Celebrating menstrual health day

The AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) South Africa is commemorating Menstrual Health Day 2025, observed annually on May 28, with a nationwide advocacy campaign championing menstrual dignity and inclusive dialogue. The campaign highlights persistent challenges around menstrual health in South Africa – from period poverty and harmful stigma to the exclusion of fathers from menstrual health conversations – and highlights how menstruation intersects with HIV vulnerability and mental health.

The campaign also forms part of AHF’s global efforts to address the stigma, cultural taboos, and lack of menstrual hygiene access that undermine dignity and increase HIV risk among women and girls and people who menstruate.

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Globally, women and girls, particularly in regions like sub-Saharan Africa, face ad is proportionate HIV burden. The lack of access to sanitary pads forces many to miss school, increasing the likelihood of dropping out. This often leads to increased transactional or transgenerational sex, limiting their ability to negotiate safer sex and raising the risk of acquiring HIV.

AHF’s Menstrual Health Day worldwide commemorations are part of broader strategic prevention efforts that highlight the link between menstrual health and HIV, promote the availability and accessibility of menstrual products, and integrate sexual and reproductive health information and services—ensuring women and girls and people who menstruate have access to sanitary pads, HIV testing, condoms, and essential care.

Ngaa Murombedzi, AHF Regional Advocacy and Policy Manager for Southern Africa, says "No girl should have to endure an undignified menstrual experience or miss school because she cannot access sanitary products. Menstruation is a natural bodily process, yet too often" treated as a shameful secret. We all have a role to play in ending period poverty – from ensuring access to pads and other essentials, to including fathers and boys in menstrual health conversations to break the taboo."

Murombedzi emphasises the broader impacts of neglecting menstrual health: "When young people lack support and resources for managing their periods, the consequences go beyond just physical discomfort. Girls may suffer anxiety or low self-esteem, and some are even forced into risky situations, like transactional sex, just to obtain pads, which increases their vulnerability to HIV and other dangers. We can protect girls" health, boost their confidence, and safeguard their futures by promoting menstrual dignity, providing access to affordable or free sanitary products, and fostering open, inclusive dialogue."

As part of the Menstrual Health Day 2025 campaign, AHF South Africa is organising community events across multiple provinces to educate, engage, and empower youth and their families. Planned activities include:

Eastern Cape

A community event will challenge stigma and promote dialogue between boys and girls through a fun race, dance, art, and a menstrual health quiz—using creative engagement tobuild understanding and respect.

KwaZulu-Natal:

A safe-space workshop will unite boys and girls to learn about menstruation, hygiene, and its link to HIV prevention, while promoting dignity, gender equality, and ending period stigma in schools and communities.

Gauteng:

A father-daughter forum will empower male guardians to support their daughter's menstrual health, encouraging open dialogue and breaking taboos. The event will also offer HIV/STI screening for men to reinforce male engagement in health.

Mpumalanga:

In its first Menstrual Health Day event, the province will focus on orphaned and vulnerable youth with creative education sessions and sanitary pad distribution—highlighting the need for inclusive menstrual equity.

In the lead-up to Menstrual Health Day, AHF South Africa is calling on communities, policymakers, and partners to join hands in advancing menstrual equity. “This is as crucial as improving HIV Prevention in young women and girls,” adds Murombedzi.

This means ensuring every person who menstruates can do so with dignity, without financial or social barriers. AHF urges stakeholders to support initiatives like free distribution of sanitary products in schools and clinics, incorporation of menstrual health education (for boys and girls) into school curricula, and community dialogues that include men as allies in the fight against period poverty. Such inclusive efforts uphold the rights of girls and women and contribute to broader youth empowerment, as young people with the resources and support they need are better equipped to pursue education and opportunities without interruption.