To feel gross about period flood

[happysnappysandwich]

I never even knew that actually happened. Leaked all over a meeting room chair during a conference. Managed to leave during meeting (thank goodness for black trousers) and engineered it so I was the last one in the room so I could clean up the mess. I'm mortified. Think a colleague may have noticed too 🙄.
Please tell me I am not the only one this has happened to, I feel awful

When I was 8 months pregnant and about to go on maternity leave, I had to make a big presentation to a couple of the Partners in my firm. I had a panty liner in as there was a lot going on down there. I had the panty liner in when I walked into the meeting and at some point in my half hour presentation, while I was standing up the front in front of the white board, it slipped out on to the floor. Neither of the 50 year plus male partners told me and I didn't notice until I finished the presentation. I have never felt such mortification. There it was, just lying on the floor. I wanted the earth to swallow me up.

Why aren't there special blood removing wipes! I would buy some if there were, just for these emergencies.
You can really see why black jeans and tunic tops are so popular can't you.

@EmMcK 😲😲😲😲 omg

Black clothes are definite essentials. Hate it when “summer” coincides with my period. Can’t believe everyone has a story. Maybe if we didn’t cover it up it wouldn’t be so embarrassing.

Oh God, every woman has a horror story like this! I had one when I was 12 just after I started my periods. I was at my friend's house sitting on her bed chatting. I got up and I had bled on her duvet. I was so mortified as I explained to her mum, although she was kind about it.
Far worse was the time I was a student teacher on teaching practice in a tough Y5 class in Wales. It happened on the way to the school which was miles from where I was living. I was wearing black trousers and a long beige raincoat. I went to the loo as soon as I arrived at school and found a huge red stain on the lining of the raincoat. though because it was waterproof it hadn't gone through to the outside of the coat. I tied my cardigan round my waist and taught like that all day, keeping my back to the kids as much as possible. I got away with it. As soon as I made it home I stripped off and threw everything in the wash!!

Happened to me but Luckily it was in the room when I went to the Drs about my heavy periods so not too embarrassing. Could have been somewhere a lot wors.

I used to work as a BreastFeeding councillor and was facilitating a class wearing light pink trousers. 9 pregnant women and partners there. I look down and my trousers were no longer pink.... I ended up going to their 15 min break.. jumped into the toilet rinsed out the water and dried them under the drier using a maternity pad.. When I was done with the class i had 1 hour between that class and the next.. (for lunch) I rushed down to gap got some clean trousers and into a small corner shop for some sort of carpet cleaner and a sandwich and managed to be ready for 2nd class on time..

I remember years ago as a teen being out with my mum who struggled with heavy periods approaching menopause. Being a teen, I had no idea how bad it was for her and was quite blasé about the whole thing.

This particular day we were out in London at a tourist type attraction at a show and during intermission began to make our way to the toilets. My mum suddenly got horribly agitated and upset, looking close to tears. We were in a huuuuuge queue for the toilets and she just kept saying I need to get in the toilet over and over, eventually instructing me to get someone to assist.

I found a security guard who basically escorted us along the whole queue so Mum could go in the toilet. It wasn't until she was in there and I was idly waiting for her that I noticed a constant evenly spaced trail of blood drips down the whole length of the line where we had walked.

She was in the cubicle ages (there were loads) and came out in a whole different outfit and then had to use paper towels to clean the blood off her shoes. She had brought an entire change of clothes with her, that's how bad it was for her.

I gained a new-found respect/admiration for her that day. She went on to have the mirena fitted which helped her enormously.

As I get older now, my periods are slowly but surely getting heavier and I dread to think how bad it could get based on my mums history!

It's weird, I have lived in the world for 50 years and never seen a woman with a blood stain on her clothes or seat
^
Me neither! I thought I was observant.

Am currently on blood thinners and my periods are like a scan from Carrie, there have been too many flooding incidents to recall them all now!

Blood thinners here, too, and menopausal - 1 and a half days of complete crime scenes in the bathroom and then nothing.

Jesus, uterus, just be chill.

I don't have a story. But if I did I wouldn't share it online..

