09/12/2025
Yesterday, we brought Pathways of Chesterfield our donation from Healthy New Me — and we are humbled by their warm welcome. ❤️
🤔 Homelessness in the UK (and locally) is an increasing issue, and Pathways works tirelessly to support people experiencing it — helping them find housing, jobs, and access to medical care, dentistry, opticians and other essential services.
As a business specialising in supporting women in perimenopause, menopause, and beyond, we recognise a deep, often overlooked disparity: homeless women face unique challenges — particularly when menstruating or for those who are perimenopausal/menopausal.
📊 Recent data paints a stark picture:
Women are the majority among homeless adults in temporary accommodation in England. In the most recent figures, roughly 67 % of households in temporary accommodation are headed by women.
Women make up around 60 % of all homeless adults living in temporary accommodation.
Street-homelessness data underestimates the problem: a 2024 gender-informed census by Single Homeless Project (in partnership with Solace Women’s Aid) found up to ten times as many women sleeping rough as official snapshot counts capture.
This undercounting matters: many women rough sleepers are “hidden” — sofa-surfing, sleeping temporarily on public transport, in A&E, with friends, or in unsafe makeshift arrangements — meaning they often don’t appear in statistics.
Because of this, many women — including menstruating, perimenopausal or menopausal women — face a horrific reality: lack of access to sanitary/period products, or having to reuse disposables or even resort to toilet paper to manage their flow. That’s not only undignified but dangerous, especially when combined with a lack of access to healthcare.
💡 It’s why, at Healthy New Me, we felt compelled to carry out our donation drive: collecting period products and unisex toiletries to try to restore dignity — one small but important step — for homeless women dealing with menstruation or menopause.
Thank you again to Pathways for having us and to everyone who contributed, particularly to our veteran member Eleanor Kay who coordinated the drive.. Let’s keep working together to make sure no woman has to choose between dignity and survival.
