5 things i wish i knew before i got my first period

Cover Photo by Ekaterina Novitskaya on Unsplash

When I first got my period, I didn’t bathe or shower the entire time because I thought the blood would do something bad to our plumbing. When I first tried to wear a tampon, it popped out at softball practice because I didn’t put it in all the way. When I first bled through my shorts at school, I thought I would never experience something as embarrassing for the rest of my life.

Unfortunately for people who menstruate, there does not exist a handbook on how to take care of your period, so many of us get a few things wrong at the start. I talked to 17 students about their experiences with menstruation, based on our chats I came up with 5 things I wish I knew before I got my first period:

What it looks like

I thought it was going to be red like when I get a paper cut. But my first period was brown and I thought I shit myself. 

What the different products are and how to use them

In school we are taught about pads and tampons, but I didn’t know anything about underwear or diva cups. I also had no idea how to use any of it. I thought that pads were supposed to stick to your skin, not your underwear. Luckily pads are fairly intuitive, but I didn’t figure out how tampons worked for years. This was especially troubling since I’m a big scuba diver. I remember getting my period before a dive and being afraid that the sharks would find me because my tampon wasn’t in right. It wasn’t until I watched a Tampax commercial that consisted of Amy Schumer shoving a tampon into a donut that I finally understood how to do it. 

I’m not going to get toxic shock syndrome

I don’t know why society has collectively agreed to scare the shit out of girls with stories of toxic shock syndrome. It seems like everyone from my generation had to watch the same video about this former model who left a tampon in for too long and had to get a leg removed. While TSS is real and is tragic, it is also significantly rarer than I was led to believe. I used to be so terrified of sleeping with a tampon in that I would set an alarm so I could change it in the middle of the night.

There is nothing to be ashamed of

I used to get chronic nosebleeds in school, I’m talking blood gushing out of my face on the daily. When it would happen my main concern was always containing it, not making sure that no one noticed my nosebleed. But with my period it was different, I wouldn’t feel as comfortable raising my hand and asking the teacher for a pad as I would asking for tissue. I find this incredibly ironic today because clearly getting my period is much more natural that getting nosebleeds all the time. I want nothing more than to live in a world where women don’t have to sneak period products into their sleeves or open up pads slowly and carefully in public restrooms so that no one will hear. Half the world menstruates, let’s stop menstruating in silence!

How to talk about periods

Speaking of menstruating in silence, the subject has always been so taboo that I and other women like me have felt uncomfortable talking about menstruation with others for a long time. Sitting down with my peers and talking about our experiences with menstruation in an open and honest space made me realize how much communicative support was lacking when I first started menstruating. I wish there was a way to implement these small group discussions into schools for younger people who menstruate so that they can get the informational and emotional support that they need to help ease apprehension surrounding the menstruation process.