How to feel an idiot…

I was 11. My mother's comment was "you know you can get pregnant now, don't you. She wasn't saying that I should of course. Instead it was her attempt at the birds and bees talk!

I was nearly fifteen before my periods started, and although I knew everything I needed to know I can remember crying as I couldn’t be a child anymore. I was a very young fifteen year old! I’m very grateful for it now when I look at a lot of women girls of that age.

I was 10 when I started. I had no idea what was happening when I arrived at school one morning, saw blood in my knickers, and ran all the way home in tears. My mum calmly said "Oh, you've started, have you, hang on a minute" and she passed me a belt and pad! I had to ask what it was.

My younger DD started at age 9.5. I had already talked to my girls about periods, so she wasn't upset about it. She went to a small primary school with outside toilets and no sign of a sanitary towel machine, so always had to be prepared. I couple of years later I was on the PTA when we were discussing improvements to the school building, including new indoor toilets. I made the point that they should include sanitary product machines, but the chair (a woman) immediately laughed and said "Crikey Meg, this is a PRIMARY SCHOOL. I'm the mother of four girls and believe me they don't start their periods while at primary school".

My mom was 10 and she told me her mom, said she had to stop climbing trees..she was a tomboy apparently...

I was late @16 yrs and very underdeveloped...was told i had menodysporia...know ive spelt this wrong...have had irregular heavy irregular periods all my life and it wasn't till i worked in Germany in the 80s they ran tests on my bloods/urine etc different times of a cycle and told me i was infertile..@ 35 yrs ..a shock..but amazingly fell pregnant @38
But then developed huge fibroids and heavy bleeding and had to have total hyster
ectomy with removal of both ovaries due to huge fibroids @ 45 ..am very grateful for German womens healthcare as they diagnosed me early and I had a much welcomed suprised baby when I returned to UK 1996, I requested hormone blood tests at my surgeryI was asked why did I want hormone tests...even after explaining,my history, the GP i saw was so not interested/untrained in women's health care, i was aghast!

OP YOU ARE NOT AN IDIOT

agnurse

While 11 is on the younger side, it's not super young. We have seen onset of menses in girls as young as 8, occasionally, but I think the standard definition of "normal" is 10-16.

One thing for her to be aware of: there is evidence to suggest that girls who start prior to age 12 may have a higher risk of breast cancer in the future. This is something she may want to discuss with her doctor when she gets older. (It seems to be the case that the longer your body is exposed to estrogen, the greater your risk of breast cancer. We know that early menarche (onset of menses), late menopause, having fewer pregnancies, and not breastfeeding can increase the risk of breast cancer.)

Madmeg

I was 10 when I started. I had no idea what was happening when I arrived at school one morning, saw blood in my knickers, and ran all the way home in tears. My mum calmly said "Oh, you've started, have you, hang on a minute" and she passed me a belt and pad! I had to ask what it was.

My younger DD started at age 9.5. I had already talked to my girls about periods, so she wasn't upset about it. She went to a small primary school with outside toilets and no sign of a sanitary towel machine, so always had to be prepared. I couple of years later I was on the PTA when we were discussing improvements to the school building, including new indoor toilets. I made the point that they should include sanitary product machines, but the chair (a woman) immediately laughed and said "Crikey Meg, this is a PRIMARY SCHOOL. I'm the mother of four girls and believe me they don't start their periods while at primary school".

Madmeg
I can remember 60 years ago a girl in my class at primary school, aged 9, must have started her periods. The word went round that she had started bleeding every month. I had no idea what that meant.
That Chairperson needed a biology lesson!

I started mine at 13 while I was in school. We’d had the talk and the film a few weeks before. I told my friends and a Gang of Five or six of us ran around the school excitedly looking for the dinner lady who after I’d explained that I’d just started, took us to the cupboard where the pads were kept.
I always said that when my DD started I’d take her to family planning and get her straight on the pill.
Well I needn’t have worried because she started at 11 and was into Bart Simpson and SpongeBob so I didn’t bother with the pill. 4 years later at age 15 she rang me at work and said I have something to tell you. Me thinking the worse surmised that she was pregnant since she had been going out with her bf for nearly a year but no she told me they were thinking of having sex. We then had the conversation about if it’s what she really wanted to do and making sure she felt ready in herself and wasn’t being coerced into anything I made the appointment at the clinic for the pill. The nurse asked the same questions as I did trying to make sure that she wasn’t being pressured into anything that she didn’t feel comfortable with or ready for.
After that first consultation they both went to the clinic every month on their own where my DD was given the pill and her bf was given condoms.
I’ll always be grateful that she was sensible enough to come to me about it and I’m thankful that we have that type of relationship that we can talk about things together.
She’s 23 now and into her second serious relationship. I hope if in the future she has a DD of her own that they have the type of relationship where they can be as open as we are with each other.
Didn’t mean to go off on a tangent there but it’s 3 am and I can’t sleep 💤

My daughter in law has “ borrowed” my tena pads a few times - she knows I always have them in

Bazza

I was nearly fifteen before my periods started, and although I knew everything I needed to know I can remember crying as I couldn’t be a child anymore. I was a very young fifteen year old! I’m very grateful for it now when I look at a lot of women girls of that age.

Same here - I loved dancing and gymnastics and in those days the pads were bulky (and no I wasn't underweight perhaps a bit small).
As for now I keep a pack of pads in the bathroom as have daughters, daughters in law and granddaughters who come to visit and stay overnight particularly at Christmas and Easter.