TW: my first period experience
I’d just turned 12, and I’d been having cramps for days. My mum kept saying, ‘oooh, you’re probably going to start your period soon.’ But I didn’t believe her…I didn’t WANT to believe her. The thought of periods grossed me out. I remember learning about them and thinking 'Eeewww…blood is going to come out of my WHAT?! Every month? Pain?!!’ I was in school, and went to the toilet at break. Lo and behold…there, on my favourite white knickers was a HUGE spot of bright red. I didn’t know what to do. I remember standing in the stall and shaking slightly. I walked out to where my friend was waiting and asked her what to do (she’d had her first period a year earlier so she was practically an expert in my eyes!). We decided to go see my form tutor because I was pretty shaken up. I went and timidly said, 'Erm…I just started my period.’ She looked at me and asked, 'oh, what do you normally use? Tampons or pads? There are dispensing machines down in the toilets.’ I looked at her with wide eyes, on the verge of tears and explained that it was my first time. She was really sympathetic and she told my friend to help me out. She said that it’d take some time getting used to the feeling of having a pad on, so she told me to take as much time as I’d need to adjust and went to tell our male maths teacher that we’d be late because we were doing a job for her. At that moment, she was my favourite teacher! We went back down to the loos and my friend stood outside telling me how to make sure it’s properly stuck on, and how to dispose of it. Even though she’s moved away and we don’t keep in contact, I think I’ll always remember her. I guess sharing periods creates a bond. (actually, from then onwards, we were always on our periods at the same time!) I got home, and grumpily told my mum what had happened. She looked thrilled because I’d 'become a woman’. That evening we went to watch a film with my aunts and all of them would just keep staring and smiling proudly at me. There I was, in pain that I’d never experienced before, and a load of blood gushing out of me, and they were happy about it! I was not amused in the slightest… I’m glad I’m over that initial fear now. I don’t mind having them. Sure, it’s painful sometimes, but it’s natural. And it’s great living in an all female household (mum and aunt) cause we all get our periods at the same time. We have packs of pads flying around all over the place, we can share our problems that month, and we’ll sit together and indulge on chocolate while watching a good movie (just like we did tonight!) It’s great for bonding! And then…there are those times when hormones are running high. Both my mother and I get quite grumpy and vicious, so we’ll end up at each others tbroats, you wouldn’t want to get caught in the middle of that!
submitted by: mytwopenniesworth
9:55 pm • 1 August 2011
Catching the Crimson Wave tw:menstruation
I remember having odd reddish-brownish discharge about a week prior to finally getting my period. It was spring of 5th grade, my Godmother was in town from Texas. I remember running into the bathroom because I felt wet between my legs, almost sticky. I pull down my panties and sure enough I was leaking full on, and I freaked out. I let out a little scream and my mother came running in and saw, but to the opposite of my horror she smiled and told me she’d teach me everything I needed to know. After I cleaned up she took me to see my Godmother where she announced the big news, lots of hugging and “Welcoming” me into ‘Womynhood’ (although I realized later on how biased she was raised and taught me that only womyn have periods etc. but that’s another story) We picked up an unnecessary amount of Pads, Tampons and the like, I rejected the tampons because they hurt and I really was uncomfortable putting them in. Now It’s my favorite weapon of choice.
I think what I remember most that day has very little to do with my period, but in memory of my Godmother. That was the last time I saw her,after that week of visitation she went back to Texas, and I didn’t see her for about 8 years. My mother and her were estranged but at the time I didn’t understand why, I often expressed my unhappiness of the situation. She called a few months ago, for the first time in 8 years to tell us what happened.
Her then husband abused her. He cut her off from all her friends, family, co workers. She was forced to stay at home and do “proper housewife” chores while he pretended that she didn't exist. He beat her, abuse physical, verbal and emotional were there prior to her disconnect with us and continued on until she finally escaped him with their son one night, planning out for months where they would go, saving money, packing ( he thought she was spring cleaning and didn’t think much of it) she ran away to a women's shelter, contacted the police and stayed at the shelter for 3 months until she felt safe enough to move into an undisclosed location with her son. Currently she is going through legal battles and trying to maintain custody of their son, only time will tell how this plays out.
