How were you told about the onset of periods

I started at 12 and my mum had given me a ‘kind’ of talk on what would happen. She showed me a massive sanitary towel on a belt and I had no idea by the end of it how it was all going to work.. She was very embarrassed. But when I started I was extremely excited and felt so grown up . I had changed forever.
Even now past the menopause I actually miss periods.

Only found out from a friend in primary school who had started her period before any of us had heard of such a thing. She took each of us in turn into the toilets and showed us her sanitary belt and pad. When I started I told my mother and she went and bought a belt and pads for me, told me how to dispose of the pads and that was that.

I was told at school in a PE class. I was 11 This was in 1962. When I started at 13 I woke to bed sheets soaked in blood and called my mother who gave me belt and towels. There was a machine in loo at school to buy towels and an incinerator to burn used ones

I was at the doctors for loss of appetite. I was eleven and he asked mum if I'd started my periods. She told him I hadn't. On the way home she explained what periods were. She was quite embarrassed about it. I didn't start for another two years and mum said "don't tell your dad or brother"!

I remember an aunt feeling sorry for a woman who had several children. When I asked why she’d had so many the reply was that it wasn’t her fault. I then imagined that if you had sex just the once you just went on and on having babies.

A friend told me during the summer holidays that we had to know about periods before we started at the grammar school. I asked mum why she hadn’t told me and she said she thought it would be a long time before I needed to know. She was right - I was 15 !!

I'd gone to the loo in school after a PE lesson...I can remember looking down and being convinced that I'd done myself a terrible injury!
I shouted through the door to my friend to get a teacher.

They'd given me a huge thick pad and taken me home, my mum wasn't there so my dad got the job.
He told me that my body was changing and this would happen every month but not to worry about it at all...it was very special and he'd get me the special bandages I'd need. I was then wrapped up on the sofa with a hot water bottle.
I was 8 at the time so I don't think anyone thought I'd needed the 'talk' yet.

I was told that babies were born through a Zipper that appeared down pregnant ladies' backs. Girls bled a little each month so that the body could prepare itself for the Zipper.
FFS...

Just remembered an example of my mother's ridiculous embarrassment of anything to do with sex. I was about six when we went to visit some relations. I was sat in the lounge when my older cousin waddled in nursing an enormous stomach, obviously almost ready to give birth. I couldn't help blurting out, what was wrong with Hilda? I remember my mother and aunt sharing a coy smile before my mother told me that cousin Hilda was poorly. I was so horrified, couldn't imagine what illness could cause that bump! Isn't that sad.

I was twelve. During morning break at school I 'discovered' I had started my period when I went to the toilet. I was mortified as I was totally unprepared and had no money for the vending machine. We had been given 'the talk' as school some months before along with a booklet which I took home to show Mum but even then she didn't enlarge on the fact or explain where I could find pads at home - I had an older sister. Another girl, who I hardly knew, lent my two shillings to buy a pad the size of the Isle of Wight. That was the start of a great friendship. I told Mum when I got home and she instructed my sister to tell me where the pads were kept at home.
The experience made me adamant that my daughters would be well prepared for their first periods and I have never understood why the subject was, and still is, taboo amongst some families etc.

I was quite a late starter and Mum told me about periods. I remember finding packs of Dr. White's sanitary towels in her dressing table cupboard! I had to use the pads until I left home as tampons were a no-no (you weren't a virgin if you used them!!!) but finally at college started using Tampax. As for a talk about sex, my parents went to a new parents' evening at my brothers school (we're very close in age and were the same school year) and came home with a booklet with sections for boys and girls. We were given the relevant section and sent to our rooms. We didn't ask any questions!!

When I was doing my biology O level our teacher taught us about human reproduction - brave man teaching a class full of girls! - and contraception. It was a Catholic convent school and the nuns would have had a fit if they'd known!!

A booklet issued by the sanitary towel brand ‘Lilia’ from ‘Sister Marion’, a sanitary towel belt and a pack of sanitary towels. Mum was always too embarrassed to answer questions about anything to do with sex or reproduction-I was made to feel ‘dirty’ for asking! Strange as Mum was a nurse! I corrected this deficiency through the wonderful Encyclopaedia Britannica and, eventually, biology classes at school. I shared this information with my younger sister at the right time. I made sure my own daughters were well prepared and my elder granddaughter was very knowledgeable too before her periods started.

Terribly sad reading all these posts. My mother was so awful and embarrassed by any mention of periods or sex. Who was responsible for this attitude? It's a wonder any of us were ever born, and there must have been a lot of unhappiness in the bedroom. Luckily I was a nosy child and found out everything I needed to know from books and older friends. Sex was wonderful and I made sure my sons knew all about periods. Thank goodness today's young woman are so well informed about their bodies.

The Reverend Chad Varah started The Samaritans because a 14 year old girl in his parish had committed suicide when her periods started. She thought she had a sexually transmitted disease.
Reading through a number of your comments,she was not the only one at that time to have no idea what was happening to her body.
My mother called it 'coming unwell' when I started menstruating.
I thought she was saying 'coming on well', as I hadn't ever heard her say that phrase before!

Your Dad sounds nice Nannashirlz

I went to the loo and started crying because I was bleeding my poor dad was at home and had to explain to me it was normal and not to cry and he got one of my mums pads and told me put it in a clean pair of pants. Told me to go put them on after washed myself lol I was 10. When my mum got home from work and explain it all to me lol. Don’t think my dad ever got over that but we did become much closer. I could tell him anything after that. Miss my dad.

I hadn't been told and was too scared to tell my Mother who was actually fine about it but I still feel pissed off with her now. Fancy not talking to me about it

I cannot remember my mother ever telling me about periods but I seemed to know about them ?‍♀️ …. I didn’t start until I was 14 and remember I was so excited? …. And I never forgot the date as it was my grandad’s birthday!!

My mum told me as she was washing up, so she wouldn't have to face me I think. Very basic - this is what happens every month and that I was NEVER to mention it to my brother of father. No link to sex or why it happened. It felt like some secret thing that only women knew about.

I wasn’t. Fortunately I had a friend at school who realised what was happening to me and took me to the school secretary. When I went home and told my mum, she said “did you know what it was”? She then had to go and buy the belt and huge towels - I was almost 15 - she maybe thought it wouldn’t happen to me. I was very different with my daughters.

My Dad gave a brief explanation about these things and gave me an ancient book to read which I guess had belonged to Mum. I still don't know why Dad did this and not Mum. Mum did provide the horrendous paraphernalia at a later date and used to burn the soiled towels on the bonfire. How things have changed today, it really was archaic.

My mum told me about periods when I was 9 and put some stick on pads in my chest of drawers for when I would need them. I was 14 before that happened! I used to go to the corner shop for mum and sometimes there was a mysterious package wrapped up in newspaper called Dr whites. It was years before I realised what they were. We had sex education at school when I was 10. Mum told me and my brother that she was going to have another baby. I said she couldn't be as she was too old. She was 32!

My mum said 'well you know what it is don't you' when I got my first period, and that was it, I made sure my own daughter was fully prepared!!

I was 10 or 11 when our Boxer came on heat for the first time and my Mum took the opportunity to explain that human females had periods, though more frequently than dogs. Job done.

My mum explained this to me and there was a talk at school. A friend of mine, a well developed girl wasn't allowed to attend the talk at school and as it turned out, hadn't been told anything by her mum.

She started her first period at school and the poor girl was terrified when she realised she was bleeding.