Your first period
 

So I was thinking about this earlier, since it is TOM for me at the moment. Thought it might be interesting to hear everyone's story about their first experience with TOM.

Personally, I was 12 and I had just gotten out of bed. I went downstairs, and then to the bathroom. When I pulled my pants down my underwear was covered in blood. I didn't know what to do so I just sat there and yelled for my mom. When she came in, she just said "oh, let me get you something" and that was it. I remember my friend had spent the night that night, but I was embarrassed to tell her for some reason. :dizzy:

I don't remember the first time. I think I was 12 as well. Isn't that kind of an early start or pretty normal?

I'm on TOM too right now.

I got my first one when I had turned 10. I had NO idea what it was. Back then where I lived kids weren't taught about stuff like that to prepare them like they are here. I was also the first in my class to have a period. I thought I had somehow had an accident and pooped in my underwear. Seriously. My aunt (who I lived with and had raised me) gave me a pad, told me how to wear it and that was it.

Everything I know about menstruation, I learned from the internet. My folks were no help at all. We just didn't talk about these things.

I was 9 or 10, and my mom had just explained it to me a few days before (when she signed the permission slip for the film that was scheduled at school to explain it to us - the girls only, that is), and I had to call my mom from the nurse's office. The freaky bit about it was that it happened only a day or two before the film. I felt really embarassed and felt myself blushing during the film, because I was sitting there - on my period - having cramps and everthing, and I was sure that if I told my friends, they wouldn't believe me anyway and think I was just saying it because of the film. And when the teacher explained that we would all go through this in a few years - I really felt freakish (I was already the tallest girl and only slightly shorter than the tallest boy).

I was 12 and I didn't understood at first, because I was wearing black underwear. Only when it gave me red stains on my fingers I understood what happened. When I had put on something else I went to my parents: "I think... I just got my first period!" That night we had a little party with snacks and drinks. It was quite nice.

Oh, and about age... the average period starting age has shifted quite a bit down in the last century or so. 15 used to be average. 12/13 is now average. And to start menstruating you need a certain amount of fat in your body. This means that overweight children start their menstruation earlier.

aw elwing thats so cute! mine was a bit of a non-event, i was 12, knew what it was, dealt with it, didnt tell many people, no fuss :D

I was 17. yeeeah. That was my first hint that there might be trouble afoot.

I was 12 and was doing work for my grandpa around his property... residing and stuff. It was really hot and I was outside all day. It sucked! I was too embarrassed to tell him so I kept putting toilet paper in my pants to help, but it kept falling out. My little sister was so sweet (she was 10 at the time) and kept finding it and would pick it up and throw it away for me.
My mom called his house and the answering machine picked up before I got to it. Then I answered and without realizing everything was being recorded I started crying and told her. She just kept telling me it would be ok. After I layed down my grandpa realized I was really sick (I was always a hard worker so he knew I wasn't faking) and didn't make me work anymore.
The next day my mom took me out to a really nice restaurant and I had king crab legs :)
Has anyone else noticed their cramps getting much easier since they got older? Mine used to be horrible! Now they're very tolerable.

HealthPNut- I've noticed the same thing. It seemed like in the beginning my cramps were terrible, but now I barely notice.

I think it's so cute that some of your parents made it into a celebration, like having snacks or going out to eat. I think if I have a daughter I'd like to do that for her.

I was 12 and I remember thinking something like "Oh great, I'm going through puberty...i'm going to have to act mature now."

I was 9 years old, it was really light, and I had NO idea what was going on. When I finally got the courage to tell my mom, she felt bad for not explaining it to me earlier. (My sister, who was 3 years older, had not yet gotten hers, so my mom figured I wouldn't be getting mine for a long, long time)

Nothing more embarrassing than being in the 5th grade and having to go explain to the teacher why you needed to go to the nurse's office every couple of hours.

