First Periods Stories

Jul 17 04:35 UTC 1998

Yep! I'd say it's something that most women do not forget. Did you know it was
coming, or were you shocked? Do you think it is something to be celebrated, or
dreaded? 

response 2 of 47:

Jul 17 07:46 UTC 1998

Well, I WAS in school...fifth hour gym class and I was 13 years old.  I was
a freshman, so lots of my friends had theirs already.  I had to go to the
bathroom and couldn't figure out why my underwear felt damper than usual. 
I looked down and sorta did that "HUH?"  I recognized what it was, but it was
disbelief I guess.  I went back out after putting a wad of toilet paper in
my underwear and got my friend Angela.  She didn't have anything, so I asked
my gym teacher for a pad.  I took care of it, freaked out the rest of the
afternoon (what if it leaks?  what if it shows? etc).  I told my Mom that
night, dreading her crying in happiness, which she didn't - thankfully.  She
bought me some pads and gave me some tips.  =)

response 4 of 47:

Jul 17 20:59 UTC 1998

Of course! How Carrie-like (if you saw the movie or read the book, you know
what I'm talking about). I had some friends who thought they were going to
bleed to death, or thought it was some weird deviation of diarrhea.

response 6 of 47:

Jul 18 18:32 UTC 1998

My grandma thought she was bleeding to death since her Mom hadn't told her
about it, and my mother started when she was nine.  Ugh.  I had to use one of
those awful belt/pad contraptions when I was in the hospital...yuck!  I'm so
glad things are simpler now.  I never would have been able to do it.

response 8 of 47:

Jul 19 14:30 UTC 1998

Yeah, 8 or 9 *is* quite young.  My mother was 17 and that's why she was
completely unprepared for my menarche, I think.  (I must have gotten it from
my Dad's side of the family.  Not unlikely, I look just like them.)

Oh, you can get the belt and pad thing -- in hospitals.  They've given them
to me after I miscarried and presumably they also give them after you bear
a child.

As to whether you can wear them under pants -- sure.  They sling around your
hips just under the panty line and while they're bulky and might not fit under
the "sprayed on" look, they'd be wearable (if noticeable) under more average
fit pants and no one would know the fifference under the "hiphop" look.

response 10 of 47:

Jul 20 00:46 UTC 1998

I don't remember how old I was when the explanatory booklets around the house
first came to my notice; I just know that when they talked about it in
7th grade I had read about it already, just not experienced it. There was
some special occasion (don't remember what) when as part of the dressing up,
my mother brought me a pad & belt to wear "just in case" (somebody told me
how to wear it, either Mother or one of my older sisters).  The odd thing
is that I seriously didn't know what color to expect, I'd missed that detail!  

The first period finally came about a month before my 13th birthday, toward
the end of July;  Mother said something quietly to my *big* sister (6 years 
older) about my having "joined the sisterhood", and I thought "this isn't 
so bad!" while doing calculations about how many times in my life it would
happen -- then I didn't have another period for six months, and was rather
disappointed.

response 12 of 47:

Jul 24 18:06 UTC 1998

i was in 6th grade, i had just turned 11. i was a 'b' or 'c' cup...
<mom always bought me 'b' cups, because that was what she
bought for herself..  but they were very il-fitting>
anyway, i was in school and didnt notice until lunch.
i wasnt quite sure  if it was my period.
i remembered once as a small kid beint in the bathroom with my mom
and asking her about the pad she had on.  she said it
was "minnistration" and that was that.
she never had 'the talk' with me. the school hadnt yet gotten around
to showing any of those movies. i dont think they would
have helped, as they were very cryptic anyway.
i went to my best friend, and then she helped me ask the
teacher. i thought i was going to get into trouble.
but the teacher just grinned and took me to the
restroom and handed me a pad. no instructions on how to use it. 
i couldnt figure out how to use it, until i noticed a safety pin in
the wrapper.
it felt HUGE!!! i was worried that someone else would notice.

when i got home that day, i nervously told my mom. she dug out
one of those belts, and showed me how to hook a pad onto it.
i hated it, and my cramps were horrendous.

mom had a lot of opportunities to tell me abuot it beforehand. once 
while carrying in groceries, i picked up a huge box of them. i
thought they were huge kleenexes, and ran in the house to show them
off to my brothers. i got yelled at, and mom quickly shoved them under
her bed and said they werent kleenexes, but refused to tell
me anything more, except that they were "private"

mom always kept them hidden under her bed. she even had a small
bag to dispose of them <*now* i think that was gross>. she'd hoard
all the dirty ones until the bag was full, then on trash day they
wuold go out with the other garbage in plastic bags. never once
did she throw them away in the bathroom, not even rolled up with
toilet paper.

my brothers didnt really know about periods, i overheard them discussing
it <one brother was 24> and all he knew was that it "made women
go to the bathroom more".
odd family. ;-/

response 14 of 47:

Jul 26 17:52 UTC 1998

I was very late in starting -- so when I finally did, it was a relief.
Though it was kind of funny, because I had just gotten strep throat, and
I wsa sick as a dog, and then I start getting cramps, and so there I am
watching "Mutiny on the Bounty" (the one with Marlon Brando) late 
at night in the family living room, and bing-o. It started. 

Rhiannon was late starting as well, but we had already had the talks, 
etc. and she knew it was due to start around Christmas after we'd
spoken about this to the pediatrician, and wehen she did, I made 
sure we had a cake and ice cream that night just to celebrate.

response 16 of 47:

Aug 1 23:02 UTC 1998

Yeah I guess some look at it as just another thing in life. Which is perfectly
ok. I just hate the stigma associated to it. Isabella Rossellini wrote in her
autobiography about how when she was in her early teens, she decided she wanted
to be a man. When she got her period, people said things to her like "now that
you're a young lady, you have to be careful of men", and it was said with this
grave look that made her think there would be some horrible, unspeakable fate
awaiting her. 

response 20 of 47:

Aug 5 03:01 UTC 1998

I was 14 and at a bus station with my mother the first period, but I don't
recall much more, I must have known something before it happened.  No fuss
was made, it did not seem important in either a good or bad way.  Our schools
did not teach anything about health.  There was supposed to be a health class
in 10th grade but I switched schools just before tenth grade, and we never
had any health classes at the new school either.  My total formal sex
education consisted of a book left in our college mailboxes freshman year.
Are boys now taught anything about periods, or girls about wet dreams?

response 22 of 47:

Aug 11 02:55 UTC 1998

Our classes were split too, but my mother told me what happens to boys when
I asked her.  As for sex, I learned that from a great book she bought for me,
then she answered any questions I had.