I will never forget the shopping trip that I took with my Mom when we were searching for my grade 8 Graduation dress. I had my period and I had the worst cramps I had ever experienced. I had already taken some medication for the pain, but it wasn’t doing anything for me. I should have listened better to my body because I ended up passing out on the change room floor because the pain was so intense! We ended up going to see the doctor after that and I was prescribed some special medication that helped me get through the terrible cramps each month.
My parents divorced when I was 11 and my mother moved out of the house. For a while my mother would buy me my monthly “supplies” and drop them off because it was too embarrassing to ask my father.
After a while, my mother said I was on my own to pick up these necessities. In an effort to be sly and avoid any conversation about my needs, I decided to quietly add them to the weekly grocery list for my dad. I wrote “pads” in the middle of the list. I thought for sure I’d be safe. And then the day of shopping came and there my father stood in front of me, list in hand, questioning what I meant by “pads”. Do you mean “sanitary napkins?” Uggghhhh….who says that? I was horrified!! “Yes” I replied, hoping that would be the end. To my dismay, it continued. “So, what do they look like, what color, what size?” It seemed to never end. Wait till he saw some of them had wings!! But once the horror ended, he did his fatherly duty and helped his daughter out, until I made it to high school and mustered the courage to buy them on my own. READ MORE… »
My first period came when I was 11 years old, I was the first of my friends to get my period and I was especially pleased with myself, as the flat-chested girl in a group of girls who had developed early and large, this meant I wasn’t going to be left behind. In fact getting my period first meant to me that I was the first to reach womanhood, my chest may have been flat but I had made up for that with womanly hips and womanly things going on between my hips.
It was after gym class…in the winter the girls changing rooms would flood, so we had to get changed in the gym itself, I distinctly remember suddenly feeling warm and more wet than usual. I knew this had to be my period, so I changed back into my uniform with my back to the wall so no one would see blood on my underwear, and I kept my gym shorts on under my skirt. Between class I nipped to the bathroom, sure enough a big bright-red splodge of blood in my underwear and all over the toilet paper when I wiped. We had lovely bathrooms in that school, but no sanitary product vending machines, and I had no supplies with me, so I wrapped toilet paper round my underwear and went to my last class of the day. READ MORE… »
By Carolyn West
I was 13 and wondering why my cousin who was six months younger than me had already gotten her period. While I was completely terrified of it, I still wondered what was wrong with me for not having it. While I was technically prepared, I knew WHAT was going to happen and I had a box of supplies under my bathroom sink, I was utterly unprepared emotionally. For anything.
At 13 I was still flat as a board. Not even tiny buds where breasts would grow. The only hair on my body was that at the top of my head. I was short for my age, the smallest one in all my classes since kindergarten. I was the only daughter in a house with brothers and a mother who didn’t share very much. I was alone. READ MORE… »
Growing up, I was a swimmer. I took swim lessons in back to back sessions and I eventually became a life guard. I had to learn how to use a tampon rather early on in my period experiences. I didn’t realize how time consuming trying to figure out how to use a tampon would be nor did I ever think that I would want my Mom’s assistance or advice. My Mom left to go out with her friends on the day that I had to figure out how to use one. I was having a swim test that was very important and I could not miss. I spent what seemed like hours upon hours locked up in the bathroom with a mirror and some tampons. My father eventually came upstairs to check on me to see if I was ok. I blushed through the closed door. He obviously couldn’t help me and I could tell that he felt awkward and embarrassed about the READ MORE… »
This is a story that goes back all the way to high school. I was experiencing a heavy flow and I remember I was wearing a regular pad. I did a lot of walking around and sitting during the day and you know what that does to your period right?
It makes your period flow more towards the front than the back so a simple solution for this is to just strategically place your pad closer to the front. This means your pad will cover less area at the back but as long as you know you’re not doing any activity that involves laying down such as sit ups or napping, then you shouldn’t experience any leaks.
Anyways, when I realized that I had leaked, it was already too late. My period had leaked and seeped through my pants and ON TO my jeans!!! And yes you could see it… it was right on my crotch!
When I first got my period, I was 13 years old. I was sitting on my front porch with a close girl friend of mine and we were listening to music together, just hanging out. To be honest, I didn’t actually feel my period come. I noticed that it had arrived when I went to the washroom and yes, it had soaked right through my fashionable skin tight jean shorts that were light denim in color with pink roses painted on them. I felt completely humiliated and embarrassed and I READ MORE… »
Every woman has a story or two about a menstrual accident. Leaking through white shorts – mortifying. Asking a male teacher for an emergency pass to the restroom – humiliating. A little white string hanging out the crotch of your swimsuit – really, really embarrassing. But hearing about these stories is helpful because you can prepare and hopefully avoid having your own accident story. Cramps are another thing. Knowing that someone else had cramps so bad she sweated through her shirt in chemistry class (that was me) or had to lie down while her date, her friend’s date and her friend sat in the living room (me again) can’t help you prepare. Either you’re going to be someone who gets unbearably painful cramps or you’re not. READ MORE… »
By Megan Durham
My mother insisted that tampons were practically a gift from the gods. Pads were like diapers, she said, itchy and immature. I got the distinct impression that real women wore tampons, that this was just another trial that I had to undergo in my quest towards adulthood. Blood wasn’t enough in itself.
So I proudly took the box that she had given me and trotted off to the bathroom where I barricaded myself in. It was such a pretty box, full of directions illustrated with peaceful figures that calmly smiled, frozen in mid-ceremony. It all seemed so simple: unwrap, crouch, insert. Their smiles insisted that this was the easiest thing in the world. The tubes themselves were non-threatening, wrapped in paper decorated with curling script. Shiny and slick unwrapped, I tested one just to see what it was like and marveled at how little pressure was necessary to make the applicator open. I took a deep breath and smiled in the mirror, trying to mimic the look on the models’ faces.
Getting your period for the first time is one of those moments when you remember exactly where you were and what you were doing. I remember this day so vividly because I was looking SO forward to it for a very different reason. I was preparing to leave that afternoon for my first big trip away from my parents. Not only was I going away without them, I was going to a different country on a different continent for an entire month! My Grandparents were already in Ireland waiting for me to arrive and my Aunt was flying with me. I was so mortified that I had to deal with this on my own -I wouldn’t talk to anyone about it. My mom loaded up my luggage with what seemed like every size pad READ MORE… »