruation needs were ‘never’ met in a respectful and dignified way, while 38.8% of staff thought the needs of their patients were ‘always’ met.
A number of patients said they had been told tampons were banned on wards by staff, despite 33 out of 34 mental health trusts who responded to Freedom of Information requests during the research saying they allowed tampons.
Many also said they were restricted from even accessing proper bins to discard their used items, and in some cases were limited in how much toilet paper and soap they could use.
Some were also refused washcloths and the opportunity to wash reusable period products – and in their conclusion Hat described the frequent overlooking of patient needs in relation to menstruation as ‘neglect, iatrogenic harm, and menstrual injustice’.
In their own words: experiences of menstruation on psychiatric and mental health wards
‘It felt a little disrespectful to be reluctantly provided with a less than-adequate supply of menstrual products and told I should really be bringing my own, when I was in hospital against my will, mentally unwell, and unable to leave the premises to purchase products for myself.’
‘I was given enormous incontinence knickers that were really rigid and were fixed at the side by two sort of flaps, [they] did not absorb the blood and were totally undignified.’
‘They messed up my pill regularly, ran out of it, forgot to order, causing my PMDD to hugely worsen which led to suicide attempts.’
‘I needed a pad and I did ask if I could have one because my room had just been stripped and I had to prove I was on my period to two female members of staff by pulling my knickers down and showing I already had a pad in.’
‘I ordered a moon cup in the post. The matron decided that this item is immediately to be confiscated. He didn’t know what it was, and when I told him, he did not believe me. He refused to believe me.’
‘The sanitary bins were always overflowing, they stunk. They were not replaced often enough, you’d have an ensuite and that would have cardboard boxes as a bin but it was a wet room so if you forgot to take out the cardboard box, it would just dissolve.’
‘They gave me an anti-lig[ature] blanket and was just like “cover up with that”. But I had like literally no, um like nothing for like, my period or anything. I was literally just bleeding on the floor like it was, it was awful. They didn’t even have toilet roll or anything, it was just… it was just awful. And being on my period at the time it was, it was just an absolutely horrendous experience.’
‘I bled into tissue in my underwear for my first two menstrual cycles in my first admission to an acute ward as I was too anxious to ask staff for period products.’
‘On my PICU, a blanket rule was if you were on 1:1 and had no bathroom privacy, (which was my situation) you were only allowed two squares of toilet paper at a time, which was ridiculous at the best of times but when I was on my period it was awful, because I was only allowed two squares and I bled heavy, the blood would soak through the sheets and I would end up with my hand covered in period blood. Some of the staff that witnessed this laugh[ed] whilst I was mortified.’
‘I would have to like… change your products in front of people. And again, it was really degrading, really dehumanising, embarrassing, not just for me, but for them as well. So that’s just not a normal human experience like watching someone change their pad and being watched changing your pad so it was just really unnatural.’
‘It felt even more taboo than usual due to me being trans, when I asked for sanitary products when I arrived on the ward (unplanned admission) they seemed confused and unwilling to provide any despite knowing I’m trans […] it felt so degrading.’
‘All of this gave the impression that the ward for women of working age was surprised at menstruation and found it a huge inconvenience, and that this should be taken care of by the women patients themselves no matter how mentally unwell they were.’
‘It was made to seem like I was being like an inconvenience for having a period. It made me hate my body. Like it made me like really angry towards myself.’
‘Staff always spoke with disgust when menstruation was mentioned. Male staff members would make faces or refuse to talk about or refuse requests about menstruation.’
A spokesperson for NSUN said: ‘NSUN is really pleased to have been able to support this research project, as this is an area which has previously been overlooked.
‘We would encourage anyone working in mental health settings to read the report, and urge mental health service providers and regulators to make use of the guidelines produced as part of the project to make much-needed improvements to the support people get when menstruating in psychiatric inpatient settings.’
The NHS said it ‘expects all hospitals to give patients access to the essentials of daily life’.
Chris Dzikiti, director of mental health at the Care Quality Commission, which regulates mental health services, told the BBC: ‘We look at whether people’s human rights are being respected throughout their care.
‘Access to period products is an important part of a person’s rights to privacy and dignity.
‘The National Survivor User Network is doing great work in this area and we welcome their research.’
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