Calendar and “facepalm” emoji, stand down: a dedicated "period emoji” will be included in the next emoji keyboard update, it was announced on Wednesday.

The new "period" emoji may just be a drop of blood. Credit:Twitter/Plan International UK

The period emoji, which appears as a drop of blood, is one of 59 new symbols just announced by Unicode as part of the 12.0 emoji keyboard, expected to roll out later this month.

It comes following an online petition organised by the UK arm of humanitarian group Plan International in 2017 calling for a period emoji, which amassed close to 55,000 signatures.

The campaign began following a Plan International survey which found 48 per cent of UK women aged between 14 and 21 were "embarrassed" by their periods.