What do you wish you had known before you had your first period?
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@vagina_museum This ^.
I was fortunate that I was not “shocked” when I started bleeding, but the “shame” & hiding was definitely a significant undertone. What I wished to have known is taking pain relief early on & also understanding that fibroids are an actual thing… I finally got treated (15 yrs of pain)& had to have surgery which removed a fibroid the size of a softball along with 5 smaller ones. EDUCATION ON THIS AND TALKING ABOUT IT IS PARAMOUNT. We definitely need to STOP SHAMING IT NOW.
@vagina_museum And for the record, I’ve begun my own campaign about talking about all of this
I wish I had someone like myself & other women in my life who talked about this when I was a teenager. So I’m doing it now regardless if people around me think it’s “impolite” because there’s a girl out there who will need to know this stuff! I’m not ashamed anymore if people give me “the look” when they think I’m being “impolite” I say it straight that this needs talking about, get over it 🩷 -
What do you wish you had known before you had your first period?
Across the world menstruation continues to be shrouded in stigma, shame, and silence. Millions of children face their menarche without knowing what it is, why it’s happening, what it’s called, or what to do. Too often, the answers to these questions are only found through an individual’s own experience.
@vagina_museum I had 2 older sisters + our mom & at age 12 I knew nothing more than what I secretly read on the sanitary pad boxes in the bathroom. I had no idea what to expect in real life. That "belt". What sort of contraption was that?
My mother was awful. I know that's terrible to say, but when I did get the courage to ask, she told me tampons caused pregnancy. Then, while on a family vacation at 13, I started & was too embarrassed to tell anyone. Spent time washing underwear to hide it
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@vagina_museum That it's possible (for some folks) to opt out!
I figured out skipping the birth control sugar pills in my teens, had and nursed babies in my 20s, then an IUD and have generally avoided having to deal with them most of my life.
Not an option for everyone, but I'm shocked so many people put up with the pain and mess.
@maj @vagina_museum Don't take this as critique, ok? In my case, although now my periods are mild, I put up with it, because the hormonal options were absolutely detrimental to my mental health and I would choose excruciating pain for a day each month over going insane. (I'm talking close to drug abuse insane, I'm talking restraint jacket insane.) Obviously the hormones weren't the only cause of that, but once I stopped, my MH stopped deteriorating. I could breathe and heal.
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What do you wish you had known before you had your first period?
Across the world menstruation continues to be shrouded in stigma, shame, and silence. Millions of children face their menarche without knowing what it is, why it’s happening, what it’s called, or what to do. Too often, the answers to these questions are only found through an individual’s own experience.
@vagina_museum my emotionally neglectful mother didn't warn me so my first period was extremely traumatic
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@maj @vagina_museum Don't take this as critique, ok? In my case, although now my periods are mild, I put up with it, because the hormonal options were absolutely detrimental to my mental health and I would choose excruciating pain for a day each month over going insane. (I'm talking close to drug abuse insane, I'm talking restraint jacket insane.) Obviously the hormones weren't the only cause of that, but once I stopped, my MH stopped deteriorating. I could breathe and heal.
@nele1999 @vagina_museum I know it's not an option for everyone! YMMV but I still think that there should be more awareness that it is possible for at least some of us.
For me, periods were always heavy, irregular, and very painful. I also had a reaction to medication when I was a young teen that had me bleeding for almost 3 months non stop. So the side effects are totally worth it in my case.
I don't think it's a critique to share your personal experience.
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What do you wish you had known before you had your first period?
Across the world menstruation continues to be shrouded in stigma, shame, and silence. Millions of children face their menarche without knowing what it is, why it’s happening, what it’s called, or what to do. Too often, the answers to these questions are only found through an individual’s own experience.
If even my ignorant male ass knows about endometriosis, what the hell is everyone else's excuse?
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@vagina_museum This ^.
I was fortunate that I was not “shocked” when I started bleeding, but the “shame” & hiding was definitely a significant undertone. What I wished to have known is taking pain relief early on & also understanding that fibroids are an actual thing… I finally got treated (15 yrs of pain)& had to have surgery which removed a fibroid the size of a softball along with 5 smaller ones. EDUCATION ON THIS AND TALKING ABOUT IT IS PARAMOUNT. We definitely need to STOP SHAMING IT NOW.I don't think I'll ever understand how something that happens to almost every woman on a monthly basis could be considered shameful.
Are we next going to tell people to be ashamed of pooping?
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@nusher @vagina_museum Yep clicked through to the thread to say this!
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Menarche is a moment of change, of transformation. It shouldn’t be shamed or shrouded in secrecy. Talking about it can be scary, but it also opens a door to connection.
What do YOU wish you had known?
@vagina_museum *i* was well informed but my comrades were not and harrassed me when i had leaks. No one ever offered me help or sanitary products at school.
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I don't think I'll ever understand how something that happens to almost every woman on a monthly basis could be considered shameful.
Are we next going to tell people to be ashamed of pooping?
@argv_minus_one Already happening. For women at least. It's stupid, but there are people who think it is not ok for women to talk about pooping, having to poop or fart for that matter.
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What do you wish you had known before you had your first period?
