Girls should be able to manage their periods privately

Dr Fione Finlay, Bath and North East Somerset Primary Care Trust

In 90% of schools sanitary protection was available - but girls had to ask an adult.

Only 43% of schools provided disposal facilities in girls toilets. In the rest of the schools survyed, girls had to use the teachers' or the disabled toilets.

Dr Fiona Finlay, a consultant community paediatrician from Bath and North East Somerset Primary Care Trust, who led the research, said having to ask a member of staff for a sanitary towel compounded the embarrassment young girls can feel about starting their periods before their friends.

'Embarrassment'

Dr Finlay told BBC News Online: "Girls should be able to manage their periods privately."

"They might be embarrassed if they're the first in the class to start their periods, and if they have to ask the teachers for sanitary protection, that attracts more attention."

She said girls should not have to use different toilets just because they were on their period: "Menarche isn't different - it's natural."

Dr Finlay added she first learnt of the problem when girls approached her during visits to local schools.

In a paper in the British Medical Journal, the researchers say: "We believe that unless there are national guidelines girls will continue to be poorly served."

Smaller schools had said they did not have the funds to pay for providing sanitary facilities.

The results of the survey have been submitted to the Department of Health and the Department for Education.

The researchers say their findings have been acknowledged, but there has been no further dialogue.