Chair period stain at work...

[Sliverofdarkness]

Help, I am freaking out. First day of period, usually it's quite light but I used a night pad as all I had, thought all was fine, I was super busy in work, at my desk all morning and now I pop home for lunch to find blood has leaked right through my trousers, pad is totally soaked. I'm freaking out that the light grey chair I sit on in the office has blood stains on it now. I work with nearly all men so it's obviously me. What can I do?? Or say if there's blood stains on the chair... Has this happened to anyone before? I'm so embarrassed.

Please don’t worry, although understandably you are, but if it’s all men, they may have girlfriends/wives etc so may have a good understanding at how easy this can happen! I just saw a lady maybe 70 in Sainsbury’s wearing a white summer dress with huge stains on the back of it, no one said anything or stared!

It happened to me but I was able to discretely take my chair (actually it was a back-stool) home to clean it. Left it home to dry & borrowed a substitute chair from another department. All done quietly without fanfare. Predominately male office.

Take some Dr Beckman cleaner into work tomorrow & a small cushion to sit on? It’s fabulous stuff. Is that possible??

Can you cover with something for now like a cardigan just to hide it if you need to leave your desk to help if you're feeling embarrassed. Maybe find a friendly female facilities person in your office and let them know so they can clean it or swap the chair out.
Don't be embarrassed, these things happen.

Sounds like you can get changed at home and stock up on pads.

70 What?
Op i know this doesn't help your situation but I always check the chair whem I stand up due to heavy periods. Im sure if it was that bad you would of noticed

Can you discreetly clean the chair? Or spill coffee on it & then clean it?

For next time I recommend period pants combined with your normal sanitary items. It’s a game changer and I never leak now.

70 years of age!

Has the chair got a bloodstain? With the lady in her 70s with possibly blood stains on her dress its unlikely to be s period, I would have told her and offered help especially if it was fresh blood.

Sorry? You think a 70yo woman had period stains on her skirt? Am I just too hot and fuddled today or are you?

Isn’t it terrible that a black marker pen/bottle of hair dye leaked through your bag.

Nobody is having their period at 70 ffs.

MissMoneyFairy, totally understand, but she was with someone, so just assumed that it was all in hand! To be fair, it wasn’t really deep stains! However, I will be more mindful about this in future and offer to help!

I have had leaks through the pad/tampon but I have never had it leak onto furniture so I suspect you will be okay. Even if it has, it will be minor.

When did I say blood??? Ffs

Or spill coffee on it & then clean it?

This is a good idea. Spill something non-embarrassing onto the the chair, and then clean it.

I bet the chair is fine. I imagine the soaking through happened as you got up and moved around.

You didn't specify but we assumed it to be blood as this is a blood/period related thread, no need to swear and be rude.

Happened to me when I was younger and had horrifically heavy periods. They just used to swap my chair and give me a replacement while mine was cleaned. No fuss and never felt embarrassed as it was treated as just one of those things you cant help.

Yeah, sorry for swearing!

^ this is genius

make sure it’s a cold liquid as hot water will set blood in

Get some M&S stain wipes go back and scrub it ( in privacy obv)

I had exactly this last week, though was able to rope in another female staff member to help me out. We have spare chairs so I took the chair to the kitchenette to clean it (said it had melted chocolate on it), then switched it out with a chair from a spare desk and swapped them back at the end of the day. No one questioned it and I’d completely forgotten until I saw this! I’m more confused as to why periods like to throw random curve balls at us

I think you need to be open about this. No woman should be ashamed about her periods. Just say "Oh heck; I'm on my period and have leaked into the chair. I need to take it away to clean it."

Five of my GC are boys and none of them would bat an eyelid if they were to hear this, so hopefully grown adults in the workplace would be able to cope. I remember one at the age of 5 asking my DD if her period was due as she was a bit ratty and giving her a hug.

This is the 21st century!

I would just take some stain remover / carpet stuff in to work and clean it.
You have absolutely nothing to be embarrassed about. Most of these men will have wives/partners, maybe daughters, all of them will have had a mother… it’s about time we were more open about this stuff. I’m not saying you need to announce
that you’re cleaning up menstrual blood, but at the same time you shouldn’t be anymore embarrassed about this than if it was spilt coffee.
Why are we still embarrassed about something that is happening to thousands of women around these men daily?
The more men realise that they are surrounded by women doing the exact same stuff as them but WHILST also bleeding, dealing with leaks, cramps, headaches etc etc etc the better!
If anyone sees you cleaning it and questions it (which I highly doubt they would) just be honest.
“what’s up with your chair?”
”one of the joys of being a woman - I needed to clean blood out of it, I’ll be done in a minute”
End of story.
Might THEY be embarrassed? Possibly. Who cares. That’s their look out.

I would be the person who quietly takes her aside to alert her to the situation.
Whenever I’ve done this both parties have swallowed any awkwardness.

At 70 I don’t think that was her period, But it would be kind to gently let her know something was there. As it was Sainsbury’s if they have a Tu I’d buy a cardigan to wrap round me.

Yes this happened to me on occasion. I then got in the habit of always checking my chair and my clothes, in fact became quite paranoid about it. It even happened in a restaurant I was on a date. Everyone was lovely and I decided that was life and not get too upset about it.