How were you told about the onset of periods

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!

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.

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 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Btw I laughed out loud at “Tampax Teddy”!

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!

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.

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.

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 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 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 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 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?

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

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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.