Although a bit unrelated to my period, it is a strong memory I attach to that day, because it was the day where one of the most important womyn in my life was taken from me, from us and forced to endure this abuse by her spouse. She taught me a lot and I will always appreciate that.
submitted by: bigassfemme
9:41 pm • 1 August 2011
TW: Blood, Menstruation
I was twelve and I was visiting my half-sister in California for the very first time. I was also visiting her grandma during the trip, a woman I had never met before. I had been feeling pretty rank all day, but I figured it was the marked difference in air quality between the states, too much excitement, and took much junk food.
I got to sleep in one of my half-sister’s grandma’s huge guestrooms, with its own bathroom and everything. I finally fell into a fitful sleep. I woke up around midnight covered in blood.
I freaked. I called for my sister in the room across the hall. She came over, saw what was going on, and explained what the hell was happening to me. Of course I was mortified; I’d ruined the sheets in that wonderful old room, ruined my nightclothes, and woke everyone (including my infant nephew)–all in the home of someone I’d only met a couple of hours previously.
But my half-sister and her grandma were both really understanding. We even called my mom and she was so happy for me that it eased the humiliation a bit. My sister also bought me a new nightgown, so that helped too.
Now I have erratic, heavy, tiring periods, but none so surprising or upsetting as that one.
submitted by: sailormuse
9:38 pm • 1 August 2011
Tw: I derped
I was in 6th grade and I woke up that morning tired and irritable like every other morning. I knew about periods and all that because everyone thought I had gotten it the year before when i sat on ketchup at lunch. But I woke up and as I went to pee I noticed that my underwear was brown. See, it would have been red, but I had these orange boxershorts on. I don’t know why, but I some how did not think it was my period. I reasoned that I must have sat on something the night before or that I had embarrassingly shit myself. So I threw away the underwear in a plastic bag, got in the shower without a second thought and went to school. Through the day I felt fine. Even then as now, I had no issues with cramping.
Like alot of young girls my underwear would get accasionally wet-ish from discharge every now and again, so I didn’t think about it when my panties felt wet.
Having not gone to the bathroom all day and being in a skirt I was not aware of the Niagra Falls that was me. That night I went to a party where blood had trickled down my leg and I finally worked out I had gotten my period.
submitted by: coffeeintherain
9:15 pm • 1 August 2011
My period. tw:menstruation
Okay So I was in 7th grade and I was wearing these polk-a-dot shorts. I felt something weird during algebra but I ignored it. People looked at me weird when school was over and I felt confused but careless. So when I got home to use the restroom I noticed a dark red spot on my underwear, I wasn’t even sure what it was so I just put toilet paper thinking it was temporary. I eventually figured it out I wasn’t sure how to tell my mom but I knew where she kept her pads so I took one. I eventually told her and she bought me some more. For some reason I thought periods only lasted one day and came around the same time so I marked my calender on the 16 of every month. Eventually my mother and I talked about it and I was a little bummed out that it would be unexpected.
submitted by: vaporxtrails
9:07 pm • 1 August 2011
TRIGGER WARNING: MENSTRUATION, BROS.
Reposting my story from feministdykeslut.tumblr.com ’s ask box.
I started my first at my best friend’s house, right after I’d become vegetarian when I was 11. I thought it was a side effect of not eating meat! My friends mom helped me and shit, but when I got home my mom was convinced I’d been molested by my friend’s dad or brother, and wouldn’t believe me, then told me tampons were bad for me.. So I called my older sister and she was like “Don’t worry, mom didn’t tell me about periods before hand either.” because my mother is a bit afraid of everything.. She never gave me the talk, just a book when I started high school called “Sex? What’s that?” that said, and I quote: “It’s okay to have non-Christian friends, but your best friends should be christian.” Yeah.
submitted by: lanoyalandfall
9:06 pm • 1 August 2011
tw: menstruation
sorry if this is too long.
