Your first period..

I think cake, discretion and some one and one time with Mam is a lovely introduction to womanhood.

Beth

Quality wrote: »

What do the rest of you ladies think would be a nice thing to do on the day in question...

Start as you mean to go on.
Every other day its a man's world, make this day hers, and every month thereafter. Hot water bottle/beanbag, box of choc, decent DVD's, a take away, few mags/books and a quilt on the sofa She could well suffer for the rest of her life so might as well have her enjoy it!! As well as remembering the first day of it for the rest of her life so nothing embarrassing!


girl friday, i know exactly how you felt!! I wasnt supposed to use that toilet either but I had to Jaysus i wasnt long after making my communion so it was a royal pain in the bum!!

Nevyn

Moonbaby wrote: »

I think cake, discretion and some one and one time with Mam is a lovely introduction to womanhood.

That and prolly a load of bath stuff from lush which she loves.

It's hard to want to tell her what she may need to now before it happens with out giving her too much info as she may not need it for a few years yet but I feel she is better of knowing and knowing it happens to all girls as they develop.
Guess the topic would come up more naturally if I was having periods.

Moonspell

I was 11... didn't have the "talk", there was no cake and my "tommy boy" days were not over at all..

But remember moving houses a few month after as my mother thought it wasn't really appropriate to share a room with my brother anymore!

nolly23

I was 12. Happened on a wed morn. My older sis and i shared a room and she spotted the stain on the back of my nightie. I was so delighted. Finally a woman!!!! We had these orange scented pads....... cant think of the name of them...... started with a V i think. God if i'd only known i wouldnt have been so excited:eek:

Aisling(",)

i got mine in double maths in 2nd year i think would have been 13.hated them at the time so painful.not as bad since im on the pill thank god!

Susannahmia

I got mine about two months before my 11th birthday.

It wasen't a shock as my mother had told me all about periods from a very early age. She made sure I knew early because she had gotten an awful fright when she got her first period at 11.

It was very very heavy altogether I remember but I didn't get another one till about ten months later.

Untill I went on the pill three years ago at 17 my periods were always very heavy, would last five days+ and I would sometimes faint with the pain of the cramps I got. Not fun at all!

I've been off the pill for about four months now and so far (fingers crossed) they havent been half as bad. Hopefully I've grown out of it!

Kotick

xzanti wrote: »

I know a girl who's mother took her out for dinner to celebrate when she got her first period... Always found that a bit..

I was 12 and my mom took me out for ice cream and let me stay home from school the next day.

Curvy Vixen

I was 9...and that was 33 years ago! Very strange in that day and age to happen so young....

Jules

Think the day hould be marked as it is a very big occasion! I didn't even get the talk from my mum at the time, she didn't tell me a thing which was grand as i didn't get another one for about a year and a half. Only became regular since i went on the pill. Fecking PCOS.. My oldest sister gave me "the talk" and it was only when i asked about it. She sat me down with her leaving cert biology book and explained in detail, i think i was about 11 or soemthing.

I think its handled much better these days as the older section of us are mortified at how our mothers handled it!

Awayindahils

My dad used to have an office above a well woman clinic. My mum had left a book that explained everything under my pillow a few months before, and I had read Bliss/Sugar/J17 from about the age of 10 (I dont know how I got them to buy it for me) but I remember my Dad completely freaking out after my mum told him I got my period. Off he went to the WW clinic and got every possible pamphlet that they had. I was soo embarrassed when he handed me the box.

Pigletlover

I was 13, thought it was never going to come, most of my friends even the younger ones had theirs. My story is really embarassing, it started off really dark brown and kind of lumpy (sorry ). I had been given the 'talk', but becasue of the colour I didn't realise it was my period. I had terrible cramps so I was convinced I was going to die or something. I was afraid to say anything to my mother, but she seen the stains and sat me down to ask me why didn't I tell her I had started my period. The relief!

She Devil

I was 14/15 i was so late, i pretended to my friends that i got them when i didnt, just so i could join in on their conversations. I got them on a saturday morning i was so happy, i ran down the stairs two at a time to tell my mother she started jumping around the living room saying
YOU ARE A WOMAN ..... oh god the mortification, then she asked me did i know how to use a sanitary towel. I didnt but i said yeah, wasnt long learning. Id take a wet dream any day!!

wicklowgal

Awayindahils wrote: »

My dad used to have an office above a well woman clinic. My mum had left a book that explained everything under my pillow a few months before, and I had read Bliss/Sugar/J17 from about the age of 10 (I dont know how I got them to buy it for me) but I remember my Dad completely freaking out after my mum told him I got my period. Off he went to the WW clinic and got every possible pamphlet that they had. I was soo embarrassed when he handed me the box.

Your Dad is the cutest dad ever!

Spicy Lauren

i was 12. Didnt know what was going on. Used toilet paper to hide it for a couple of days. Then i mentionned it to my godmother (no mam around) and the first thing she did was giving me a big slap in the face.
Apparently it's tradition in France. Not fun!

Boston

Sorry but I found that hilarious. You've got the bleeding, the horrible pain, the embarrassment and to top it all off you get a slap in the face.

Dudess

Spicy Lauren wrote: »

i mentionned it to my godmother (no mam around) and the first thing she did was giving me a big slap in the face.
Apparently it's tradition in France.

Holy fu*k! Why?

Spicy Lauren

no idea.

