Your first period...?

It was just before I turned 11. My parents were holding this film night of old film they’d taken - on those old cameras back in the day (I sound ancient!) and I’d gone to have a bath before everyone turned up. There it was. My mum gave me a huge pad that felt like a pillow in my pants and I felt utterly self-conscious the whole evening, as if everyone would know.

Oh my goodness...some guys would pay to read this thread.

Thankfully my mother was always open with me, she used to be a nurse so everything to with the body was perfectly natural. I didn't tell her, I helped myself to what I needed but she noticed and mentioned it.

FWR is not a woman only space. There are so many antagonistic posters on the board now, I no longer want to post about this kind of issue.

I know what you mean. You don't want to be wank fodder for some vile lurker or to provoke a narc rage of exclusion from the MRAs.

On the other hand, though, this type of thread is at least generally left alone for women to talk to other women without supervision, accusation or interruption, so I like them.

(Hope I haven't tempted fate there.)

The girls in my class discussed who had started and who hadn't and we listened avidly to the one girl who had started quite early telling us all about it.

LOL! We also did that! And I went to a girls school so we could have these conversations sitting in the classroom with no boys to take the piss or be embarrassed in front of.

I was almost fifteen when mine started so I had had my mum, my aunties, my older cousins and all my school friends recounting a wide variety of experience. I was prepared for anything!

When my first period eventually did come, it was such an anticlimax. A bit of what looked like very dark red snot maybe twice a day and all over and done with in three days. You are (I was) stupid when you are (I was) young and I felt quite cheated that I couldn't really create any drama out of it.

I was quite late stating mine (15) most of my friends had been having theirs for a while so I pretty much knew what to expect. All I can remember is going to the loo and seeing blood on my knickers, telling my Mum and her giving me some tampax slender for teen girls. They were a bugger to start with, soon got used to them, but quickly realised how completely ineffective they were as leaked constantly!

Mine was light and mysterious (that changed pretty quickly)

When I told Dm she said ‘are you sure it’s not ribena’!?!

It still makes me laugh. What did she think I was doing?!!

FWR is not a woman only space. There are so many antagonistic posters on the board now, I no longer want to post about this kind of issue.

I was nearly 14 and I had been checking my knickers for the best part of a year waiting for it to happen. Typically when I did get my first period it was in the middle of the night and I woke up to a scene from a horror film. My mum had already given me some pads and I knew what to do. She gave me a hug when I told her.

My step mother on the other hand was going through a really right on hippy phase and gave me a mooncup. That was excruciating! It put me off using menstrual cups for a good ten years.

I was 9, we’d just had year 4 sex education at school so I knew what was happenening.

Saw blood, told my mum, she rushed to chemist to buy me some pads and all was well.

We’ve always been quite open about periods so I knew it wasn’t something to hide or be ashamed about

I was 11 and on holiday, in the summer before starting secondary school. The blood was brown so I thought I'd had an accident - washed my pants in the sink so that nobody knew. Of course I had the same problem later that day, so I told my mother, scared that there was something wrong with me, and she asked to see my pants, told me what it was and gave me some pads.

That was fine. What made it feel shameful was that she told her best friend about it in front of me and the friend's reaction was something like 'Really? My (same-age) daughter would never tell me about something like that or let me see - she's too grown-up for me to see her naked.' Not that I had been 'naked' anyway, but it made me feel as if I'd dealt with it completely wrong.

I also got told off in front of others for trying to discreetly put the (well-wrapped) used pads in the bin while we were staying with her friend. Apparently the thing to do is save them up and take them all home in your suitcase to put in your own bin. Even if your host is both female and aware that you're 11 and having your period.

I was 12, on Christmas Eve.
No gentle start for me, I was in pain the whole day and started bleeding in the afternoon. Christmas day was horrible as it was very heavy.
Thus it continued until I was eventually put on the pill.