I was 13 years old....in the spring of eighth grade. I remember waking up and seeing that it came. I was embarrassed to tell my mom, I guess, so I took one of her pads and went to school. When I got home, my mom cornered me and was like "Is there something that you want to tell me?" LOL

I dont remember mine at all.
I remember my first training bra.
I remember my friend's first period. We were at camp and she didn't know what to do with a tampon (that's all any of us had at the time). So we helped her out. It was so funny, she wasn't embarrassed about anything at all. Must be nice to be that comfortable in your skin. :) I would've been beet red and gone home!

I was 14 or 15, late in life!.
I got it during the night, and I remember being so embarrased/ uncomfortable to tell my Mom. I hid it for a few days.

I was spending the night at a friend's house. I was a little nervous, just because I had to tell near-strangers (her parents) about it, and I was afraid I'd end up staining my sleeping bag, lol. My friend's mom gave me a pad, I put it on and went to sleep, no big deal to me. The next morning I told my mom and she started crying because her little girl was growing up. :rolleyes:

I think I was 13. When I got up in the morning it was there. I knew what was going on, but I didn't want to tell my mom because I was afraid she wouldn't let me go to my horseback riding lesson. I stuffed a washcloth in my underwear and went riding. I told her when I got home and she was so excited because I was growing up.

She went out and bought me flowers and a little cake. It was sweet.

Hmm. I was 12... I woke up in the middle of the night, doubled over with stomach cramps. I was still half-asleep, so I just thought I was hungry or sick or something, and forced myself to go back to sleep. Rude awakening when I went to the washroom, lol.

That's so cute that all of your parents all had little celebratory dinners, lol. Defo didn't do that. :lol:

I got mine at 13, the day before 8th grade graduation, and it happened in a way that I will never forget.

First of all, my younger sister had gotten hers a year before me so I was a little jealous and really anxious to get mine already. Now that I look back on it, what the **** did I have to be jealous about :rolleyes:

It was really hot that year and for some reason my parents went on an air-conditioning hiatus. I was sleeping in a very light nightgown and got my period some time in the middle of the night. Well it must have been hot enough and the nightgown light enough that I didn't feel any wetness at all. In fact, as I woke up and headed off to do my morning duties in the bathroom I didn't think anything was unusual.

That is until my mother started screaming like a banshee! :eek: Apparently, I had bled all over the back of my nightgown to the point where it looked like someone had tried to stab me to death. My mom literally dragged me to the bathroom to spare me the embarassment of my father getting an eyefull.

Needless to say, the sheets and that particular nightgown were ruined. :yikes:

I was 11 1/2. I went to a school with an excellent sex ed program, so I knew the facts. Still, textbooks just aren't the same thing as real life!

I remember I was in the 6th grade math class when I found out. How old are you in 6th grade anyway? 11 or 12?

My mom pulled me out of school the next day around lunch time and we had lunch and went shopping. :)



SPEAKING OF PERIODS...today's my birthday and GUESS who decided to show up??? Man....happy birthday to me...lol

I think I was 12, almost 13. I came home from school and went to the bathroom and when I pulled my underwear down they were covered in blood. It's amazing it didn't go through my jeans (and lucky too, since I obviously started at school and didn't realize). At the same moment I was looking at my underwear and freaking out (I knew about what was happening because my mom informed me a couple years before, but it was still freaky that it was actually happening), the phone starting ringing. I hurried up and answered on the last ring. It was my Mom calling from work to check on me, which she rarely did, because she thought something was wrong! How weird. When she asked why it took so long for me to answer the phone, I told her I was in the bathroom and I started my period. She then told me to go to my aunts house (she lived down the street) and tell her so she could give me a pad. I was so embarrassed to tell her, but she was cool about it and didn't say anything to my cousins, thank God! haha.

~Utterly Absurd~

I just finished that TOM :). I remember to this day what the **** happend to me because I thought I was dying..no lie haha.

I was 12 when I got mine. I woke up in the morning and went to the bathroom and saw my undies were all messed up. It honestly never crossed my mind that I had gotten my period so I just got dressed and went out with my mom. I went the whole entire day just walking around with my mom and doing errands and never even thought about it or said anything. When I got home everything was covered in blood and I could tell now because it was more of a deeper red whereas before it was like nothing. I FREAKED out and called my mom into the bathroom and started crying and she bust out laughing and was like chill out, here let me help you. And then I went on my merry little way and went swimming for the rest of the day haha. I dont know why but I thought it was the most traumatic thing but then when I realized what was going on I was perfectly fine.