I did it when I was very junior in a big meeting as I was too nervous to leave part way through to change tampons. Once I knew I had leaked and had the dilemma of staying while it got worse ans trying to be the last one out or trying to leave without it being noticed. Fortunately I had a folder I put straight down on my chair while I went to the loo. I don’t think anyone noticed (or if they did they didn’t say) as I spent the rest of the day in that chair doing quick folder swaps. I managed to be last one in by offering to clean up after the meeting. I spent a good part of that clean-up scrubbing my chair and feeling mortified. Thank god it wasn’t the type of meeting where brainstorming/moving seats etc was encouraged.

Local village fair....was wearing white shorts and was with the whole family! Had an unavoidable 2 mile walk home up a steep hill too!

Was at a very important ballet competition in my youth and it happened to s girl o stage in a tutu. I still feel bad for her all these years later.

I also once witnessed it happen at a dance demo to the lead dancer who was performing a solo routine. Everybody saw it. A huge audience. A nice lady kind of shimmied onto the floor waving around a chiffon throw matador -style which she sort of tried to integrate as part of the choreographed routine. The dancer didn't know what the hell was going on apart from this other woman doing bizarre head jerks.
The scarf was whooshed around her waste and they both bowed off the stage backwards. The whole thing was very surreal!

"But if I did I wouldn't share it online.."

I'm over fretting about whether or not some anonymous freaks get their kicks over online stories of equally anonymous women haemorrhaging. Like, whatever. Bigger things to worry about.

"around her waste"

Nice bit of unfortunate predictive text, there.

My periods started early (10.5). I was completely unprepared for my second one, which started at school.

My teacher noticed, took me to one side, we left the classroom on the pretext of doing some errand, she got a spare towel and some tissues from the staff room and told me to tuck the towel in my knickers and blot my knickers and skirt with the tissue (schools only had hard Izal bog paper in those days).

I used to think of her kindness every time I had a period until my menopause.

How can we de-stigmatise menstrual blood? Would it help if sanpro ads showed actual blood instead of blue liquid (I often wonder if boys grow up thinking we all ooze blue stuff once a month)?

It's ludicrous that in the 21st century, visible evidence of something perfectly natural is such a big deal.

Happened to me at work once as a bank cashier.

Couldn’t get to the toilet as it was too busy. Wearing a skirt and boots. Felt it flood (my periods were so so heavy, and I’d only been wearing a new tampon for an hour!), it went through my skirt onto the chair, I got up to go to the bathroom and it exploded and ran all down my legs into my boots. My skirt was knee length so you could see it all down my legs as well as on the chair!

Had to walk through the banking hall to get to the staff toilets and as I walked, blood splattered off my legs and left a nice trail on the floor!

I had to get a colleague to go buy me some new knickers ASAP and baby wipes to try and clean up. I was only 23 but luckily it didn’t phase me, I figured that working with so many women (and men with wives) most of them would have had a similar experience at one time or another too, it’s just a normal fact of life.

I got cleaned up and came back down to clean the chair while my poor male boss had no idea what to say other than ‘oh my god... are you okay!?’ 😂

Yes been there too in a café.

I will add OP, I think it’s helpful to try and frame it as really no big deal. Half of the population have periods. Amongst that half, there’s a MASSIVE variation in heaviness, flow, regularity. I remember at school wondering if the teacher had got it wrong with their ‘egg cup full of blood each month’ statistic as mine was more like an egg cup every hour (actually the flooding happened to me at school too now I remember it).

It’s inevitable that at some point in most of our lives, all of that blood will escape into public view. Almost all of the women who notice will be feeling solidarity for the times it’s happened to them, and most of the men who notice in my experience will just be feeling a bit concerned and hoping you’re okay.

It’s seen as taboo because it comes from our vagina I guess but it’s really no big deal :)

I pretty much flood every period OP and to make it worse, my periods aren't regular so it's hard to know when it may occur.

My first day at college as a mature student, I was sat down listening to the lecturer, the only female in my class, when I felt it happen. Just like that. There was no way I could stand up so like you I had to wait for everyone to leave. Had to clean up the chair and take off my jumper and tie it round my waist. I immediately went home but I was completely mortified.

A lot of the females in my family suffer horrendous periods. My mum in particular.

Happened to me and showed through on my skirt . I had to tie my cardigan round my waist to hide it, which looked frankly odd in the office, but less embarrassing than two patches of blood. I am thankful daily for my hysterectomy.