TWENTY-six year-old blogger, Kiran Gandhi, has become an internet sensation after revealing she ran this year’s London Marathon without any sanitary protection in a bid to end the stigma surrounding women’s periods.

The Harvard University graduate, who recently toured for M. I. A ran the 41.195km alongside two of her closest friends, overcoming cramps to complete the course in four hours and 49 minutes.

In a blog entry titled ‘Sisterhoodm, blood and boobs at the London Marathon’, Gandhi explains getting her period the night before the famous race, she contemplated pulling out.

Instead she chose to make a statement.

media_camera Gandhi said she had the support of her family media_camera Gandhi after completing the marathon

“If there’s one way to transcend oppression, it’s to run a marathon in whatever way you want,” she wrote.

“Where the stigma of a woman’s period is irrelevant, and we can rewrite the rules as we choose.

“I ran the whole marathon with my period blood running down my legs.”

Gandhi, who was dressed in pink in order to raise awareness for breast cancer, said the experience had left her feeling empowered.

“I felt kind of like, Yeah! F--- you!,” she said. “I felt very empowered by that. I did.”

The blog post also shares a number of photos talent throughout the course of the day.

Gandhi finished her post by saying she had run the race “for sisters who don’t have access to tampons and sisters who, despite cramping and pain, hide it away and pretend like it doesn’t exist.

“I ran to say, it does exist, and we overcome it every day.”

In an interview with Cosmopolitan Magazine, Gandhi said there was one moment on the 14th kilometre that she started to feel awkward as she was moments away from seeing her father and brother at a breast cancer cheer point.

media_camera Gandhi and her friend during the race

“I don’t want them to feel awkward,” she said. “I don’t want it to be a thing.

“Your dad and brother are different than an audience of people you don’t know. But with them, I remember trying to pull my shirt down and they didn’t give an eff.

“They did not care. They just scooped me up into their arms. It was a super-wonderful moment. That really was a turning point for me as well. It made me emotional.”

And in terms of dealing with the increased interest in her now she’s written the blog?

“I feel grateful that so many people get it. That’s the biggest thing. Men and women alike, they get it. People are remembering that women have this thing that they have to deal with every month, they act like they aren’t in pain when they are. That’s a big f**king deal.

“If men had their period, because we are in a male-privileging society, rules would be written into the workplace, rules would be written into the social fabric that enable men to take a moment when they need to or enable people to talk about their periods openly.”