Periods

I was 14 , my mum pretty much like everyone else , here's a belt and Dr Whites and keep away from boys . Told nothing but I soon worked out they would arrive every 28 days so I would go and ask her to purchase me pads before they started. You'd think I was asking for 100 pieces of gold .
My dils are open and it's not taboo. They'll often announce in front of everyone that they're on their period and not feeling 100% . My sons will pamper them , fetch the painkillers or hot water bottle . Good for them .
If I'd had a daughter I'd be so different , I'd ensure there were pads /tampons always available so she didn't have to come begging and I'd always be kind . Why were women so cruel to each other , especially Mums 😢

My mother sat me down and told me in detail about periods and pregnancy when I was nine or ten.

Before that I had seen her packets of sanitary towels in the bathroom cupboard and asked what they were. She replied then that grown women had "periods" that caused bleeding once a month, as it came from the womb, and was all part of being able to have children. At that time, she warned me not to mention it to girls at school, as a lot of parents thought children should not know about such things. She also said, she and my father thought that silly, as it is perfectly natural.

I was coming up for thirteen when I had my first period - but for most of the preceeding year I had noticed that once a month my underpants were stained a dirty yellow colour in the course of three or four hours and stank of ammonia.

This was presumed by my doctor father to be a part of puberty, although he admitted he had not encountered it before, but said he assumed that was because mothers of girls my age "didn't think it was nice to discuss it with the doctor".

I imagine he was right about that.

My periods were always very heavy - no surprise there as my mother's were too.

Tampons were "only for married women", not that I would have been able to use one before loosing my virginity, when I remember the pain of that particular happening!

I did use tampons later on, unsuccessfully as no tampon could last more than twenty minutes so they were always reinforced by sanitary towels, a dancer's belt and black underpants!

There is some justice in this world - neither puberty, nor the child-bearing years were fun from the biological point of view, but the menopause was a breeze. My periods stopped shortly after my 50th birthday - no hot flushes or other unpleasantness.

Some of these accounts are quite shocking. I realise that my mother (born in 1920) was very forward thinking for her times.

My mum told me all about them so I was quite prepared for when I had my first one at age 15.

In fact - I'm remembering my own mother getting shirty with me with "Why DO you talk about your body as if it's not you?". Errrm....that would be because it isn't....and I'm not letting it make my decisions for me...

So common for the mothers of that era to not want us using tampons! Almost makes one think they were quite happy (or at least okay) about our bodies being allowed to restrict us from quite an early age! Almost feels like they were trying to say "You're not people - you are this lesser thing called a girl/woman".

Many of us must have had to be pretty firm-minded to get round their restrictive mindset....

I was ten when I started my periods. I was at my Grandma's at the time with my mum and sister, when I noticed blood in my white thick knickers. Not sure whether my mum sorted me out when I got home with the belt and pad. My mum told it was to do with having babies. My mum sent off for some booklets and gave them to my sister and me to read about periods.

Mother never talked about them - when I had my first period at 13½ her instructions to me amounted to, "Don't mess about with boys" - but I'd grown up seeing her deal with her own periods, Dr Whites pads and that dratted sanitary belt, so it was somehow not a scary thing when I first started. But the main education came from school science lessons - thank you Mr Platt.
There was definitely a stigma around Lil-lets and Tampax...bless my mum, they would have made her life so much nicer if she'd been able to put aside her fears and beliefs

I was so delighted when I was in the loo at a community event and a gang of girls took over the next loo to help their friend who had just started her period. In my day it was almost a thing of great shame to let it be known you were having a period. I used to struggle with the Dr Whites and heavy painful periods (later found I had endometriosis) at school and was often in the medical room. I started at tte age of 15, was handed the packet but any info had come from a Biology lesson at school. My mother told people I already knew everything- which I didn't, still thought babies came out of your bellybutton!

My mother had been told nothing so she determined she’d answer my questions fully. I became the information person to the girls in my classroom at school

Such an interesting thread. I have really enjoyed reading everyone’s experiences, and I laughed out loud at some of the accounts, especially the ‘patent leather shoes reflect girls knickers *TerriBull’😆
Brilliant!

My mum told me about periods thankfully, and I was provided with the dreaded pads in plenty of time although being small and slim mine didn’t start until I was about 14.