Just googled it and apparently i'm not the only one! Seems to be a jewish tradition... I ain't jewish and neither is my godmother though...

http://www.menstruation.com.au/contributors/slap.html

Dudess

Reminds me of Carrie when she tells her crazy religious mother she's started menstruating...

was off in the gaeltacht, think i was 11-12
mentioned it to mum when i got back
she started trying to get excited but /shrug
wasnt a big deal to me tbh

nothing embarrassing either thankfully... and no slaps

Harpy

SMG123 wrote: »

I was 16 too

i was 16 aswell, if people asked me when i was like 14/15 i used say i'd gotten it cause everyone else had.

b3t4

I seem to be the only one who hasn't an iota what age I was when I got my first period.

I also had a terrible relationship with my mother so hid it from her for two years. When I finally did tell her I put it on a post it and got my sister to give it to her. <cringe> She asked me if there was anything I needed to know and I said 'no' and that was it.

The above makes me a little sad.
A.

Dudess

Aw man that is really sad...

bnagrrl

I think I was 13, maybe 14.

Don't know how true this is but I heard before that years ago (100s of years ago) girls didn't get their periods till much later, like 18/19/20 as it had to do with the moon cycle and now we are exposed to so much unnatural light thanks to electricity etc it has affected the cycle and now women get them younger and younger and it is thought that in the future girls will start them from ages under 10 :eek:

As I said, don't know how true that is, heard it in college and I've tried to google it with no luck. Anyone else heard this before?

F.A.

I have never heard about light playing a role, but it sounds interesting! A while ago, there was a documentary on TV by the BBC about puberty, and it also dealt with the phenomenon of earlier onset of periods. First of all, stress seems to be a major factor. There are many reported cases of girls who were born into the war in Bosnia, and they started to show first signs of puberty around the age of six. Disturbing! I remember a family portrayed in the documentary who had adopted a girl from Bosnia, and their doctor put the girl on hormonal treatment so as to delay puberty for a few years.

Another and much more normal factor seems to be weight. According to that documentary, once a girl reaches 48 kg, she is likely to have experience her first period within 3 to 6 months. That would indeed explain why girls seem to be getting their period earlier nowadays. Nutrition has vastly improved, obesity is now a problem. No surprise periods set in earlier.

One thing I found somewhat spooky is that they introduced two twin girls. One had her first period exactly one day after her sister had hers. :eek:

Stargal

F.A. wrote: »

First of all, stress seems to be a major factor. There are many reported cases of girls who were born into the war in Bosnia, and they started to show first signs of puberty around the age of six. Disturbing!

Jaysus :eek: That's mad; you'd think your body would do everything it could to delay getting your period until the stress has abated. The last thing you'd want in the middle of a war is to get your period for the first time!

That's very interesting about the weight theory as well. Hadn't heard that before but it would explain why so many people are getting them younger and younger.

I got mine when I was 11 and it was terrible. I was at a table quiz (one of those Credit Union ones that they ran in primary school) and as well as getting really bad cramps, I also had a skull-pounding migraine. Seriously, it was like puberty had decided that it was going to make me into target practice and throw everything at me at once.

So in between rounds I had to run into the bathroom to puke, freak out at the blood and then come back and pretend that everything was ok and answer loads of questions. Plus there were loads of people in the hall and hardly any windows open so it was absolutely boiling.

On a side note we actually won the table quiz which was pretty cool. But it was still a pretty crappy way to get your first period, and a million miles away from all those cute little Judy Blume stories where the girl notices a tiny bit of blood, gets loads of hugs and support from her mum and there's absolutely no pain or discomfort at all. Hah! Fiction writing, you've let me down once again.

F.A.

Stargal wrote: »

Jaysus :eek: That's mad; you'd think your body would do everything it could to delay getting your period until the stress has abated. The last thing you'd want in the middle of a war is to get your period for the first time!

Well, we're only highly evolved animals, after all, victim of nature and thus, evolution. That means: war => high risk of dying => need to procreate fast => period at young age. With weight, it seems that nature deems 48 kg enough to nourish an embryo.

And yet again I feel us women drew the arse card in the game they call life. :pac:

On a side note we actually won the table quiz which was pretty cool. But it was still a pretty crappy way to get your first period, and a million miles away from all those cute little Judy Blume stories where the girl notices a tiny bit of blood, gets loads of hugs and support from her mum and there's absolutely no pain or discomfort at all. Hah! Fiction writing, you've let me down once again.

So true. At least some tv series makes up for it. I remember that episode from Roseanne when Darlene had her first period. Quite well done I thought. Quite the contrast to Lucy on 7th Heaven. Gawd, how annoying that show was...

bnagrrl

Google Lina Medina. She started menstruating at age 8 months!!! :eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek:

She also holds the record as the world's youngest mother at age 5 :eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek:

I think I saw that episode of 7th Heaven, did she say something along the lines of "Dad would you do me the honour of buying me tampons?"
Give me a break! :rolleyes:

F.A.

bnagrrl wrote: »

Google Lina Medina. She started menstruating at age 8 months!!! :eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek:

She also holds the record as the world's youngest mother at age 5 :eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek:

Right, this really freaked me out! :eek: That poor girl!!

I think I saw that episode of 7th Heaven, did she say something along the lines of "Dad would you do me the honour of buying me tampons?"
Give me a break! :rolleyes:

Yipp. Of all the mental characters in that series, she is the most deranged! :eek:

hattie-f

i was 13 and i was at a neighbours house half babysitting i was realy scared :pac: