A supporter of the Period Products bill at a rally outside Parliament in Edinburgh two years ago. This week, Scotland became the first country in the world to make period products free for all. Picture: Andrew Milligan/PA 

"You would never go into a public toilet and expect there to be no toilet paper or to have to carry your own toilet paper in your pocket," Lisa Moran, an administrator at Munster Technological University, told RTÉ news last year. 

She was interviewed when the college made period products free and available to all, encouraging other institutions and public places to do the same. 

"Periods are such a normal part of the female experience; it's just mad that this hasn't been in place before." 

It is mad, but at last it is changing.

This week, Scotland became the first country in the world to make period products free for all. 

The government put a legal duty on local authorities to provide tampons and sanitary pads at no cost to "anyone who needs them". 

Local councils, schools, and universities will do that now, thanks to an act that the Scottish parliament unanimously approved. 

Labour MSP Monica Lennon, who introduced the act, said: "This is another big milestone for period dignity campaigners and grassroots movements which shows the difference that progressive and bold political choices can make."

And what difference is that? I asked several people what free, accessible period products meant to them.

An Irish woman working in a media company in the Tayside region of Scotland told me she felt "immense relief" when she first found free period products in the bathroom at her workplace. 

"Coming from Ireland, I couldn't recall ever having seen them in the workplace before. I hope a similar law comes in in Ireland soon because it helps everybody."

A similar law might come into force in Ireland soon. A discussion paper on Period Poverty in Ireland was jointly published in January 2021 by ministers O'Gorman and Donnelly. 

The report goes beyond the basic need for period products to include broader factors such as stigma, menstrual health literacy, and gender equity. 

In this context, period poverty means not being able to afford period products like pads and tampons or lacking hygiene facilities like bins and sinks.

The discussion paper revealed that approximately 53,000-85,000 people in Ireland may be at risk of period poverty. 

Charities and NGOs that contributed to the report identified significant period poverty amongst "those experiencing homelessness and/or addiction; those living in abusive relationships and certain minority ethnic communities may also be at high risk of period poverty".

The developments following the publication have been steady. The government supported a private members bill on period poverty which seeks to make period products freely available to all who need them. 

Seanad Éireann passed it on to the Committee stage last year. Since then, the Department of Health provided €714,000 to "support initial testing and rollout of measures to support Travellers and Roma, other high priority groups and measures to be taken by local authorities".

In March of this year, The Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science’s rolled out a pilot scheme — free period products in nine colleges around the country. 

I checked in with the Department this week and a press officer told me: “An evaluation of this initiative is currently underway. 

"It is anticipated that the evaluation will be completed in the coming weeks.” 

He added: “The Programme for Government commits to provide a range of free, adequate, safe, and suitable period products in all educational publicly-funded settings, including schools and third level colleges, to ensure that no students are disadvantaged in their education by period poverty.” 

This recognition that people who menstruate deserve to do so with dignity is fantastic. It feels bittersweet too because it should never have been an issue for any of us, but it has been for a long time.

Free period products would have made a massive difference to Kate. A teenager in Tralee in the early 1990s, she did not have access to any period products at home and was forced to improvise. 

"It was a case of using what was around the house, fabric-wise. So an old sock or a cut-up tea towel. It wasn't ideal, but it was what it was." 

The thing that really pained her was the shame and the stigma associated with menstruation. 

"What I didn't like was the need to hide all traces of menstruation at home — no bin in the bathroom and so on." 

Open and easy access to period products in public places increases their visibility and tackles the stigma still sometimes attached to them.

In a world like this one, our bodies, the bodies of people that menstruate, are regularly disrespected and disregarded. 

Period poverty is insidious in that it leads to even more significant problems — a lack of period products can mean missing school or work, and it can mean social humiliation. 

Anyone who's ever felt the jolting but familiar dread that they don't have a pad or a tampon when they need one knows that the cost is simply too high. 

When I posted about period poverty on Instagram, a woman named Ellen told me about an experience she had growing up in Monaghan. 

Ellen recounted that as a teenager in 2003 she attended a convent school. There was a period product dispenser in the bathrooms, but you had to pay. 

One day the dispenser broke, and some of the girls in her class took pads and tampons without paying for them. 

The teachers were furious with them, and the entire class got detention for 'stealing'; 14-year-old girls, punished for taking period products from the bathroom in school.

Later that day, I heard from Margaret McHugh, a teacher at The Presentation Secondary School in Warrenmount, Dublin 8. 

To alleviate the threat of period poverty, the school started making period products free and available in the bathrooms. 

Margaret told of the girls’ reaction: “They were so relieved and happy. They said it was great not to have to worry about being caught out and also mentioned how it was better than having to ask your friends if they had any.”

Things are changing, because people are changing them. We've come such a long way these past 20 years, and we must keep going now.

Read MoreIrish women in homeless services to receive reusable menstrual cups

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