I was also 14. Got mine on Xmas day. I was so relieved as I felt like such a freak late starter. It was totally untraumatic, probably because I was older so mentally more prepared.
Worry a bit about my 12 yo who is showing no signs of puberty yet and getting teased by her friends.
Had enough of the flipping things now though and keep telling DD she will get bored of it pretty quickly when they do show up

I was 16, nearly 17 so it was long awaited. My mum made me go to the dr when I turned 16 and I had the most excruciating lecture from him about how a period was the “weeping of a disappointed womb”. I finally started after a sleepover at a friends. Mum was out when I got home and I was asleep when she got back. She woke me up to ask why I hadn’t told her.., er I was asleep Mum! The relief of being normal wore off very quickly

Has anyone read Artichoke Hearts, by Sita Brahmachari? It's a wonderful book, with a storyline that includes the main character getting her first period, staining a special piece of clothing. Her grandmother is a feisty left-wing feminist activist & artist. Can't recommend it enough, for adolescent girls (and boys) and for mothers!

Review here (sorry I don't know how to do clicky links on the app):

www.google.co.uk/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/books/2011/feb/26/artichoke-hearts-sita-brahmachari-childrens-review

nice to read about

It's actually nice read about other older starters. I was 14 and later than all my friends by quite a considerable time.

I was tall but incredibly skinny, so that probably didn't help. I was also a late developer, figure wise never got decent boobs! and I felt like a freak, so I was so happy when my first period finally arrived.

Little did I know what was to come...

They can feck right off now, thank you very much!!

I woke up to blood in my knickers.
I knew what was happening because I’d recently had Sex Ed at school...but sex, periods, puberty etc was something that just didn’t get spoken about in my house.
I was absolutely mortified and did not want to have to tell my mum. So off I went to my older sister’s bedroom and told her instead. She gave me pads, and went and told my mum.
I came home from school and there were packs of pads in the bathroom. It was never spoken about again.
I had just turned 13.
I’ll be sure to do the exact opposite when my dd gets to that time in her life.

her cracking up at the idea of cows wearing sanitary pads

Our female pet rabbit used to do orange wees sometimes, and when I found out about periods I assumed it was that.

I was 14 and a half by the time mine arrived. All my friends had already started and I felt left behind! We had had the Tampax lady talk in Year 6, and I’d been carrying that little pack of emergency supplies in my bag ever since.

I was thrilled when I saw that my period had arrived. Was less thrilled a couple of hours later when some cramps were kicking in!

As I was a lateish starter, I expected similar for my DD. She surprised my by starting just after her 12th birthday.

I was at school waiting for my sister to finish a after school club. Went to the loo and found a little bit of brown stuff. Thank goodness the school was empty I panicked and cried a bit but I told my mum when I got home and her and my sister were very supportive I was 14 1/2 when I started so it will be interesting to see if the rule follows that daughters start at a similar age to their mums.

Mine was highly anticipated because I was 17. I had been waiting to get my period for YEARS and was the absolute last person in my school year and group of friends to get it.

I went through delayed puberty due to malnutrition (undiagnosed coeliac disease as I eventually found out) and the resulting anaemia meant I didn’t menstruate. When it finally arrived - very light, brown-ish flow - I just felt this huge sense of relief that I wasn’t a total freak of nature and might be vaguely normal after all.

My mother and I had had ‘the talk’ when I was about 13-14. My chief memory of that is me asking her whether other mammals get periods too (I was one of those 1 million questions kind of kids) and her cracking up at the idea of cows wearing sanitary pads

I just remember being in that avocado bathroom,

sums up most of my teenage years!

On the school French trip. Aged 12 years and 4 months! Lovely teachers helped me wash my knickers. Had no idea what to do. My daughter was 12 years and 2 months, so often true it can be related to your mother's age. Her experience, equipped with those teen pad and tampons, YouTube videos about periods, pads and tampons was very different to mine.

I was in the 4th year (Y10 in new money) in an all girls school. It was only me and 1 other girl left in the class. God the relief of not being the actual last. I may not have been very considerate to Chris.

I did a lot of swimming as a teenager. Was at training and was sitting on a white diving block. When I got up there was blood all over it and me. A girl 3 years older than me spied it just as I did. I was horrified and could feel myself beginning to cry. She grabbed me, took me to the shower, helped me get sanitary pads from the vending machine and was so kind I've never forgotten her. Went home and told Mum who to be fair had prepared me for it, just not at the pool!