I was 11, and at school those days we had separate programs on puberty and stuff for boys and girls. We'd literally just had one a week or so before, and my mom and older sister always discussed their TOM, so I knew what it was.

I was at school in the fourth grade when it started. Luckily my mom worked in the school cafeteria there, so she came to the nurse's office with "supplies" and talked to me while I was embarrassed and crying. Not too traumatic.

I was 13 and all I remember is that I knew what it was, I was freaked out that there was so much blood, and pulled out a pad.

That would have been pretty cool if there was a party thrown afterwards! I think that's awesome. :)

Haha, even though I had read a book about getting your period and even been talked to about it at school, for some reason it didn't occur to me that THAT was what was happening when TOM showed up for the first time when I was 10 or so.

I actually think I got mine (it was very very light) like 2 or 3 times before my mom finally noticed the stains in my undies and told me that she thought I was getting my period... lol.

I guess sometimes I'm not very bright! Haha.

I was 12...I took me nearly 4 days to tell my sister (7 years older than me)...I had been stealing her pads but then I couldn't find anymore, so I had to tell her and she was the one who told my mom. I was terrified to tell my mom because I didn't want her to take me to the doctor. I still got a really awkward sex talk that was something like, "Well now you can get pregnant so you have to..." Did she really think I was having sex at 12!

I was 11, and I knew about periods before I got my first one so it wasn't a shock or scary or anything.

I remember that about a year before I got mine, a girl in my 6th grade class got hers during school one day, and she was hustled out of the room quietly with a jacket wrapped around her waist. Didn't stop the rest of us from figuring out what happened though, since the evidence was on her seat (how embarrassing for her!!)

Anyway, my first was memorable for me because I was riding in a huge monster truck that was doing some stunts in a big field across from my house. As I sat there I felt something "funny" down there. Not pain, or wetness, just a weird sensation.

As soon as I was able, I bolted home, went to the bathroom, and saw that I had begun my first period. Thankfully it was light, and only that early brown stage, so I hadn't soaked through my shorts or anything that would have revealed my condition to anyone else that day.

I called my mom to tell her, and she told me where she kept her pads but all I could find were tampons! Super Plus size tampons at that. Yikes! Not a pleasant memory!! :o

Originally Posted by Apple Cheeks:

I called my mom to tell her, and she told me where she kept her pads but all I could find were tampons! Super Plus size tampons at that. Yikes! Not a pleasant memory!! :o

Ack!! I feel your pain... don't get me started on the time I tried to use my mother's tampons (she has had 4 children...).

hahaha, why is it so fun to hear about one another's life experiences?! :)

I was 10. I was staying the night at my grandparents house, and I had the tell tale cramps but I thought I had the flu! I kept telling my grandma my tummy hurt so bad, but it was like nothing I'd ever experienced before!

I kept running to the bathroom but I thought I was too late each time, because there'd be a little brownish tint to my panties by the time I'd got there, so I thought I had like uncontrollable diarrhea! I had NO idea what was going on- I was 10 for pete's sake, my mom hadn't thought it was a necessary conversation until I was a little older so I had no idea.

My grandma finally figured it out and had to explain it all to me. My mom felt soooo bad haha! Funny memory now, I guess.

i got it at 12 too! haha i already knew what it was so i wasnt that surprised if anything i was happy lol

I knew what is was before it happened, and I had been struggling with cramps for about a week before. I woke up one morning, I was 12-13 (summer before grade 8), went to the bathroom and when I stood up to flush I noticed the water was a different colour than normal. I sat back down, called my mom and stayed sitting on the toilet until she got back from the store.
We went shopping in a nearby city with our neighbours, who randomly at one point punched me in the arm and said "Welcome to being a woman". I was so embarassed that my mom told that I cried and wouldn't talk to her until dinner, when we went out and she promised she would never tell another soul, aside from my grandmother.

