To not know how old I was when I got my first period?

[Talismania]

I have a new GP and I was asked this at my first appointment. I remember what house I lived in at the time so could say it was sometime between the ages of 10 and 15, but beyond that I have no idea. GP was surprised. Is this something most women remember?

They ask you when you get pregnant at your booking in appointment. I have to confess I did have to guess. I think I was probably 11 because I was already at 'big' school, but only just.

I do however remember exactly what I was wearing (pink stripy minnie mouse night shirt) and that it was a saturday morning because mum and dad were out at the supermarket at the time!!

Strange thing for a doctor to ask. Pervert!

plumping sounds like the daily mail head line.

Getting heartily sick of stupid research that frightens women crap like so if you use deoderent you have a teeny tiny chance of getting breast cancer. Yes so we will all smell then! Ffs!!!

Oh dear bad mood. I was 14 and on my first date! Mom gave me a sanitary belt ffs and pads bigger than I needed post giving birth.

She was crap at that sort of stuff.

Obviously pervert was a joke!

I don't know exactly, you aren't alone, OP. I was either 14 or 15 but I certainly couldn't put a month on it.

The only reason I remember exactly when mine started is the big fuss my mum made.

She kept me off school and phoned round all of her friends to tell them I had become a woman

I was 13 so would have been 1986. Being the 80s I was wearing a white skirt. Had walked home from a friends house then dad noticed the big patch of blood on the back of my skirt :(

I get your point happybunny but unfortunately the link is pretty well-established between early menarche and breast cancer/heart disease etc.

I think the problem creeps in when the media tries and fails to convey the scientific message accurately: that you are at a slightly increased risk of whatever, but that it's not an actual death sentence. Many people get scared/confused and then, when they don't die of BC, decide it was all a pile of rubbish. It wasn't rubbish, they just beat the odds.

BTW my mum's entire discussion of my entry into womanhood went:

"Errr. Right. Umm..... here are some big pants and a sanitary towel - it goes in your pants. Yes, there. This'll happen every month. Now get back to your revision."

Nurturing

She made me talk to my sister about it when DSis got hers because DM was too embarrassed

I was 13 and on holiday with my mom and my sister. I remember popping to the loo and just seeing it there I shoved some tissue roll in my underwear and then went to my sister and whispered, "I've started."

Where I lived the word 'started' always referred to starting your period AIBU to think that some people spout out such utter, made up garbage in order to try and make a point?

I've posted a few times about my DH not wanting DC2 but that's an aside from this post.

When I was at work yesterday my colleagues were doing the usual, "When are you going to have another?" to which I replied I most likely wasn't as DH wasn't keen.

I then had to listen to three people sit there and tell me how incredibly cruel it is to only have one child and then one lady even said that in her culture it's actually considered to be child abuse to not provide siblings. I'm pretty sure that's 100% bollocks and she was just saying it to back up her stupid views.

Then one of them started talking about an adult 'only' who'd been left psychologically scarred as a result of being an only child as apparently the parents were so suffocating of her and always talking to her because there wasn't another child to talk to?! WTF. According to this 'tale' the child had never been allowed to develop or become independent as a result of her parents decision to only have one child and the damage could never be repaired....

I then had to listen to lots of, "I'd hate to be an only child..." said with complete disdain at the thought of such 'hell' being forced upon a child.

They continued with their horror stories and anecdotes about the 'only child they know who is unhappy/sad/lonely etc etc' - all of which I'm sure were either fictitious or very embellished with the sole purpose to guilt me.

I then said that actually my DH's concerns about having another baby were based around my health problems (of which they know about) and then surprise, surprise, they all back tracked. "Well that's different then isn't it..." they all chorused.

So apparently, as long as there's a health reason for not having a second child then it means the parents aren't cruel abusers and their anecdotes no longer apply

I guess their opinions and stories only stretch to the parents who choose to not have another child for the perfectly fine reason that they are happy with just one.

The whole conversation was just ridiculous. Do people really not engage their brains when they speak sometimes?!

After that I had to listen to them tell me how I should 'accidentally' get pregnant behind DH's back as sometimes "men just need a push in the right direction."

I told them that if in future I needed moral advice they'd be the last people I'd turn to.

Where I was from the word 'started' was always in reference to getting your first period.

It took me three days to find the courage to tell my mom and even then I couldn't tell her face to face. I went into the bathroom and shouted it out to her

Ooh dear, my post seems to have gone weird!!

Writer, I think you meant to start another thread there!!

I know I was one of the last in my group, I was 14.

I was 13 and on holiday with my mom and my sister. I remember popping to the loo and just seeing it there I shoved some tissue roll in my underwear and then went to my sister and whispered, "I've started."

Where I was from the word 'started' was always in reference to getting your first period.

It took me three days to find the courage to tell my mom and even then I couldn't tell her face to face. I went into the bathroom and shouted it out to her

plumping - all that stuff about only children is from a thread I had running last week. I have no idea why it has suddenly appeared,

Jyst been googling and early menarcheis also associated with increased incidence of heart disease in older women. Oh, goody. According to wiki it can also begin earlier if you live in a high-conflict household (tick), were obese as a child (tick), had low levels of childhood exercise (tick), were exposed to smoking (tick) and weren't breastfed (tick). It's like they filmed us!!

Surely it is those factors - obesity, lack of exercise, passive smoking etc that contribute to the heart disease, rather than the early menarche?

I remember everything about it in great detail. The cramps, it lasted about 2 weeks.
Yuck

I was 14, February 6th 1986.

I told my mum, and she said:

"Oh, l've got some cotton wool in the bathroom... "

I spent all my time sending off for samples from the companies, to have something to use.

Lots of little brown packages.

I'm so old, l even had a belt once!

I've no idea why my mum didn't help/provide sanitary protection?

Maybe she thought it would never happen?

I remember because I was in year 6, age 10. Too young really.
Strange that your GP asked you though.

I was in the last year of primary so 10 or 11. I was really really unhappy about starting that young, I didn't feel ready to "become a women" as the leaflet I had on the subject put it, I just wanted to be a Tom boy and climb trees with my friends. I somehow thought once I'd started I had to become a different person.

I know when I Started, down to the exact week, though not day I was on a school trip abroad, and for some reason was too embarrassed to tell any friends so went alone and tried to buy sanitary pads but of course bought panty lines instead I can pinpoint it to a week because I remember when we were away, it was the anniversary of something significant so I know it was around that date. I was 13.5. I am hoping this means my daughter will on the later side too? She has ASD so I dread the day to be honest.

Someone above said they were asked at booking - I have three children and was never asked and I am training to be a mw and have done many bookings and we don't ask in my area. It is of no significance to pregnancy. Even if it links to other illnesses, no extra screening would be done on the basis of that information so I can only imagine it is a statistical thing - that its being collected for research purposes.

It was on my mum's birthday, two weeks before I turned 13.

missduke apparently not. There can be many factors.
I don't think many people really get the point of medical research. New information is being gained all the time. Personally I think it's very interesting but some people just seem to dismiss it out of hand.

Sorry missduke ,just cross posted with you.

I have no idea; I have absolutely no recollection of it happening. Now I feel a bit left out that everyone has such clear memories of it.

Just found out there may be a possible link between early menarche and increased risk of diabetes 2 ,as well.
I do remember being told that early menarche was also related to late menopause ,and we already know that the age of menopause can have health implications.