Reusable periodic protection reimbursed for those under 25 from 2024
A symbolic announcement on the eve of International Women’s Rights Day. Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne announced that reusable period products (panties and menstrual cups) will be reimbursed from 2024 by Social Security for those under 25, in order to combat menstrual precariousness.
“We are going to set up reimbur*****t by Social Security for reusable periodic protection from next year”, declared Élisabeth Borne in the program “C à vous” on France 5. A measure which will concern “all young people women under the age of 25. The measure will be included in the 2024 budget.
To be reimbursed, these periodic protections will have to be purchased in pharmacies, which will be possible “without a prescription”, she further specified. “It is unthinkable that women cannot have the protections they need,” commented the Prime Minister.
France still behind Scotland
The phenomenon of “menstrual precariousness” affects more than 2 million women each year in France. In December 2020, Emmanuel Macron was the first President of the Republic to use the term, freeing up a budget of 5 million euros during his first five-year term to fight against this precariousness.
Until then, the government had opted for the establishment of 1,500 distributors of free sanitary protection on university campuses or even more transparency for manufacturers with the obligatory detail on the packaging of the compositionsprecautions for use and serious undesirable effects that components of personal protection can cause.
In Europe, the country most advanced on the issue remains Scotland where tampons and sanitary pads will be available free of charge, for all.
