As part of Women’s History Month, GFS has invited Menstrual Health Activist, Anvi Gupta, to share her voice and talk to us about an important topic that needs to be addressed if we are to move forward to a future where people of ALL genders are able to access the basic resources they need to live healthy lives:
We’ve all heard about poverty, but have we all heard about period poverty? Well, we might not have if we aren’t even talking about periods openly.
Yes. It’s 2025 and yet we all can’t seem to talk about menstrual health openly. We’ve come a long way across the years but there’s still so much more to go.
This year’s theme for International Women’s Day was #AccelerateAction, and its core message is uniting our community to take swift action to address the barriers women still face. Unfortunately, one of the numerous barriers women today still face access to a safe space for all things menstrual health.
A natural biological process has become stigmatised which is dangerous.
People who menstruate have a right to be fully informed on what’s going on with their bodies. When young girls enter a primary school lesson teaching them about what a period is, how to use a pad and tampon, they can feel a range of different emotions.
Some may be scared, some may be confused whereas others may just accept it and carry on.
What’s interesting to note, is that schools in the UK are now teaching about other period products like menstrual cups and period pants which is great! But we want girls across the world to know about all types of period products; insertables, reusables, eco-friendly disposable ones, so that they can be fully informed to make a decision for what’s right for them.
The culture’s changed since I got my period education at school (which was 10 years ago), but there’s still a lot that I observe that hasn’t.
As embarrassed as I feel every time I say this – I didn’t actually understand what menopause was until I was 16/17 years old. I genuinely thought menopause was just when your period stops suddenly one day and that’s the end.
Partially true, but never once in school did I realise that perimenopause was a thing – never did I realise that this was an entire separate journey, until I started seeing family members go through this phase.
I only learnt about different menstrual health conditions, including PCOS, endometriosis and adenomyosis around the same time, as well.
And I’m still learning more everyday because people have decided to speak up.
They’ve chosen to make our community more aware through sharing their own experiences. This is precisely why it’s so important we break the taboo. If no one shared their experiences, I would have no clue as to what is normal versus when I need medical support.
I’ve seen my own family making sure they were heard by healthcare professionals. But Anvi, surely they were taken seriously in the first go? Kind of, but not seriously enough.
Sharing experiences is how we now know that toilet access is a genuine concern for many pupils at school. Starting your period in the middle of a lesson, leaking through a pad during an exam or period poops (we really don’t talk about this enough), should all be valid reasons to be able to leave and access a toilet that is clean and safe.
Yet, instead the responses sometimes link to, ‘should’ve gone to the toilet earlier/later’. How is anyone expected to control and predict this?
It’s beyond our control, and accessing a toilet is a basic human right, which needs to be emphasised on. We need to be able to talk to teachers (even male teachers) about this.
But we can only do it if we’re all able to talk about menstrual health openly.
This is why we need to empower the younger generation of girls to prioritise themselves. They deserve to know what is happening with their bodies in a fully informed manner.
They deserve dignity through the entire journey. No girl should ever feel dismissed in her personal nor professional workspace.
Find Anvi on LinkedIn to hear more of what she has to say.
You can find out more about what young girls told GFS in our ‘Girls Speak‘ report, and find out how you can get involved with GFS. You can find out more about how to get involved in global menstrual health justice by visiting our friends at Irise International.