Embarasing stories about women issues.

I guess this topic have already been discussed here somewhere.
Yet I was watching youtube videos about people talking about their first periods and I realize I never told anyone my experience.

I am one of those people that gets realy embarased to talk abou this. I am 24, so, lots of experience in this subject. Even so I feel ashamed when people start talking to me about their periods and I find it difficult to buy sanitary supplies in the supermarket because of what other people might be thinking.

I have try to dismitify periods in my mind. I know it is completly normal, but I guess it is something deeply engrained, the way I feel abou them. I realize that, probably, the best way to feel more comfortable litle by litle is for me to hear other women talking about it and for me to share.

So I was 12 when I first got my period. I never had the talk, but I had learned everything I needed from observing and listening. So gathering information here and there and knew about it way before I had mine, from older girls, from watching my mother...
In the previous day I had pain in my belly, which I didn't associate with what was coming.
The day I had it for the first time, I was in the 6th grade and in that same day we were in science classes discussing reprodutive health, and I was so proud I still hadn't it. I didn't want, I dreamt to get it when I was sixteen, what I knew to be the upper normal limit. After the science class we had the gym class, and before it started the girls were discussing who had their periods already. I hapelly implie I hadn't, but minutes later, when I was changing, after I showered I notice the towel got stained and it all became clear.
My heart rate increased, and I became anxious, because I knew i had to tell my mother and I didn't want nor felt comfortable with. I told her something like, I cleaned my self and the towel got dirty, and she just replayed, go use a pad. And that was it. The only talk me and my mom had.

I didn't tell anyone at school and I think I didn't even speak with my older sister about it. And everytime I had it, I tried to be very quiet, only going to the bathroom when I knew nobody was near by, so anyone could listen something reaveling.

Even so, my mother was always spying on my menstrual cycle. In the first two years I had big gaps (months) bettwen cicles. And because of that she thought I was pregnant (by the way I am a very shy, socialy akward virgin, who never kissed a single boy). But she wouldn't tell it clearly to my face, she just used half setences and half words, like... your period is late, that isn't normal...you are fat...pee to a cup for me to run an analyze!! She is paranoid... It made me very angry at the time. Then I pee in the cup that she had left in the bathroom for weeks and I write her a big letter, for her to leave me alone. She never went through with the analysis and she eventualy forgot about her suspicious. Probably only for sure, when she discovered I menstruated again.

I hate this story! I am just sharing it for the good of sharing.

((((Mulan))))

That's a tough story to tell. My heart wept a little.

Before I had my period, even a couple years prior, which this is my anniversary week of my very first at 12, I was asking many questions. I needed a training bra, at 8, for example. The women in my family were rather endowed. My parents divorced and it was decided I'd live with my father due to work schedules and in the home that I came home to as a newborn.
I had all sorts of questions. My dad wasn't as liberated to the idea of my blurting questions. He sent away for books such as Ann Landry aka Dear Abby and similar. That's where I learned how to monthly track. I would ask about body hair. Started shaving my legs at 11. By that point he had already rushed me off to the therapist, after all I wasn't normal, must be traumatized and slowly displaying anger towards him. Hmm?

My mom and her mom were great with my questions. They used their own experiences to give rough timelines, which were rather close.

I thought not much of early starts nor late bloomers of the girls around me, after all dear Abby normalized all of that. I became the go to for acceptable knowledge. Meaning, yes you can get pregnant in the ocean or standing up, etc.

It would make me tired. Sometimes I would double over in pain. Mine would last about 10 days at a time. Kind of the opposite of sporadic cycles, mine were heavy and lasted too long. My gyn was surprised to hear me say, when after being on the pill it was 5-7 days. Now that I'm older, it's that 2-3 light on the pill. And I've been rather fortunate on fibroids. My mom and her mom both had those. By this age, too.

It's ok to tuck those purchases under groceries if uncomfortable. After 3 kids, I stopped being self conscious.

Oh your mom needed to communicate with you a lot more. It is true that periods are usually seen are something secretive and awkward. Not the usual conversation topic with strangers lol.

I also admit to buying something else along with the pads. I also have a lot of pain and still have to see a Gyno from a family history of suspected fibroids. Most of what I learned was also from dear Abby, guest speakers, college coursework clinical studies and the Internet. Thanks for sharing

please DO NOT quote ANY SELECTION of my post. thank you. have a good day.

