What is Menstrual Hygiene Day?
Menstrual Hygiene Day is celebrated on May 28th and has done a lot of good advocating for period awareness. It’s helped bring periods into public conversation, highlighted the need for period products, and shown why safe, private toilets, clean water and proper support matter for people who menstruate
But let’s be honest. The name is complicated.
For a day that is all about ending period shame, the word “hygiene” can feel a little uncomfortable. Not because hygiene itself is a bad thing. Being able to manage your period safely, cleanly and with dignity is essential. But when periods have already been treated as dirty, secret or embarrassing for generations, calling the day Menstrual Hygiene Day can accidentally reinforce some of the stigma it is trying to challenge.
What’s the Problem With the Word “Hygiene”?
The word hygiene is usually linked to cleanliness. We use it when we talk about washing hands, brushing teeth or keeping things sanitary. So when we attach that word to periods, it can make menstruation sound like something unclean.
Which, just to be very clear, it is not.
Your period is not dirty. Your body is not gross. Menstrual blood is not something to be ashamed of. Yet so many of us grow up feeling like it is. We hide pads up our sleeves. We whisper about being “on”. We panic over leaks. We feel awkward buying period products, talking about symptoms or saying the word period out loud.
So when the biggest awareness day for menstruation uses language associated with cleanliness, it can feel like a step in the wrong direction.
Menstrual Health Is Bigger Than Hygiene
The original reason for using “hygiene” was linked to very real global issues. Access to clean water, toilets, soap, safe products and private spaces can make a huge difference to whether someone can manage their period safely and with dignity.
That context matters.
But periods are not only about hygiene.
They are also about health, education, confidence, work, relationships, symptoms, support and understanding your own body. Menstrual health includes heavy bleeding, pain, PMS, irregular cycles, conditions like endometriosis or PCOS, and knowing when something is not right.
If we want people to feel confident talking about periods, the language around them needs to feel open, modern and shame-free.
Why Language Really Matters
Words shape how we feel.
If periods are always spoken about in a way that sounds clinical, secretive or dirty, people start to internalise that. It becomes harder to ask questions, speak openly about pain or heavy bleeding, or feel comfortable telling someone when something is wrong.
And when people do not talk, they often put up with more than they should.
At Evana®, we know periods are not one-size-fits-all. For some people, heavy menstrual bleeding is the thing that gets in the way. For others, it is painful periods that might make everyday life harder than it should be.. That is why we talk about both, through Evana® and Ultravana®, as well as the wider menstrual health symptoms and conditions that so often go ignored, dismissed or quietly accepted as “just part of having periods”.
Because when people are taught to minimise what they are going through, they are less likely to ask questions, seek support or feel confident saying, “Actually, this is affecting my life.”
That is why the conversation has to move beyond quietly coping. We need to make space for people to talk honestly about what their period is really like.
Is It Time for a New Name?
Maybe Menstrual Health Day would feel better. Maybe something else entirely. But whether the name changes or not, the bigger issue is the language we use around periods every day.
If the goal is to reduce shame, the conversation has to move beyond secrecy, embarrassment and “coping quietly”, and towards openness, health and confidence.
We can still talk about access to toilets, clean water and period products. We absolutely should. But we can also talk about confidence, body literacy, symptoms, support and the fact that nobody should feel embarrassed by a normal bodily function.
Ending Period Shame Starts With Saying It Properly
At Evana®, we are here for the conversations that make people feel less alone. The ones about heavy bleeding. Leaks. Period sex. Stains. Cramps. The stuff people whisper about, Google in private or laugh off because they feel awkward.
Menstrual Hygiene Day has helped put periods on the agenda, and that matters. But now it is time to keep pushing the conversation forward.
Periods are not dirty. They are not shameful. And the more we talk about menstrual health with confidence, honesty and zero embarrassment, the closer we get to breaking the taboos for good.