Bizarrely my Dad told me, and did a good job too.
I think my mum was there but she Def didn't explain anything. I think she was brought up very straight laced, my dad was one of 7 and was very relaxed about telling me.
I also went to my Dad when we were having trouble conceiving, we had a long walk and chat. He was always my go to, i miss him very much x

My mother gave me the facts, when I was probably aged 11 as to what to expect without using any euphemisms. I think my periods started at age 12. She'd gave me everything required, sanitary towels that belt thingy to hold them in place plus hot water bottles to ease that horrible dragging pain.

The nuns at my convent school, always ready with helpful pronouncements around anything remotely related to sex, such as never wear patent shoes because one's knickers were reflected in them, boldly making the assumption one was wearing knickers in the first place Another handy hint "never to use tampons, even married people don't!" who did they think were buying the tampons, I'd ponder "aliens" They further muddied the waters by not specifying whether the married people were men or women that was kind of left hanging. In retrospect I'm thinking they were way ahead of their time possibly factoring in the 72 other sexes that were to inhabit the future.

Why do I keep hearing now "I'm on my period" strange expression, our generation tended to say "I've got my period" Hate euphemisms like "visitor" instead of period.

There is a lot of sadness in these descriptions. Shocking that girls were made to feel so bad and kept relatively uninformed. I kept it secret for three days! Hopefully today’s young women have more choice, such as cups and period pants and a more open view where such matters are discussed. Of course it’s also important that boys are well informed too! I became interested when I googled about how women coped in say, Victorian or Edwardian times.

Thankfully I had 2 older sisters and I was very inquisitive, we shared a big bedroom, 4 of us including a younger sister. There was a dressing table drawer with sanitary towels and belts and I asked what they were for.

🤣🤣🤣Fallingstar balmy wasn’t it.
What was in the least bit secret about something that was happening to half the population at one time or another?

Remember all the ads, women laughing like drains as they played tennis in tight white jeans 😁

My mum got my young (28) neighbour , to ‘chat’ to me about the birds and bees.

I'd be interested to know how younger women refer to/deal with the whole issue - probably a lot better than we did. Now who is feeling brave enough to start a thread on Mumsnet re this?

When were they told and how? Were they made to pay for their own provisions whilst still at school? All round - are they more "connected to their bodies" than many of us probably are? Are they well aware that "Why should they give their bodies a second thought - if men don't?"

Though I still think the biggest disservice done to our generation is we don't seem to have been told the pros and cons re pregnancies, childbirth, bringing up children and many must have gone ahead and got pregnant with very little idea what to expect from there on in and no computers they could google on to tell them all that missing information they needed (in order to be well-informed before making their choices).

Periods were never called periods but ‘that time of the month’ and my Nana referred to it as ‘aunt Annie visiting’. When writing a shopping list my mum would write STs.
It was like being in MI5. All so hush hush.

I remember my first period and my grandma telling my Mum. But I don’t remember any real explanation. No why you had them, or when. Just a sanitary belt and a packet of towels left on my bed. That would be 1956 and I was 12

Another one here whose mother never told her a thing. When it happened, she gave me the dreaded Dr Whites and belt - despite the fact that by then (early 70s), adhesive pads were available. I remember she'd go to the little drapery shop in our village, ask in hushed tones to the assistant and be handed a brown paper bag. 'Periods' were never to be spoken about.
I also remember being away on a school trip when my period arrived - fortunately a friend had spare tampons and from then on, I stuck to using then, much to my mother's utter horror. I was also told, in no uncertain terms, that the worst possible thing I could ever to would be to get pregnant outwith marriage and thereby bring shame on the family. She even threatened to march me off to the doctor and have him check that I was still a virgin (I was 16 at the time). That did not end well...let's just say she drove me over the edge!

Mine were very painful too Esmay and I remember my school giving me something called Indian Brandy.Anyone else remember that?

I was as green as grass :

My mother gave me a booklet about being hygienic which she thought would explain everything.

It didn't.

I started my periods early and I hid my underwear in the airing cupboard thinking that I had cancer.
The unpleasant smell alerted either my mother or grandma.
Being so thin and underweight the GP thought that it was a one off .
She thought that it was caused by the shock and stress of my best friend suddenly dying and the stress of a parent being ill .

But she was totally wrong .

My periods came regularly.

They were heavy ,clotty and very painful.
I had to take pain killers and when I started on a strong medication for IBS the pain relief worked on periods as well .

I didn't actually fill out - developing breasts and hips for another four years .

It was a traumatic episode.

Think I was around 12-13, being thin usually meant you started a bit later.Mum hadn’t warned me and it was a shock 😮
It was called euphemistically ‘being unwell’.