I'm actually about to start.. ugh. Its so much work for me now because I have 4 a year and I'm so used to not having one that I forget to put tampons in my purse and such. It becomes such an issue, at my age, thats ridiculous :D

I was 15ish. I had one really light period about two years before that and my mom explained everything then, not that I didn't already know because obviously half of class already had theirs. But it was absolutely no big deal other than the fact that I thought it was absolutely disgusting.

I was 13. I lived with my dad and my grandma, so when it happened my grandma gave me a bunch of fabric and some gauze/cotton to use as a pad. It wasn't comfortable. I guess thats what they used in the old days. Anyways later during the day my dad found out and got me some real pads.

I had found out what a period was about two weeks before I got mine, so that was lucky cuz I would have totally wigged out.
I was eleven, and it was during a science club meeting after school. I didn't realize what it was cuz it wasn't that heavy, and it stopped later in the afternoon.
The next day at school it started again, this time like the elevator doors in the shining and I went to the office to get sent home... I spent the rest of the day watching all the Urban Legend movies...
It was funny cuz I was the first person in my class to get it, and everyone thought I was handicapped lol...

I was only 10 when i started. I was living with my grandmother and no idea what was going on. She tried to explain it to me and then i remember being so embarrassed.So after having 2 girls of my own I didnt want them to be embarrased for be afraid to talk to me about it..so i started early telling them about it. Not hiding the fact that i had one monthly. My girls were both 12 when they started..my oldest acted like she was dying..my youngest came home from church grabbed a tampon and out the door she went excited to have started!!

I was 9 years old and not particularly happy about it.

I was 11. It was around Christmas time and I felt soooo sick, like I had the flu. I hid it for a loooong time. My mom never talked about stuff like that with any of the kids. I would use toilet paper or "borrow" pads when I was at my sisters' places. When my mom finally figured it out her exact words were "What do you want me to buy, the kind that goes inside? Or the kind that goes outside?" :rolleyes:

lol... wow. I didn't realize how young I was when I started... I was 8. My parents had divorced, and my mom and I moved out of the house. I was on one of my FIRST over-nighters with my Dad, and we went to the movies to see "Babe" (one of the best movies, btw lol).

We got home, and I had to use the bathroom-- lo and behold!!! *sigh* So I yelled to my dad, and I was like "blood?" :p And he became really nervous and called my mom.

My mom... lol TRIED to do the ritual thing... She lit candles, and held my hands and did the whole "now you are a woman" speech... And we had these Salt & Pepper shakers that were a boy fish and a girl fish (lovingly nicknamed "Moby and Minnie Dick" :p) And she proceeded to use those as action figures to explain the birds and the bees... lol It was traumatizing. She told me years later that she always resented me starting my period at my Dad's house... (as if I had a choice???)

My favorite memory about TOM, though, is that my mom told me that she used to get debilitating cramps that would make her stay home from school... lol She shouldn't have put that thought in my head ;) I missed many-a-day of school pretending to have cramps!

WoW some of these are great. I think that its awesome that some go tlittle celebrations. Now if only in 15 years when i have a daugher that starts her period i can remember that.

I was 10 and it was a Merry x-mas for me. I remember my stomach hurting when i got up and was thinking to myself wow merry friggin x-mas. We learned about this stuff in the 3rd grade (i was in 5th) so it wasnt really a surprise. I was more ticked off that it was on x-mas morning.
And that i was scared to tell my mom. I sat on my bed for a long time debating on what i should do. She wanted to show me how the pad went on and i just remember being so angry that she thought i would actually let her show me.

Kinda ot but the next period i had i pretty much demanded that she buy me tampons. Im sitting in the bathroom reading the box trying to figure out how it works and she kept banging on the dang door. Like do you need any help?! Umm no thanks no help here. I prolly should have asked for help cause she got me the ones with the plastic applicator and i didnt know how to use it so i left the plastic thing on and 1 it was painful and 2 the stupid thing kept slipping out. It prolly took 4 periods to realize this. Man that should relly be a part of sex ed in grade school. How to use a pad and a tampon