Across the world menstruation continues to be shrouded in stigma, shame, and silence. Millions of children face their menarche without knowing what it is, why it’s happening, what it’s called, or what to do. Too often, the answers to these questions are only found through an individual’s own experience.
@vagina_museum That you don’t have to keep the fact you’re having one top secret - smuggling pads into the loo hidden in tissue boxes and similar nonsense! The best thing about covid was the hot water bottle in the lap for cramps. Had been settling for paracetamol in-office.
I get active pleasure from stubborn non-secrecy these days. “Oh are you cold?” - “Nope I have period pain”. Stunned Silence. But why though? If I had said I had a heat pad for back pain would have been unremarkable.
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What do you wish you had known before you had your first period?
Across the world menstruation continues to be shrouded in stigma, shame, and silence. Millions of children face their menarche without knowing what it is, why it’s happening, what it’s called, or what to do. Too often, the answers to these questions are only found through an individual’s own experience.
@vagina_museum
Before my first period, I wish I would have known that throughout my adult life, in which I never wavered in my choice to not bear children, that my uterus would be a source of debilitating pain, and that a patriarchal medical system would prolong my suffering by denying my hysterectomy until I was perimenopausal due to "risk of regret," and that I should have lawyered-up and been a raging self-advocate from the get-go. -
@vagina_museum *i* was well informed but my comrades were not and harrassed me when i had leaks. No one ever offered me help or sanitary products at school.
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What do you wish you had known before you had your first period?
Across the world menstruation continues to be shrouded in stigma, shame, and silence. Millions of children face their menarche without knowing what it is, why it’s happening, what it’s called, or what to do. Too often, the answers to these questions are only found through an individual’s own experience.
@vagina_museum
I just wish I had known that it was going to happen at all. It's so panic-inducing to find blood in your panties. -
Menarche is a moment of change, of transformation. It shouldn’t be shamed or shrouded in secrecy. Talking about it can be scary, but it also opens a door to connection.
What do YOU wish you had known?
i wish that someone told me that menstrual blood could be brown, so that when it first happened twice something like a year apart when i was 10/11, i didn't think (both times) that i'd eaten too much fruit and my bum was leaking and that i couldn't eat fruit till it stopped and for the following few weeks just in case.
i was ... older ... when it finally dawned on me what that had been.
(knowing that endometriosis was a thing might've helped too. but now i do know, i also know i have it, and i have no treatment anyway, so. i guess i'll stick with the not-poo thing as my "i wish".)
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@vagina_museum
I just wish I had known that it was going to happen at all. It's so panic-inducing to find blood in your panties.@artemis @vagina_museum That & imagine the horror and shock of finding a large “lump” in your pelvic area long before you even had sex (referring to the fibroids)
Thinking that you “might have cancer” that is known to be hard to treat/lethal (referring to ovarian) & not knowing anything about “fibroids” or doctors not telling you anything about them is disturbing.
Having multiple papsmears/palpa prior & not knowing that this is something to look out for is really wrong. -
Menarche is a moment of change, of transformation. It shouldn’t be shamed or shrouded in secrecy. Talking about it can be scary, but it also opens a door to connection.
What do YOU wish you had known?
@vagina_museum I wish I had known that it was totally normal that the menstrual cycle was *not* exactly 28 days. We actually learned a lot about the cycle and hormonal changes and everything in school, but it was always supposed to be exactly 28 days.
Mine was sometimes... 6-8 weeks (and also sometimes rather black than red). I was worried, but didn't dare to mention it to anyone. -
@artemis @vagina_museum That & imagine the horror and shock of finding a large “lump” in your pelvic area long before you even had sex (referring to the fibroids)
Thinking that you “might have cancer” that is known to be hard to treat/lethal (referring to ovarian) & not knowing anything about “fibroids” or doctors not telling you anything about them is disturbing.
Having multiple papsmears/palpa prior & not knowing that this is something to look out for is really wrong.@artemis @vagina_museum Again, the “shaming” is a big part of this. I was raised by my father who thought that bad pain from menstrual cramps were “not being tough to pain” (basically your a baby if you think it’s painful, this coming from a man who was an ABSOLUTE BABY to any pain aka, no pain tolerance
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@vagina_museum I wish I had known that it was totally normal that the menstrual cycle was *not* exactly 28 days. We actually learned a lot about the cycle and hormonal changes and everything in school, but it was always supposed to be exactly 28 days.
Mine was sometimes... 6-8 weeks (and also sometimes rather black than red). I was worried, but didn't dare to mention it to anyone.@vagina_museum But in general I would say that I was rather well informed. I knew as a child that my mother wore "mom diapers" sometimes. And in elementary school (when we were 8 or 9), before our first schooltrip, our teacher called all the girls and explained what the period was about and that it could start soon for some of us.
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What do you wish you had known before you had your first period?
Across the world menstruation continues to be shrouded in stigma, shame, and silence. Millions of children face their menarche without knowing what it is, why it’s happening, what it’s called, or what to do. Too often, the answers to these questions are only found through an individual’s own experience.
@vagina_museum I wish I'd known how to recognize my first period. I didn't know for a few hours and ended up thinking I had somehow pooped myself without realizing
Also, let's not forget about what happened with Carrie
