From Toilet Paper to Tampons

Anonymous  •   Ohio  •  64

I started my first period when I was 13 years old, in the 8th Grade at a Catholic Grade School. I don't recall who I told, but I remember going to a supply room and getting a pad. We did not have a school nurse. 

I don't remember what I knew about menstruation, probably very little and definitely nothing from my Mother, just that it was embarrassing to start at school. I am thankful that we wore uniform skirts and not pants back in the early 60's! 

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I went home later that day and told my Mom, who was embarrassed by such topics. She told me to use toilet paper because that's what she used. She said I should talk to my older sister when she came home on the weekend from Boarding School. My Sister had a supply of Tampons and told me I could use them instead of the toilet paper!

10 Year Old Woman

Kelsey W.  •   New Hampshire  •  20

Picture it: January 2009. Your classroom is a mess because it’s a Friday and you’re most definitely not doing any learning. In fact, it’s polar express day. Everyone is drinking hot chocolate and trying their best to actually watch the movie while teachers call us over for the big old 5th grade reading assignment.

I left to go to the bathroom, enjoying my polar express day like any other 10 or 11 year old. Then I noticed. My yellow frog underwear that read “Tuesday” had a stain of blood. Although I was only 10, I was lucky enough that my mother had told me all about periods. Even though I knew this was all supposed to happen, I still panicked. A girl who I barely knew entered the bathroom, clearly trying to mind her own business. I blurted out that I got my period and started crying. She didn’t even respond.

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I went from the bathroom, to my classroom. I begged my teacher for a pass to the nurses without telling her why I needed to go. She was sitting at a table with a group of the so-called “popular guys.” I panicked. I just said I had to go and left anyways. (I made it all much more dramatic then it needed to be.) The nurse comforted me and called my mom.

Eventually, my teacher came down and wanted to have a small celebration for becoming a woman. A woman? I was only 10! When my mom arrived, I got hugs from every woman in the nurses office and pats on the back. Maybe I was an adult now!

My mom called my dad in the car on the way home. He left work. (I wasn’t the only one being dramatic, apparently. I also have really good parents.) He came home with shopping bags full of pads and tampons. He also shed a tear. “The care and keeping of you” had never told me that getting your period would make your dad cry, but alas, it did. I also cried the rest of the day.

The P(eriod) Word

Susan B.  •   Indiana  •  60

My mom, God bless her, will/would not speak of anything too personal. Any body functions, sex talk, etc was off limits. 

I attended a small Catholic School and fortunately Mrs. Cook, our 5th grade teacher was not embarrassed to speak about such things. She would separate the boys and the girls and we would listen to an album on menstruation and the ways of the female body. She would answer all questions. I would never think to have a question, but I listened intently.

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One day my period appeared... I think in 6th grade. My recollection is of laying on my bed with toilet paper stuck in my underwear, and my mom coming into the room asking if I was sick. I kept saying no, I was not sick and wanted her to say the word period, but she would not say it, just kept asking if I was sick and I kept saying no. 

Later, there was the Kotex and belt you used at that time in the bathroom cabinet and then tampons appeared, which I was excited about!! It took a whole box or so, to figure it all out, but I never went back to the Kotex/belt situation until Always pads came into the world.

Even to this day, you would not think there was any menstruation going on in the world if it was up to my mom to talk about it.