When I was twelve years old I came in from riding my horse, which I did every day, went to the loo and noticed blood in my pants. I took them off without thinking anything of it, apart from that I rode mostly bareback so maybe I had cut myself somehow. For the rest of the afternoon, I changed my pants another two or three times before casually mentioning it to my Mum. Needless to say, I wasn’t prepared for her response … I suddenly found myself in a deep embrace with her telling me I had become a woman! I was confused and then devastated, how could this be happening to me and if this was becoming a woman, I did not want to be one! She had tried to prepare me by discussing it but she had also tried on numerous occasions to tell me about the birds and the bees, she was an artist and we grew up with ‘The Joy of Sex’ lying around the house for us all to roll our eyes at, so I didn’t really pay any attention to it and definitely wasn’t interested. Since becoming a mother myself I too now talk about it with my two young girls and when they ask about my ‘knicker bandage’ I tell them over and over again that this will one day be part of their lives … I will no doubt want them to fully understand and go on to appreciate the quite incredible cycle of the body.