MEASURES to tackle period poverty in Wales are "insufficient", the Welsh branch of the National Union of Students (NUS) has said.

Last year the Welsh Government announced it was handing local authorities £1 million to tackle period poverty - when women or girls cannot afford basic sanitary products, and may not have a full understanding of menstruation due to stigma or lack of education about the subject.

But, following research carried out for NUS Wales showing 68 per cent of women believed sanitary products are too expensive - and 83 per cent of 18 to 24-year-olds, the union has said this is "far too little".

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The organisation has said the basic cost of providing sanitary products for 60,000 women and girls in education in Wales would be around £6 million per year.

NUS Wales women’s officer Chisomo Phiri said: “That any woman or girl in Wales in 2019 has to face the indignity of not being able to afford proper sanitary products should bring shame on us all.

"We need a strategic and sustained investment by the Welsh Government and local authorities, year on year, to make the disgrace of period poverty a thing of the past.

“There are women and girls in Wales right now who are using socks instead of pads. Fear of leaking means they miss school, college, or university, and are living in constant shame and embarrassment."

She added: "Periods are not shameful or dirty, but that’s how many women and girls in Wales feel.

“We need to teach everyone of all genders about menstruation, and we need to change that way we as a society think and talk about periods - by calling them by their name, by asking women about their experiences, and by listening when women speak.

“The current level of action on period poverty is sadly insufficient. This campaign calls for greater investment to tackle period poverty to be taken right now.

"We cannot afford to let any woman or girl in education in Wales continue to live like this.”

In 2017 research found 49 per cent of girls in the UK had missed an entire day of school because of their period.