How were you told about the onset of periods

Reading through these comments, one wonders how we managed to navigate through life with so little knowledge of our own bodies, sex, relationships, childbirth etc.

Mental health issues amongst the young are spoken about so much nowadays, particularly in relation to Covid, but it just makes you realise it wasn’t easy years ago either.

My first was at school and I was unprepared for it. Went to the school nurse who gave me a Kotex pad but was unsympathetic.
As a keen swimmer I was determined to use tampax and my mother showed me how. I remember it being very painful the first few times.

Years later I found my husband playing with a tampax and saying “fascinating:! Turned out his first wife didn’t use them so he was intrigued… men!

Btw I laughed out loud at “Tampax Teddy”!

I was passed a looped sanitary towel with a belt and told 'put that on and stay away from boys'. I had to figure out how it worked! For weeks I would cross over to the opposite side of the street when a man or boy was heading towards me. I went to a very strict girls school with no sex education and was pretty dim about the whole subject.

Talking of tampons has reminded me: When my son was about ten, he came out of the bathroom and announced that there wasn't any toilet paper left, so he'd got one of "those cotton wool things" out of the cupboard and used that to wipe his bum instead - having unrolled it first, I hasten to add.

My dear old mum who would be 114 if she were still with us, merely said " if you see any blood on your pants, just tell me its quite normal. She then showed me a sanitary pad and a belt and told me about wearing them etc. She treated it in a very matter of fact way and it never bothered me. I started my periods at ten.

I started on the way home from school . My mother was aghast ,and not prepared.
I was lucky for everything had been explained at school.
She told my father to explain as he had the school certificate in Biology. Of course he didn't. We had to take a letter to the senior mistress explaining what had happened, .
I did have a laugh with friends when one girl said that she had been advised at sunday school to take a telephone diectory with her to parties if she was likely to sit on a boys knee and not to wear pattent leather shoes as they reflected your knickers and excited men.
My dd's were drip fed as they asked questions.

I can still picture my mother doing the ironing when I got home from junior school, handing me a booklet and that was that!
I had horrendously heavy periods from the start, I hated Dr. White’s and dreadful plastic lined pants and eventually used all my pocket money for tampax every month.
Thankfully dd was far more aware and prepared.

When my mum thought it was a good time to tell me about periods I was 10 years old in 1967, she sat me down and explain everything, at the time she showed me good old dr whites ( sanitary towels ) which at the time I remember thinking blimey they are quite big! And at same time told me about the birds and the bees, remember it all, we had such a good relationship I was able to ask her anything!

I think a friend told me.
Mum provided the pads and told me to dispose of them on the kitchen fire. It was all matterof fact. the worst part was the smell! Sometimes the boys would comment on that.

Talking of Dr. White`s reminds me of when I was in hospital to be sterilised (after baby number 5), one lady was a bit tearful at visiting time, her husband, who was Polish, was trying to make her feel better, he said "never mind, no more white doctors", took her a minute to realise he meant Dr. White`s!

My mum explained this to me and there was a talk at school. A friend of mine, a well developed girl wasn't allowed to attend the talk at school and as it turned out, hadn't been told anything by her mum.

She started her first period at school and the poor girl was terrified when she realised she was bleeding.

I was 10 or 11 when our Boxer came on heat for the first time and my Mum took the opportunity to explain that human females had periods, though more frequently than dogs. Job done.

My mum said 'well you know what it is don't you' when I got my first period, and that was it, I made sure my own daughter was fully prepared!!

My mum told me about periods when I was 9 and put some stick on pads in my chest of drawers for when I would need them. I was 14 before that happened! I used to go to the corner shop for mum and sometimes there was a mysterious package wrapped up in newspaper called Dr whites. It was years before I realised what they were. We had sex education at school when I was 10. Mum told me and my brother that she was going to have another baby. I said she couldn't be as she was too old. She was 32!

My Dad gave a brief explanation about these things and gave me an ancient book to read which I guess had belonged to Mum. I still don't know why Dad did this and not Mum. Mum did provide the horrendous paraphernalia at a later date and used to burn the soiled towels on the bonfire. How things have changed today, it really was archaic.

I wasn’t. Fortunately I had a friend at school who realised what was happening to me and took me to the school secretary. When I went home and told my mum, she said “did you know what it was”? She then had to go and buy the belt and huge towels - I was almost 15 - she maybe thought it wouldn’t happen to me. I was very different with my daughters.

My mum told me as she was washing up, so she wouldn't have to face me I think. Very basic - this is what happens every month and that I was NEVER to mention it to my brother of father. No link to sex or why it happened. It felt like some secret thing that only women knew about.

I cannot remember my mother ever telling me about periods but I seemed to know about them ?‍♀️ …. I didn’t start until I was 14 and remember I was so excited? …. And I never forgot the date as it was my grandad’s birthday!!

I hadn't been told and was too scared to tell my Mother who was actually fine about it but I still feel pissed off with her now. Fancy not talking to me about it

I went to the loo and started crying because I was bleeding my poor dad was at home and had to explain to me it was normal and not to cry and he got one of my mums pads and told me put it in a clean pair of pants. Told me to go put them on after washed myself lol I was 10. When my mum got home from work and explain it all to me lol. Don’t think my dad ever got over that but we did become much closer. I could tell him anything after that. Miss my dad.

Your Dad sounds nice Nannashirlz

The Reverend Chad Varah started The Samaritans because a 14 year old girl in his parish had committed suicide when her periods started. She thought she had a sexually transmitted disease.
Reading through a number of your comments,she was not the only one at that time to have no idea what was happening to her body.
My mother called it 'coming unwell' when I started menstruating.
I thought she was saying 'coming on well', as I hadn't ever heard her say that phrase before!

Terribly sad reading all these posts. My mother was so awful and embarrassed by any mention of periods or sex. Who was responsible for this attitude? It's a wonder any of us were ever born, and there must have been a lot of unhappiness in the bedroom. Luckily I was a nosy child and found out everything I needed to know from books and older friends. Sex was wonderful and I made sure my sons knew all about periods. Thank goodness today's young woman are so well informed about their bodies.

A booklet issued by the sanitary towel brand ‘Lilia’ from ‘Sister Marion’, a sanitary towel belt and a pack of sanitary towels. Mum was always too embarrassed to answer questions about anything to do with sex or reproduction-I was made to feel ‘dirty’ for asking! Strange as Mum was a nurse! I corrected this deficiency through the wonderful Encyclopaedia Britannica and, eventually, biology classes at school. I shared this information with my younger sister at the right time. I made sure my own daughters were well prepared and my elder granddaughter was very knowledgeable too before her periods started.