Hey Google, Is This My Period?

Emma P •  connecticut •  13

It was a week before the end of 6th grade. Thursday, June 2nd, 2022. I remember at lunch I felt extremely wet down there but I had heavy discharge for a good 2 years already so I just assumed that it was just that. My mom also told me she got hers at 14 so I just never guessed the brown stuff in my underwear I came home to was my period. I had to turn to good ol’ google because my mom was mowing the lawn.

I had no idea what pantyliners were, and how they were only for discharge, but I knew pads sometimes didn’t have wings. I put a pantyliner on and went to my school open house because it just happened to be that night and I was changing schools.

I think back and wonder what would have happened that night if I didn’t know it was my period. On the first day of school, what if they knew me as “the period stain girl?” Luckily, they didn’t. Someone did call me bloody ass though after I had an unusually heavy flow and bled through a tampon not even 2 months ago.

Seventeen

Becca J •  Colorado •  42

I got my period when I was 17... SEVENTEEN!!! Talk about a late bloomer. I was frustrated and confused about why it took me so long to get it. There was little discussion about menstruation when I was growing up so I had to figure a lot out on my own. I remember hearing about all of my friends getting their period and being jealous, which sounds strange considering how it’s not exactly a fun thing to experience.

I grew up playing soccer year round and within the first year of getting my period I tore my ACL playing soccer. An interesting chain of events: be the last person in the history of the world to get her period (exaggerating, of course) and then tear a ligament in your knee with a possible connection to being on your period.

Full of Firsts

Mary E •  UK •  24

I remember lying on my bed covers in front of my TV watching the The Inbetweeners series for the first time... Well that certainly was a day full of firsts!

I was halfway though season two, when all of a sudden I felt my whole body go intensely warm for a couple seconds. Afterwards I felt a cold and wet sensation as if I had sat on a spilt drink.

I stood up and assessed what had happened; my very first period. I remember feeling a little relieved as I was soon approaching starting my penultimate year of secondary school.

Quote: "I remember lying on my bed covers in front of my TV watching the The Inbetweeners series for the first time..."

It happened in the summer holidays thankfully before going back to school. Plus I had some pads already to keep in case. I was about 13 or 14 when it happened and felt like a late bloomer.

You can say that I will never forgot that day. Now every time I think of or rewatch The Inbetweeners I can't help but laugh a little.