CorkBeo: Cork Sexual Health Hubs now offering free period products to young people

EIMEAR MCCAULEY

Period products like tampons, pads, and moon cups are being made available to teens for free across Cork city and county through 'Sexual Health Hubs' ran by the Sexual Health Centre.

These hubs were launched during the pandemic to increase access to sexual health services and now they are becoming bigger and better, and coming to rural areas by working with local organisations such as the Shack Youth Centre in Clonakilty.

The free period products initiative is about making sure that menstrual products aren't a luxury that only some can afford.

Speaking at the Clonakilty Sexual Health Hub, which was launched by the Cork Sexual Health Centre in 2020, TD Holly Cairns said it is very important that "sexual health information, condoms, free period products are now also available to young people in West Cork.

Muire O' Farrel, the Health Promotion Officer at the SHC said that the Sexual Health Hub is a "wonderful addition to the town," and that these hubs can "provide a solution to the limited reach of current sexual health specific services in Cork."