How were you told about the onset of periods

I was quite a late starter and Mum told me about periods. I remember finding packs of Dr. White's sanitary towels in her dressing table cupboard! I had to use the pads until I left home as tampons were a no-no (you weren't a virgin if you used them!!!) but finally at college started using Tampax. As for a talk about sex, my parents went to a new parents' evening at my brothers school (we're very close in age and were the same school year) and came home with a booklet with sections for boys and girls. We were given the relevant section and sent to our rooms. We didn't ask any questions!!

When I was doing my biology O level our teacher taught us about human reproduction - brave man teaching a class full of girls! - and contraception. It was a Catholic convent school and the nuns would have had a fit if they'd known!!

I was twelve. During morning break at school I 'discovered' I had started my period when I went to the toilet. I was mortified as I was totally unprepared and had no money for the vending machine. We had been given 'the talk' as school some months before along with a booklet which I took home to show Mum but even then she didn't enlarge on the fact or explain where I could find pads at home - I had an older sister. Another girl, who I hardly knew, lent my two shillings to buy a pad the size of the Isle of Wight. That was the start of a great friendship. I told Mum when I got home and she instructed my sister to tell me where the pads were kept at home.
The experience made me adamant that my daughters would be well prepared for their first periods and I have never understood why the subject was, and still is, taboo amongst some families etc.

Just remembered an example of my mother's ridiculous embarrassment of anything to do with sex. I was about six when we went to visit some relations. I was sat in the lounge when my older cousin waddled in nursing an enormous stomach, obviously almost ready to give birth. I couldn't help blurting out, what was wrong with Hilda? I remember my mother and aunt sharing a coy smile before my mother told me that cousin Hilda was poorly. I was so horrified, couldn't imagine what illness could cause that bump! Isn't that sad.

I was told that babies were born through a Zipper that appeared down pregnant ladies' backs. Girls bled a little each month so that the body could prepare itself for the Zipper.
FFS...

I'd gone to the loo in school after a PE lesson...I can remember looking down and being convinced that I'd done myself a terrible injury!
I shouted through the door to my friend to get a teacher.

They'd given me a huge thick pad and taken me home, my mum wasn't there so my dad got the job.
He told me that my body was changing and this would happen every month but not to worry about it at all...it was very special and he'd get me the special bandages I'd need. I was then wrapped up on the sofa with a hot water bottle.
I was 8 at the time so I don't think anyone thought I'd needed the 'talk' yet.

A friend told me during the summer holidays that we had to know about periods before we started at the grammar school. I asked mum why she hadn’t told me and she said she thought it would be a long time before I needed to know. She was right - I was 15 !!

I remember an aunt feeling sorry for a woman who had several children. When I asked why she’d had so many the reply was that it wasn’t her fault. I then imagined that if you had sex just the once you just went on and on having babies.

I was at the doctors for loss of appetite. I was eleven and he asked mum if I'd started my periods. She told him I hadn't. On the way home she explained what periods were. She was quite embarrassed about it. I didn't start for another two years and mum said "don't tell your dad or brother"!

I was told at school in a PE class. I was 11 This was in 1962. When I started at 13 I woke to bed sheets soaked in blood and called my mother who gave me belt and towels. There was a machine in loo at school to buy towels and an incinerator to burn used ones

Only found out from a friend in primary school who had started her period before any of us had heard of such a thing. She took each of us in turn into the toilets and showed us her sanitary belt and pad. When I started I told my mother and she went and bought a belt and pads for me, told me how to dispose of the pads and that was that.

I started at 12 and my mum had given me a ‘kind’ of talk on what would happen. She showed me a massive sanitary towel on a belt and I had no idea by the end of it how it was all going to work.. She was very embarrassed. But when I started I was extremely excited and felt so grown up . I had changed forever.
Even now past the menopause I actually miss periods.

Dee1012 You dad sounds like a lovely gentle man.

I found out about periods and the 'facts of life' from the other girls at school. Sex, periods and anything else related was never, ever mentioned in our family. It was a dirty source of shame. Every month I had to go through the excruciating task of asking my mum for sanitary towels - I've often wondered why she didn't just put a pack in the bathroom or my bedroom drawer.

Reading all these posts makes me sad for the shame surrounding periods and hopeful that things are easier for young girls today.

I was lucky as my mam used to be a nurse and she told me all about periods before I went to big school but I was still shocked the first time it appeared. I was only 12 and 52 when they finally stopped after years of hell with them.

