Last week a few of us here at EmpowHer were exploring www.mypetiteamie.com, an innovative woman-owned business that provides personal hygiene products for girls entering puberty. Seeing the great Petite Amie products and educational resources for girls who are starting their periods made us reminisce about what it was like when we were entering that realm. For me, it was not fun at all. When my best friends were all starting their periods, I felt so different, and well, basically like a total freak because I hadn't started mine yet. By the time I was in high school, I started carrying pads in my bag once a month and would pretend that I was suffering from cramps, like my friends were, because I wanted to fit in so badly. I even popped Motrin when they did. It turned out that I didn't start my period until I was 21 and well into college. Now of course I know it was because of all of my long distance running, which I started at the age of 12. (When you're competing in marathons and running 10-15 miles a day, and have hardly any body fat, you're most likely not going to have a period...) As a teen girl without her period, I felt humiliated. Looking back, I wish I'd appreciated all those period-free months and not worried so much about fitting in.
How about you? Were you prepared when you had your first period? Were you excited, scared, or not at all bothered?
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I am 13 and my twin started her period yesterday! I still don't have mine and when we went to buy our first training bras because my sister had started developing I found one and said if it's the only one I want it. However then my mom said "No, if it is the only one your sister gets it because you don't even need it!". I felt so weird because my mom said that stuff :( I really want my period and my boobs are just starting to develop like hers were a year and a half ago! I just don't know why I have not been through puberty yet...I really want to because everbody has had it! As I said I am 13 and almost 5 ft tall and I weigh 90 pounds. My mom started her period some where between 8th and 9th grade. To tell you the truth sometimes I where pads just to make me feel like I have my period which I know is weird so I hide the used ones in my backpack to throw out at school. Could some of you women or girls please help me because I feel so left out and I kind of don't want to tell my mom when I do get it because I will feel weird. Please please please help me... do you know any thing I can do to make it come sooner?
-Upset about no period and desperate for help...:(
April 3, 2011 - 11:27amThis Comment
I am 13 and my twin started her period yesterday! I still don't have mine and when we went to buy our first training bras because my sister had started developing I found one and said if it's the only one I want it. However then my mom said "No, if it is the only one your sister gets it because you don't even need it!". I felt so weird because my mom said that stuff :( I really want my period and my boobs are just starting to develop like hers were a year and a half ago! I just don't know why I have not been through puberty yet...I really want to because everbody has had it! As I said I am 13 and almost 5 ft tall and I weigh 90 pounds. My mom started her period some where between 8th and 9th grade. To tell you the truth sometimes I where pads just to make me feel like I have my period which I know is weird so I hide the used ones in my backpack to throw out at school. Could some of you women or girls please help me because I feel so left out and I kind of don't want to tell my mom when I do get it because I will feel weird. Please please please help me... do you know any thing I can do to make it come sooner?
-Upset about no period and desperate for help...:(
April 3, 2011 - 11:23amThis Comment
I grew up in a very old fashioned family and when I got mine at 15 or so, I hid my soiled underwear in the attic. I was mortified and embarassed and didn't tell a soul. My period didn't fully start until about a year later.
December 8, 2008 - 6:30pmUnfortunately, my mother found the dirty underwear in the attic and was sweet to me, though she said the very worst thing in my mind(as I didn't want to grow up), " You're a woman now". I didn't want to be a woman and was even more embarassed.
When I eventually sneaked out to buy a bra, I wouldn't dare put it in the laundry basket and wore it for a full month without washing it. I was afraid that my father and brother would see it hanging out to dry. My fater had made a comment to my sister and I about having something hidden in our sweaters(meaning breasts) and I was again, horrified at this!
When I finally washed the bra, I shook it outside to dry (it was raining!!!!) and put it back on wet!!!!
Funny to talk about now!
I wouldn't go back! I never understood why girls wanted bras and periods. I found the whole thing to be a mortification!
Now I love my wonderbras!!!! LOL!
This Comment
I started talking about this with my eldest daughter when she was about 8 or 9, just in very basic terms, and I'm so glad I did because she started when she was 10! That really blew me away, especially after my own experience.
Yes, 21 was extremely old to start and whenever I share that with a doctor, I always get raised eyebrows. My mom did take me to see her gynecologist when I was 16 and he told me that I should stop running so much. But he didn't explain the correlation to me or to my mom. And he warned me that if I didn't start my period soon, then I'd never be able to have children. That kind of scared me, but again, I had no idea what the relation to low body fat had to menstruation. So he wasn't a lot of help. And, because I was so into running and competing in races, telling me to stop running was like telling me to stop breathing.
But because of what he said about never being able to have babies, I just assumed that I wouldn't be able to simply because I'd started my period so late. That turned out to be totally wrong info.....
December 8, 2008 - 2:52pmThis Comment
Like you anonymous, my mom had to figure things out on her own. Her parents would not talk about it. Just gave her pads and a book. She probably learned more from her friends than anyone else.
So, when it was my turn she made be feel very comfortable and normal. During private mother-daughter conversations she taught me about what I was going through and the symptoms I was likely to experience. I knew I could come to her with questions and this made the experience much easier.
It is unfortunate that many women in the past had to learn on their own about their period, but this closed communications seems to have helped open communication for future generations of mothers and daughters.
I experienced by first period at the end of 5th grade, which is somewhat young, but many of my friends got theirs at the same time which made the transition easier as well.
Unfortunately, I learned early in life about painful cramps that often kept me out of school about once every two months.
December 8, 2008 - 2:45pmThis Comment
I got mine in the middle of the night and my parents didnt talk too much about the transition. So I had to figure out a lot on my own which was unfortunate.
December 8, 2008 - 12:48pmThis Comment