How were you told about the onset of periods

I asked my mother what was the machine selling in the ladies. She got out a book dealing with the reproduction firstly of animals and then it went onto humans.
A year or so later it was taught in at science class at school,

I was rather slow. I was 14, nearly 15. All my friends had started. I had boobs and hairy legs, which my mother refused to let me shave! I looked like a dude in a poodle skirt and Bobby Sox! But for my first show of my new status as a woman, I immediately told my mother and her reply was, "Oh, you've got piles".
I had to go to the neighbor lady and ask her for confirmation and a pad. Her reaction was a hug and a congratulations and having a talk with my mother.

I wasn't. It appeared when I was ekeven, I shouted for Mum, she said,,"That's part of growing up" and went and got me some Dr. White's and one of those belts with safety pins,

I didn't get a sex talk at all, and for several years I thought that I'd pregnant if any male came too close to me while I was "On". I can remember asking her to tell my kid brother to stop jumping out at me, I believed that would cause pregnancy. She said, "It doesn't happen that way" but offered no clarification of how it did. Fortunately, I was a very trusting child and that explanation was good enough for me.

In Third Form Biology, I learned to draw the reproductive systems of rabbits.

I knew about periods, from friends, and my older sister had them. Her used sanitary pads were put discreetly into our aga type burner, but it was all done with embarrassment.

I actually started at school when I was 13, I had some money but no three old pennies which was what you needed to buy a towel from the machine in the toilet. A friend and I went to the staff room, it was dinner time, my form teacher, a rather dishy young male teacher came to the door, I made some excuse as I was sure if I asked to change my money for pennies he would know why! (How idiotic, he was married with a baby).

A friend lent me the pennies, I bought a towel, feeling quite mature! When I got home, Mum rigged me up with what I needed but never really explained much. I always had a spare sanitary towel in my satchel from then.

I progressed to Tampax later on.

“No belts, no pins, no pads, no odour”.

Should say, things were obviously different with my own daughter. As for boys not knowing about such things, can remember being in Boots with DS when he was about 6, and he suddenly yelled across the shop, “Mum, do you need any Tampax?”.

I started on Good Friday when I was 13 and was convinced it was a religious sign of something - not sure what exactly but it was scary. I was outside cleaning my bike and had to pluck up courage to tell my Mum who was not the easiest of people to talk to about intimate things.

Eventually I managed to say that I thought I had started my periods and she just said she had thought I would. She gave me some torn up towels and 2 nappy pins and told me to pin them to my vest. She didn't tell me what to do with them when used though and I agonised about asking before deciding to rinse them through and dry them overnight on the hot water cylinder in the bathroom. It all felt shameful and secretive and made me very nervous and apprehensive.

I couldn't bring myself to ask her about supplies so used to leave a note on my bed for her to find saying please could I have some Dr Whites and some would then appear as if by magic. It was very difficult as I didn't have enough pocket money to buy my own. All this despite having 2 much older sisters who must have gone through something similar. Disposal was always a problem until I hit on the idea of wrapping used ones in toilet paper and taking them to school to put in the sanitary bin in the toilets there.

My own DD and DGDS have had a much better time of it thank goodness!

I managed to piece together the "story" from listening to other girls at school. My mother bought me a book which I think was titled Design for Living. When she put it in front of me I expected it to be about architecture!

Another good catholic home. My mother gave me a little booklet from the Catholic Truth Society that hatched and matched and talked about the temple of my body, which, looking back, wasn't such a silly description, then sat down with me, asked me whether I had any questions and gave me some sanitary towels, a belt and explained how to use them.

I had already worked it all out anyway, from what other children said, from reading women's magazines and just noticing what was for sale in chemists shops and reading what was printed on packets of sanitary towels.

A friend, who was being brought up by her grandparents was told nothing and was told by her grandparent's cleaning lady, who saw the blood stains on her sheets. Later on, when she was about 15, a couple of friends and I sat her down in a quiet corner and told her the basic facts of life because it was clear that her grandmother wouldn't do it.

