Half a century since my first period ... what changes do you remember?

[JFDIYOLO]

Unlike some I was all primed for what would be happening soon - Mum (now 85), a former nurse, had given me a book called Peter and Pamela Grow Up and explained it.

I announced it proudly coming down the stairs and was promptly given the white elastic belt and a huge cotton wool hammock to hang from it ...

Later she said her mum hadn't warned her and she thought she was dying. She remembered the grim business of secretly washing folded cloths in a bucket so grandad wouldn't notice. When she started using tampons in the early 60s her mum reacted as if she'd 'gone on the game.' I'm so grateful she prepared me.

I soon graduated to the press on pads which mum hadn't much knowledge of since she'd had a hysterectomy and her familiarity with those supplies stalled there.

There was a brand called Vespre in an orange cardboard box that I particularly liked - each pad came pre-bunched to fit your contours instead of having to get bunched. So much more comfortable, but I don't think they're around now.

There was a horrifying incinerator with the Bunnie logo in the girls toilets at school - the sound of hell bursting out everytime you used it. Mum always called pads Bunnies.

I was late to tampons; 18, a virgin and at uni. I remember buying KY jelly because I was so scared of putting them in. The first time I had to steel myself and lay on my bed feeling I'd ACHIEVED something.

Those plastic applicator ones ... With the sharp teeth ... I mean, what?!!!

We were all terrified of toxic shock syndrome, read about it in Jackie magazine and probably accounted for me starting them late.

Menopause finally freed me from it ten years ago, I never got to the moon cup and I don't think I would ever trust period pants ...

What are your memories?

I liked my bodyform pads with a 'hump' where it was more absorbant. And in those days you could rip in half and flush away as they didn't contain plastics. I used tampons from a young age although I hated the cardboard applicators as they got slippy and then you couldn't grip them properly.

I'm 52 now and unfortunately still getting periods (that I started age 11).

I started at 12 and knew what was going on because of school. My mum never mentioned them to me and I would use rolled up toilet paper until I got a job and bought tampons.

I'm 52 now and think I've been peri and possibly menopausal for years.

Off topic but related - does anyone remember when home pregnancy tests were like a little chemistry kit with a test tube and chemicals to mix?

That was 1991!

On periods - I remember a book called Have You Started Yet which all the girls were obsessed with circa 1982, and yes, thought using tampons would definitely lead to Toxic Shock Syndrome.