Ok this is as much as I can remember

My mother had to have a hysterectomy after having me and I am the youngest and only girl in a family mainly dominated by men. So when I started needing a bra at 9 my mum and her close friend went out and raided the feminine hygiene Isle I was presented with a huge assortment of products and my mum explained that unfortunately she only had real knowledge of tampons which had been her method of protection.
At 10 I went off to the loo and was confronted with what seemed like the scene of a crime in my underwear luckily since I had been given my bag of products. I had been carrying a towel in my school bag. So to the annoyance of my Teacher I appeared back in class only to disappear again. I don't think I told my mother about it but that was the one and only pad/towel I ever used I was conscious that I felt sticky and uncomfortable and was paranoid that I smelt. So like my mother had I became a tampon user.
I went on to be a competitive swimmer so that when in my favour.

Oh and I am totally the opposite of those posting before I openly walk round with nothing but tampons in my hands in the store and have even been through the till of a then perspective lover. To me it's a fact of life approximately 50% of the world have to deal with it so just like breastfeeding I believe it is something woman should be taught to be proud of ��

(((Mulan)))

My introduction to womanhood was very similar to yours, although I'm 20 years older than you, how on earth I worked everything out was a long journey full of misinformation.

My mother told me nothing, we weren't close like that - like you I was silently given towels when I came to her days into my first period (I finally worked out what was happening!). The nurses came to talk to the girls at school about periods but I was 13 by then and it was a year too late.

By not talking about it openly with my mother I believe I mistakenly learned my body was a shameful thing, I was very embarrassed by my periods and some months I couldn't work up the courage to ask her for the pads - I'd fashion my own out of toilet paper and cotton wool, not the best idea. I use a mooncup these days so don't buy those products now but one of my funniest memories is my 5 year old son holding up the tampons at the checkout and loudly asking "what are these?" to the amusement of all around. I told him I'd explain later and I did - we have openness about these things in our family, that was a conscious decision after my upbringing.

Thanks for sharing, hope it helps to know you're not the only one.

My most embarrassing period story was when I was 13-14 I was at a hotel and I was on my period, and I haven't learned how to put in a tampon and my family left to go to the swimming pool. Well I tried and tried and I couldn't figure it out so I started crying. Well apparently I was crying too loudly because ten minutes later there was a knock on the door and the manager of the hotel and a few concerned guests were at the door wondering what was going on!

Honestly, that was more embarrassing than being at school and finding i stained my pants

I got my period when I was only 11 and I was still a total child in my head. I knew about reproduction and periods, and I knew that I never wanted to have this awful period or at least only get them very late when I would be older.
When I noticed blood on my panties, I started screaming and crying and my mother couldn't calm me down. I was so paralyzed that it was my own mother who had to help me change and wash. I am embarrassed about it but I was simply too paralyzed.
My mother just told me "Congratulations, you can get pregnant." I do not think it is something you should say to a 11-year old girl who hates womanly traits on her body. My period triggered my anorexic behavior.
After that, every cycle I would have excruciating cramps that would keep me off school. I was so ashamed of bleeding, of "being a woman" and I still feel the same until now. It was a horrible experience. My flow was so heavy I frequently bled on school chairs.

Here's a good one: The Tampax Incident

My best friend and I were around 9. We'd sleep over each other's houses every weekend. She asked me if I had my period. I, not even knowing what that was, said "of course". She, not even really knowing what it was said "I have mine, too, and we need Tampax".

So, we started taking tampons from our mothers, without them knowing, and lying to each other that we had our periods. We had to figure out how they worked. What's with the cardboard tubes? We settled on removing the cotton, throwing away the cardboard, and sticking the cotton in our panties, like a pad.

Except there was nothing to keep them in place, and tampons were falling through the legs of our shorts as we walked around and rode our bikes around the neighborhood.

This went on for months. We would hide the wrappers and cardboard tubes in my toy chest.

One day, I came home from school, and my toy chest is in the dining room. My mother and older sister sit at the table with that interrogation look on their faces. They start cross examining me about what these wrappers are and what did I do with the tampons, and where did I put the tampons? DID YOU PUT THEM UP YOU?????

I was mortified. I was punished. I was forbidden from seeing my best friend. My mother called her mother and made a whole Federal case about what we did with tampons.

My friend later told me her mother couldn't care less, and she wasn't in trouble at all. They thought my mother overreacted and felt sorry for me.

I had this one time where my dad took us down to Massachusetts to celebrate my grandparents anniversary. Had asked him at the store that we stopped at to buy me a thing of kotex. Oh no, you need to ask your mom for those. My parents were divorced. Straight through my khaki pants. First time I ever heard it called Menses, as my gram pulled me aside asking if I had my menses. We were at one of my aunts. She and my cousin only used tampons, as I was looking at those with a question mark on my face. Spent the day in dirty pants. finally another cousin had kotex, but still.

Had a friend in jr high, where another friends mom needed to discuss peeling the plastic off to get the glue to show. That girls mom just wouldn't talk about such realities.