when i was 13 me and my classmates were going to do the maypole at our school that year, which in itself is a coming of age ritual, and i came on the day of ready to dance. i was wearing all white and a flower garland on my head, and as i sat in the back of the car driving into my school, i looked down at my panties. they were bright red. i nearly started crying because i was terrified of the blood staining my dress. i ran into the bathroom and stuffed my underwear with toilet paper. the whole thing made me feel ashamed and awkward and uncomfortable. it wasn’t how i wanted to feel.
two weeks later, i went to the northern california womyn’s herbal symposium with my mom. it’s an all womyn herbal festival, where the womyn are celebrated and so are their bodies and cycles. every year a “maiden ceremony” takes place, where the group celebrates the transition of a young, newly bleeding girl into a womyn. i decided to take part in the ceremony. before it began, me and about 8 other girls met with the high priestess and talked about periods and our bodies. that was where i first learned, at the ripe age of 13, that the word cunt isn’t a bad word. the ceremony started.
we walked down through the camp, to where all the 300 or so women stood waiting. they were singing “we are here to tell you that you’re wonderful and beautiful, we are here to tell you, that we’re always whole. we are here to notice that your loving is a miracle, how deeply you’re connected to our soul.” they had formed a human passageway, and we went down under their arms, as these hundreds of womyn smiled down at us. we got to the center of the circle, and the high priestess began the ceremony. to each of us she cut off a bit of our hair, gave us a red moon necklace, painted a red moon on our forehead, and embraced us.
once the ceremony was over, i walked up the hill to my mom, crying quietly because i was happy that i was bleeding.
submitted by: rebel-grrrl
9:05 pm • 1 August 2011 • 2 notes
TW: menstruation
I was 11 years old, the summer I was going into 5th grade. I was at my dad’s house in the bathroom when I noticed I had brown stuff in my underwear. I didn’t feel anything happen but assumed I had my period, since I would’ve felt it if I pooped my pants… I called my friend on the phone and told her I just got my period. She still didn’t have hers and asked me what it was like. I just told her it was brown and didn’t feel like anything, haha. Then I went to my dad and told him I just got my period.. he didn’t really know what to do. It was about 11 at night and he told me we should go get pads at stop and shop. He didn’t know what to get and they ended up being super large pads, they didn’t even fit in my underwear. It was pretty funny. When I told my mom she told me she got it just as early as I did. It never seemed like a big deal to me until people made it seem so gross in middle school. I would never mention it to people if I had it, but now I don’t care and basically tell anyone if I have my period. Also my cramps got much worse as I got older, and.. it’s not all “brown stuff” anymore.. Haha
submitted by: thepeachtrees
9:02 pm • 1 August 2011
tw:menstruation
I’m a twin, and my sister got hers first, a few weeks before. I just remember sitting in my bathroom upset because I didn’t know how to put a tampon in and it was really embarrassing but my mum and my sister were outside the door telling me what to do and being helpful and lovely.
Then, later that week, my mum took us both out for literally the most expensive meal I have ever had ever in some super posh French restaurant, to celebrate this whole new part of our lives. It was lovely.
submitted by: uswhoresdontneedyou
9:01 pm • 1 August 2011
The Crotch Sniffers tw:menstruation
So,i was 12 years old.I knew what periods were,but i thought i wouldn’t get them until i was 15.i was terrified at the thought of bleeding out of my vagina,because i though everyone would be able to notice.As it turns out,during my twelfth year,me and my mother used to visit my aunt alot,who has 7 chihuahuas,who are all like my babies.One afternoon as we were all sitting outside on her porch,i felt something slippery in between my legs.i figured it was just discharge,so i ignored it.but then more and more started to pour.it felt like there was a faucet turning on and off inside of me.i got scared at that point,and stood up.well when they dogs smelled the blood,they all ran up to me and started sniffing and snapping and barking at my crotch.i started screaming,and i ran,which set them off even more.my aunt told me to calm down and she asked me if i had started my period,and i said no.but sure enough when i went to check myself in the bathroom,the entire crotch area had been soaked in dark brown blood,and there were chunks of uterine lining in my underpants.i fainted.and i am so embarrassed of my first period,that whenever people ask me bout it,i simply tell them i was taking a bath and that i saw clouds of blood emerging from in between my legs.
submitted by: the-feminist-librarian
9:00 pm • 1 August 2011