My first period experience

I touched on the topic briefly a couple of weeks ago, in regards to how everyone experienced their first period, and well it was a bit of a mixed bag! Some lucky women actually experienced their first period relatively favourably, but most did not. So in honour of starting the conversation, and trying to remove the stigma surrounding periods, I thought I'd flashback to my very first...

It's actually kind of bizarre that I can remember this (when baby brain has got me forgetting what I did yesterday!), but my first period was on a Friday, I was 11 years old and I had spent the afternoon playing touch football at school.

I had a little bit of discomfort and some weird brown stuff on my underwear, but I had no idea what was happening, I just knew it wasn't right! So when I got home from school, I asked my mother and had the most uncomfortable conversation of my life. I don't really remember the details, but I was presented with a pack of massive pads and told to go on my way. 

I remember not too long after, maybe a couple of days at most, there was an add for pads on the TV and I mentioned to my sisters that I now understood what they were for. Their reaction was full of embarrassment and disgust and I guess that developed my perspective that periods were shameful and something you didn't speak about, EVER. And so became the relationship with my period, well into my adult life.

Even after my relationship grew into planning a family, there was still no communication around my menstrual cycle. I look back at it now, and I am saddened at how embarrassed of it I was. Something that is so natural, and necessary. 

I don't want my children to feel that shame or disgust, I want them to feel empowered and emboldened. It's up to our generation to make it easier for the next and who knows, we might learn to love our periods...