Think your essential items are bought tax-free? Think again. Tampons, sanitary pads and mooncups have all been subject to a "non-essential, luxury" tax since 1973. Meanwhile, more 'vital' items such as "helicopters", "edible sugar flowers" and "exotic meats including crocodile" can be purchased tax-free (phew!).
What's more? You can't escape sanitary tax. From Tokyo to Cornwall, Canada to Lithuania, you will be taxed for bleeding across the world. In Hungary, you can appreciate a 27% sanitary tax rate for having the 'luxury' of enjoying your period (hooray!) and this rate is not unusual across the continent.
So, what can we do about this? The fight against sanitary tax has been fought by generations. In May last year I started a Change.org petition to end sanitary tax once and for all. Today, we delivered this petition, supported by 196,628 and counting, to Number 11, Downing Street. Although we have worked hard to make sure this campaign succeeds up to this point we still have a long way to go.
Now that George Osborne has shown his support, we need to persuade the rest of Europe to stop taxing periods too before we start to see some real changes.
Europe implements tax consistently across the continent. This means that to exempt an item from tax, such as sanitary products, or to reduce them to zero rate, this decision needs to be made unanimously across European member states.
This this is impossible? We don't. The UK currently implements the lowest sanitary tax rating of 5%. If we can generate this much noise over the smallest sanitary tax rate not just in Europe but in the World, imagine what the rest of the continent can do with that much more ammunition.
Still not convinced? Well Sam our croc has already swam the channel. Our French sister change.org campaign has been launched and is doing amazingly well thanks to Jill and her team. The sooner similar campaigns act together in protest across Europe, the sooner we can end sanitary tax once and for all!
Together we can stop the sanitary tax that has marginalised issues traditionally associated with women, damaged the accessibility of a vital item and jeopardised the sexual health of millions across the world. Now that we have Westminster on our side, we really can stop taxing periods. Period!
For more information, or to sign the petition, click here