Erling Haaland
Erling Haaland became the unexpected face of a women's health campaign after a brand used his viral memes to explain menstruation. instagram.com/erling

A women's health company has gone viral after using memes of football star Erling Haaland to explain the four stages of the menstrual cycle, with social media users praising the campaign for making a complex topic easier and more entertaining to understand.

The campaign was created by Dubai-based Hiya Healthcare, which replaced traditional medical diagrams with a series of popular Haaland memes.

Each image was paired with one phase of the menstrual cycle, using the Manchester City striker's facial expressions and viral internet moments to represent the physical and emotional changes many women experience throughout the month.

The unusual approach quickly spread across Instagram, TikTok and X, where many users described it as one of the funniest yet most relatable explanations of menstruation they had seen.

Others joked that Haaland had unexpectedly become the internet's latest women's health educator.

How Erling Haaland Became the Face of the Campaign

Rather than relying on anatomical illustrations, Hiya Healthcare used a collection of widely shared Haaland reaction images to represent the four main phases of the menstrual cycle: menstruation, the follicular phase, ovulation and the luteal phase.

Each meme reflected common symptoms or emotions associated with that stage.

Some images portrayed exhaustion and discomfort, while others captured increased confidence, energy or mood swings.

The campaign's light-hearted tone resonated with many social media users, who said it made the biology easier to understand than traditional classroom diagrams.

The campaign arrived at a time when Haaland's popularity had extended far beyond football, with the Norwegian striker becoming one of the internet's biggest meme subjects thanks to his performances on the pitch and his playful online personality.

Haaland Health Care Meme
A slide from Hiya Healthcare's viral campaign uses Erling Haaland memes to illustrate common symptoms experienced during the menstrual phase, including irritability, muscle soreness, cramps and inflammation. Instagram/hiyahealthcare

Why the Campaign Went Viral

Much of the campaign's success has been attributed to its use of humour.

Instead of presenting menstruation as an awkward or taboo subject, Hiya Healthcare embraced internet culture to encourage people to engage with educational content they might otherwise scroll past.

Thousands of users shared the graphics, with many commenting that they planned to send them to friends, partners or family members who had never fully understood how the menstrual cycle works.

Others praised the brand for making women's health discussions feel more accessible without losing the educational message.

The campaign also reflects a growing trend among health brands using memes, social media humour and pop culture references to reach younger audiences, particularly on platforms such as TikTok and Instagram.

Breaking the Stigma Around Periods

Women's health organisations have long argued that menstruation remains surrounded by misinformation and unnecessary stigma despite affecting billions of people worldwide.

Campaigns in recent years have increasingly focused on encouraging open conversations about periods, symptoms and reproductive health.

Rather than relying solely on clinical language, many brands now use humour and relatable online content to improve public understanding and encourage people to seek medical advice when necessary.

Hiya Healthcare's Haaland-inspired graphics appear to follow that strategy by turning a globally recognised footballer into an unexpected educational tool.

While the campaign was clearly designed to entertain, many viewers said it also succeeded in explaining the menstrual cycle in a way that was memorable and easy to follow.

Football Meets Women's Health

Although Erling Haaland has no involvement in the campaign itself, his image has become central to one of the internet's most talked-about health campaigns of the week.

The viral graphics have demonstrated how brands can use familiar pop culture references to explain complex topics in fresh ways, helping educational content reach audiences that might never actively search for it.

Whether people discovered the campaign because they follow football, enjoy internet memes or simply wanted a laugh, many came away with a better understanding of the menstrual cycle.

As reactions continue to pour in across social media, Hiya Healthcare's creative marketing approach has become another example of how humour and education can work together to start conversations about women's health that might otherwise never happen.