My Beautiful Aunt explained it all to me

As a very young child, walking next to the pushchair, mum randomly explained that “daddy plants a seed in mummy”
Later the same summer, in an entirely unconnected event, I was given a little strip of garden and packets of night scented stock, marigolds and nasturtiums to plant. I found it rather confusing and associated the two…

When I was on school holidays aged 10 at a friends house, we found a family encyclopaedia with a diagram and the words “uterus and fallopian tubes”. Intrigued we asked friends mum about it when she popped in for lunch. She totally denied the existence of the words, saying it was rubbish. It was the first time it dawned on me that adults didn’t always tell the truth.

Finally aged 11, I woke one day thinking I was bleeding to death, finally emerging from my room at lunchtime (secretly wearing 10 pairs of knickers, struggling to walk or sit down) to a severe telling-off for “sleeping in”

The school sex education in the 1960’s has a lot to be said against it for making us totally terrified and to never in pir lifetimes risk becoming pregnant. Shame.

I totally love the kind description upthread about nature preparing your nest, how lovely.

Our first PE lesson at high school involved changing into our kit and sitting on the cold gym floor for a talk about periods. For a long time I hated the teacher for the brutal way she handled it, but my more mature self realises that she was probably allocated the job because no one else would do it!

My mother didn’t say anything until I actually started, and then it was a case of standing in the bedroom doorway (for a quick exit?) when she told me that I shouldn’t wash my hair while I was “unwell”.

I got most of my sex education from Jackie magazine!

I was 14 when I took my period....I shouted to my mum to come to the bathroom...For some reason I felt embarrassed in front of her....She went to the cupboard, brought out a sanitary towel & belt & handed me it....All she said was..."you are a big girl now"....We never spoke bout periods again....It almost felt shameful.....So glad life has changed so much...

My mum told me a little about things like that, but I learnt a lot more from friends and book 3 in biology at school lol. The day my period arrived, I came home from school and told her, she came down with a huge Dr.White's towel and it felt very awkward. The worst though was asking her for a bra one day shopping as she was lifting new vests for me, all the girls at school had bras and I felt left out. My mum answered me 'ladies wear bras when they have something to put in them'. Talk about embarrassed, still got my bra though, fried eggs size

I find some of these comments quite sad really when a mum can't talk to her own daughter and help her. I've no idea what a belt and pad would be like as I'm too young and only know of adhesive pads. I had a little booklet called Sister Marion or something like that which explained the basics.

My mother explained the facts of life to me at a young age so as to knock on the head all the nonsense about storks etc??‍♀️
We also had a family health book which had a whole chapter on girls bodies and puberty so I was quite clued up. She put a pack of Dr Whites and a loop belt in the cupboard in my room when I was 9 and explained it was for when the time came. I was still scared when I woke up to blood stained sheets aged 13!
My 3 girls were all told early on and were used to seeing sanitary towels on top of the weeks shopping in the supermarket so no mystery there. Their father also would pop to the shops for me for towels or tampons and and we tried to make it as ordinary and drama free as possible. I have also discussed it with my eldest grandson who is 11,so he's fairly laid back too and all three granddaughter( 8,10,10 )are happy to chat about it

I was ten (72 years ago)! and knew nothing. When I saw blood I thought I was dying. My Mum gave me a hasty explanation and then bought me the "necessaries".She replenished supplies at the local shop always asking the lady owner for "Shredded Wheat for M...." It was the code for towels !!!

I knew all about periods, no embarrassment from my mother. Although I was nearly 15 when they started I was sad as I saw it as the end of carefree childhood. I was a slow developer! However at boarding school if we needed towels we had to go and ask House Mother for a birthday present! How ridiculous.

I was 9 when I started my periods with a raging migraine which I never had before and my mum said ahh you are now growing up into a woman, gave me a book to read about it, answered the questions I had and gave me a belt and towels and told to use them and change them frequently otherwise they smell, Oh and no washing your hair during a period - stupid old wives tale!

I found out from older girls. But when I did start my periods, I went and told my mom, pretending I knew nothing.
No explanations just said it was my periods.
Everything I learned about sex was also from older girls at school. I was quite innocent. Had no brothers or sisters. And remember being quite frightened of boys.
I’m glad things have moved on.

I had a very sheltered life. My mother told me nothing. Even sent the dog to the vets to have her puppies.. I was thirteen when I had blood on my knickers my mum gave me a square of towelling, piece of elastic and safety pin and showed me how to put it on. Said it was my body having a clear out. Had to wash them out myself. Wasn’t until I joined the WAAF that I learned the facts of life and found out what the male body looked like. We were issued with pads in the Forces.