TW: Menstruation

My first period happened when I had just turned 10. Nobody had taught me anything about menstruation; I literally knew nothing about it. I was taking this tae-kwon-do class that was in the cafeteria after school and I felt like something was moving around and exploding in my stomach, if that even makes sense! When I got home, I noticed blood in my undies. I thought something really bad was happening, and I was too afraid to tell anyone, so I didn’t. I just let myself bleed. I may have stuffed some toilet paper in my undies, but I can’t remember. I had to go swimming in gym class the next day, and I was horrified. Afterwards, I had blood in my swimsuit. I was afraid someone had noticed, but nobody said anything. I remember going to a friend’s house and watching a movie or something and being afraid I was going to bleed on his couch.

A couple days after I’d started bleeding, my mom came into school during lunch. She said she had gone to do my laundry and noticed blood in my underwear, so she brought me a pad, took me to the bathroom, and explained things briefly. Apparently, she had run into my teacher in the hallway and told her about me, so I was completely embarrassed! And I was wearing this huge pad and I had on leggings because that’s all you can wear when you’re a fat 10-year-old. I was afraid people would see the outline of my pad through the leggings.

I think my mom explained things better when I got home from school, and I remember her buying me a couple of those “What’s Happening to my Body?” type of books. I went back to my friend’s house a few days later and he said something about how his mom wasn’t feeling good because she was on her period, and I was thinking, “WHAT. How does he know about periods and I didn’t?” It really blew my mind. Children really should be taught about their bodies at an earlier age. I’m sure so many of us would have benefited from knowing about menstruation at, like, 6 or 7 years old. We need to know what periods are, so that we aren’t completely terrified when we get them.

submitted by: amoebapudding