News

SWIDN were delighted to have the opportunity to attend the inaugural 4M Conference held at the University of Exeter in June, meeting inspirational researchers and practitioners working all over the world to improve menstrual health and management, sexual, reproductive health and rights (SRHR), and improve participation and access for people who menstruate and experience menopause, both in our programmes and workplaces.

We had the opportunity to share on a panel discussion around research gaps in this area, plugging the importance of collaboration between academics and practitioners to improve the impact of research and best practice interventions. The panel discussion was highlighted on BBC Women’s Hour here, along with further information from the conference host Dr Gemma Sharp. 

If you would like to hear more about the conference in 2025, please email Hannah via hannah@swidn.org.uk. We’d love to share the details with our members whose work overlaps with SDG 5 relating to menarche, menstruation, menopause and mental heatlh. 

We are also looking into delivering a few events for our wider members to follow up on content we learnt at the conference. These will include an informal working group to consider the impact of unmet menstrual needs on achieving the SDGs, suitable for anyone working in education, WASH, health, climate, gender, disability or with people who menstruate. 

We are also interested in hearing from our practitioner and researcher members on how they can work better together to increase impact and improve interventions. Please get in touch with hannah@swidn.org.uk if you would like to pick up this conversation.