We’ve shown the current scale of period poverty in the Netherlands in our CODE RED research last year. Behind the statistics are real people, whose lives are marked by stigma, lost opportunities, and health risks. To directly tackle these negative impacts of period poverty, we’ve been raising funds over the past week to stock our Menstruation Stations across Amsterdam. Today, on International Menstrual Health/Hygiene Day (MHD), we reach our final day of fundraising. 

If you’ve donated, thank you! If not, it’s not too late to become one of our supporters. 

This MHD 2025, we also have to come to terms with another hard truth: period poverty is a greater, more urgent issue across Europe than previously estimated.

As as part of the #MenstrualMattersEU campaign led by a broad coalition of European period poverty partners including Neighborhood Feminists, the French NGO Règles Élémentaires (RE) and Opinionway researchers provided insights on menstrual health at the EU level for the first time. The numbers are alarming: 

Of the 112 million people who menstruate in the EU, 42% experienced period poverty in the last year. 

Some couldn’t afford period products. Some couldn’t access them. Too many had to make do with unsafe alternatives. And, just as in the Netherlands, period poverty means missing school, work, or other everyday activities. 

The study shines a light on a problem that’s long been kept in the shadows. Findings include: 

  • More than half of Europeans still see menstruation as taboo.
  • 54% have never even heard of menstrual disorders.
  • Over half of menstruating people regularly miss daily life – including school, work, or sports – due to menstrual pain.

But the EU-level analysis doesn’t end there.

On Tuesday, June 3rd, co-authors and Neighborhood Feminists advisors Maria Carmen Punzi and Nicole Spohr will present their research findings within a larger conversation on menstrual justice and policy solutions held at the European Parliament in Brussels.  Coordinated by Règles Élémentaires, their research study, “Tackling Period Poverty in the EU”, was commissioned by Members of European Parliament Diana Riba i Giner, Saskia Bricmont, and Mélissa Camara. During the special session, the MEPs will be joined by RE Deputy Director Justine Okolodkoff Zakrajsek, together with other grassroots organizations and EU representatives. The session can be followed live online from 11:00 am to 1:00 pm session by a simple registration.

A European coalition matters – also locally

Neighborhood Feminists is pleased to be part of a broad coalition of period poverty organizations from across Europe coming together under the #MenstrualMattersEU banner. Looking forward, this multicultural collaboration strengthens NF’s local work in tangible ways:

  • Sharing knowledge and best practices for menstrual equity in different contexts, helping each other improve tools, programmes, and approaches.
  • Promoting the development of comprehensive education for improved menstrual health and reduced stigma.
  • Advocating for transparency in menstrual product production – and eliminating toxic substances.
  • Promoting needed further menstrual health research across Europe.
  • Supporting strategic actions that combine our voices to push for targeted, needs-based EU policy changes.

Together, we’re stronger. And we’re pushing for a Europe where no one is held back by menstruation, ever.

With 112 million people menstruating in the EU, menstrual health is not a niche issue.

Help us push for change, locally and for the EU. It’s both urgently needed and possible. Share this news. Talk about it. And let’s remind the EU that menstrual health matters – to all of us.

To find out more about the research, campaign and our partners, visit the newly launched website www.MenstrualMatters.eu.