I'm another who was told nothing - just handed a pack of the dreaded Dr Whites and left to get on with it.

My mother told me, before it happened, I was probably about 11, what to expect and the biological facts as to why women had them. Although when I was very young I remember her going into a certain shop for a package wrapped in brown paper, and picking up on a subliminal message between her and the shop keeper that this package was to remain non visible neither should the contents be discussed. which at that time kept me wondering.

I really couldn’t face telling my mother, I used to manage by going to the school office and asking for one.
When I eventually plucked up courage, and I remember it clearly, she said I would find a packet of pads in the airing cupboard every month, no need to mention it again, especially not in front of my dad or brother.
My best friends family talked openly about such things. I don’t know how I’d managed not to know anything, but I was only just eleven.

My mum God bless her gave me a little booklet about growing up and she had carefully sellotaped the pages beyond that (presumable that was the dreaded SEX stuff) me being the good little girl I was, I never even tried to peep at the rest
The main advice or let me rephrase that the only advice I CAN REMEMBER is ‘make sure your Dad never sees anything, you wrap it carefully. in newspaper and put in the bin we don’t talk about it to men’
Now my mum was a sweetheart and my dad the kindest man possible so presumable that was the thinking of the day they were not old fashioned they were both up to date
Having no siblings I didn’t even know about anatomy and had to find out what men looked like by art books in the school library ?? much older a friend mention ‘johnnies’ and I had to get my information bit by bit that way I really was green

TerriBull - I remember my mother doing the exact same. At the time, our village had a little haberdashery shop and my mother used to go in there and be handed a brown paper package, with very little communication. It was years later before I realised what had been going on in this very secretive 'transaction'. Thank goodness things are far more open and honest now.

I was told at maybe 10 (pre senior school anyway) by a fellow pupil over school dinner! IIRC it was pudding, which was very thick pastry with a smear of what we called ‘geranium’ jam - our least favourite.

My mother did tell me something rather later and was at pains to emphasise how this meant I was now capable of having a baby, so I needed to Be Careful! She still hadn’t told me how this came about, but someone else had filled me in on that quite a while before.

I don't remember my mother actually telling me anything about periods. I was 11 when I started and I think I had picked things up from other girls and magazines etc.

My mum did take me see a film called Helga. She said it was about the facts of life. I can mainly remember the mother in the film being in labour and it showing childbirth. It was real life, not a drama.

After I had seen the film my mum bought me some Kotex towels and some knickers that the towel slotted into. They didn't have stick on pads then.

I remember my periods being quite heavy at first and I did have a few accidents which I am still mortified about to this day.

My mother did tell me - but not in huge detail. She regularly put the dreaded towels in my drawer. Unfortunately my first period set the pattern for the future - very heavy and very painful. It was all a total misery. During my first one my mother insisted on me leaving used towels on the toilet floor so that she could "check them"!

I had a gaggle of DDs and they had every shred of information possible from years before they could expect their periods. And I explained about tampons, and supplied them with them and towels so they could choose. I demonstrated the use of tampons on a large teddy bear that happened to have a seam rip in the relevant quarter - it was forever after known as the Tampax Teddy.

One of my DDs explained it to her DD at about age 7 - she went into the whole stuff about PMT as well. Little brother was there at the same time. A week or so latr, when DD was being a bit ratty, her 5 year old son said: "Have you got PMT?" Bless him.

When I was in the last year at primary school (1971-72), girls and boys were separated one afternoon.
While the boys were taken outside to do sport, we girls were given a lesson that was clearly meant to prepare us for periods.

I don't remember much about it, but it must have done the job, because I was not taken unawares when my periods started a year later.
Just as well, as my mother never raised the subject, though when I (reluctantly) had to tell her that they had begun, she produced a packet of sanitary towels for me to use, and explained that I might get headaches or stomach ache.

From then on, instead of 'pocket money', I was given a weekly allowance, out of which I would have to buy my own sanitary wear, amongst other things.

