Free period products should be made mandatory at all community sporting facilities to support people who menstruate and play sport, according to new Victoria University (VU) research.
A collaboration between VU’s Women in Sport team and Share the Dignity, an Australian charity working to end period poverty, surveyed 330 women across the country finding 68 per cent skipped sport due to their period, 90 per cent worried about leaking, and 72 per cent felt anxious about their period when playing sport.
To encourage participation in sport, the final report ‘Bloody good idea: Free period products at sports and leisure facilities’ released late last month, recommends free access to period products at all sports facilities.
“This is not a big ask but the impact is huge,” said project lead and VU’s Susan Alberti Women in Sport chair, Professor Clare Hanlon of the recommendation
“Providing free period products at sport facilities could remove a barrier to play sport and help drive membership.
“We must make sport safe and accessible, so everyone is given a fair go to be active and engaged.”
The majority (87 per cent) of respondents to the survey agreed that sport facility policies need to recognise menstrual health as a fundamental right and provide free period products. Respondents also felt less confident managing their period in a sports facility than they did at school, their workplace or at home.
Professor Hanlon said the vast majority those who did have access to period products used them because they had to, not to stock up.
“Over 90 per cent used them because their period arrived unexpectedly,” she said, adding that the impact on female athletes who didn’t have access to period products in such situations, was severe.
“What we’ve found is that a number of these girls and women were so embarrassed that they had to leave the grounds and go home and they haven’t gone back.”
To further reduce the potential for embarrassment and shame, Professor Hanlon said free period products such as tampons and pads, should be made available through dispensing machines so women aren’t forced to ask others for them. Easy access to disposal bins should also be provided.
But the fact such basic products and facilities, which cater for half the population, are still not freely available in 2025, begs the obvious question: why?
Afterall, while women’s sport has exploded in popularity in recent years and football codes like Aussie Rules and Rugby League that were once off limits to female athletes, now run high profile competitions, other sports such as netball, basketball, soccer and cricket have had female participation for decades.
Professor Hanlon said sheer ignorance was mostly to blame.
“It just hasn’t been considered as a need,” she said of the importance of period products to female athletes.
“What we’re showing is the opposite.
“If sports want more members in their clubs, this evidence shows that providing period products will help attract girls and women.”
