My Menarche (2018 – 19)

When I was little earwigging on my mum’s talk with her neighbours she would say her “friend had come”.  And I used to think, what friend? Later seeing washing lines of dusters(?) on those neighbour’s lines I was told they were for your friend. Later again I was given a…

My first period came when I was 14 years old. I remember feeling relieved as most of my friends already had periods. I felt embarrassed to tell my mum as we hadn’t spoken about it much – I had learned about it from my friends. My mum gave me some…

Despite mum and dad saying they’d keep their divorce civil for the sake of us kids, they didn’t. I was 14 and it was a difficult time, made worse by a friend asking every morning when I arrived at school: ‘what’s the latest gossip’? Referring to the continual angst between…

I was 14 before my periods started, At the time I was a pupil at a large comprehensive school full of thousands of girls. I was the last to start in my class of 32 girls. I remember the humiliation of my gym teacher making us girls put up our hands in…

I was a teenager in the 1960’s.  We didn’t have sex education at primary school, and I’m not sure that we did at secondary school either, but somehow I had picked up the basic information that periods happen.  My first period came when I was 14, and at school.  It…

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…

When I was in my early teens, I found a book called ‘Have you started yet?’ in the house. Whether it had been put there for me to find, or more likely belonged to my elder sister, I didn’t know. It was the only information I was given about periods….

I think I was 13 when my periods started. I came on in the middle of the night – waking and taking myself to the toilet. I imagine I stuffed toilet paper in my pants. I certainly didn’t wake my mother or share with her. I didn’t really know what to expect, though I…

I genuinely don’t remember my own Menarche – I have tried really hard to picture or pinpoint it, but I have no idea. Whenever it was it can’t have been recognised, let alone celebrated. In a house of 4 women and me the youngest I think I probably knew where…

I was 12 when I got my first period, on a holiday camp where I was predominantly riding horses. Good times. I was a very -aware- little girl, so I had tampons in my luggage, and used them without incident.The issue was that I felt -dirty-. I had none of…