That was it. The subject was never mentioned again and I struggled in silence with my dreadfully heavy and frequent periods.

The only thing I do recall from that afternoon in primary school was being shown a film of a woman giving birth. I know that some parents were furious about their 'little girls' being shown such a thing.

My own dgd is only nine, but she has been well prepared by her mum for what to expect, and I know she is comfortable asking her mum about such things. Lucky girl

Luckygirl, your post has made me laugh out loud, both the image of 'Tampax Ted' and your dgs's remark about pmt

Aged about eight or nine, my little chum told me that older girls' wee wees come out red so I had starting knowledge and was not entirely surprised when at age ten I had my first period.

No such thing as tampax in my day nor stick on pads I had a belt which you pinged the loops onto …oh how life has changed

My sister and I were given a leaflet from Family Circle magazine which gave us the basics and to ask any questions afterwards. It was all a bit secretive, with "you can ask to see the leaflet any time you like, but not in front of Dad." "Why not?" "It'll make him angry!" Make of that what you will. That made what should be perfectly natural seem shameful.

I did think, ' you told me fairy stories about beautiful princesses - and now you tell me this - that I'm going to bleed every month for a week until I'm around 50-odd, thanks chum.'

I got a heavy, draggy pain in my stomach while in the school library and insisted that I go to the loo before heading home for lunch, and found I'd started. My legs felt like lead and so weary. Forty years of anaemia followed. I was twelve, so fairly average.

Mum put me in a fresh pair of pants with an enormous Dr Whites ST with a strange belt. It felt like a pillow case and chafed horribly sometimes. We soon learned that you had to choose the right underwear for the 'time of the month' so that everything was secure. The shame of a red patch on the back of a skirt for all to see!

We had 'sex education' lessons at school which weren't really very informative. Teacher would cheerfully say that if we had 'some discomfort' an aspirin would soon sort it out so we could get on with our day. No mention of such things as menstrual migraines, endometreosis - however you spell it. To be fair these things weren't really understood then. Perhaps they didn't want to put us off - after all, how do you tell a young girl about the harder facts of life without scaring her?

I had learnt about periods in our Human Biology lesson. However when my darling mum decided to have 'the talk' I was too embarrassed to tell her that I already knew.
My mum also made sure I knew about babies and how they were born - believe it or not when she got married my dad had to explain to her about sex and when my brother was about to be born she had no clue how he would get there.

My mum told me when I was nine. I had had a wee stay with my grandma and one hot day felt quite unwell with a bit of a tummy ache. Grandma suggested I change my dress to one with a lower neckline, which I did. I soon felt much better. I probably hadn't drunk enough and had been in the sun for too long but I think Grandma thought it could be a "menstrual warning" and spoke to my mum about it.

Mum explained it simply and very well.

My feeling at Grandma's wasn't a menstrual warning. My periods didn't start till I was nearly fourteen.

I explained the very basic idea to my eldest daughter when she was six after she'd asked very loudly in a public toilet why I was "putting that stick [tampon] in your bottom"!!! I explained that eggs that don't grow into babies come out with a bit of blood and the "stick" was like cotton wool to soak it up. She was like (as they say) 'Oh, okay". Kids can be so refreshing! ?

I was taking a bath. My mother knocked and asked if she could come in. She sat on the toilet lid and explained it all to me. She was very matter of fact, and explained it very well. She presented me with a pack of Dr White's and a sanitary belt to keep until needed.
I started my first period at school, but waited until I got home to use my own pads as I was shy and didn't want to go to the school nurse.

My mother told me nothing and that was typical of her. When I was 11 my gran secretly bought me a book which told me in very simple terms about ses and periods. So at least I knew what was hapening when they began.

I wasn't told anything. It was all part of the big shocks which permeated my teenage years.
I woke up one morning with blood, was handed an old sheet to rip up, went to school, singing in the choir on stage I fainted and was put in a taxi and sent home.