Stories

When we had sex education in secondary school most girls already had their periods. And yet it was the first time we covered the topic in school. We had to fill in a useless worksheet about what a period was and what products there were. The boys all laughed and made jokes and our (female) teacher said nothing. I never felt comfortable talking about periods in school and I would open my pads at home to reduce noise in the school bathrooms when I had to change. I definitely wore pads longer than I should have because I was ashamed to go change them. All because of the period stigma. Now I am researching the menstrual taboo as part of my masters and getting comfortable talking about this absolutely normal subject. I will be playing my part in breaking the stigma. What will you be doing for us?
Anonymous

I believe my first period was when I was about 13 and I lived with my dad and my brother. Nothing had really been taught to us in school about periods and what different products were available and what different periods would be like more so about the general biology of a female and reproductive systems.
My periods growing up were always extremely painful , could leave me upset and were non consistent. I assumed it was normal as i didn’t really know any different.
I never really knew why until it got to a point in my late teens when I thought enough is enough and went to a health professional .
I found out I had PCOS and went private to find out more. I wish I would of known about this earlier to know the signs of it and what to look out for . I think people should be more educated on period products and signs of irregularity.
Also the price of period products is quite high , these should be reduced.

Anonymous

When I first got my period, it was an hour before playing a school football game when I was twelve. I was confused and scared to ask someone for help. Even when I texted my mother I had started, I was too embarrassed to say the actual words “I got my period” and tried finding ways around it by having her guess. I was grateful one of my friends gave me a pad, but I would have much preferred it if I could have gotten one from the toilets in the school I was visiting. This shows how we really need to de-stigmatise this issue and make period products accessible for all so that people getting their period’s first reaction isn’t fear.
Anonymous

I started my first period in primary school. I didn’t have access to any products and had no idea what to do so I sat in the classroom bleeding in shame all day, praying I wouldn’t leak through.
Anonymous

I like many have long been fed the myth that periods are supposed to be painful. Passing out or being sick? Melodramatic. Missing school or work? Melodramatic, everyone has painful periods you just have to get on with it. Yet, both of those things have happened to me and I’m only now learning, in my late 20s, what is medically normal and what needs further investigation. And in learning this, I’m learning that decades of medical bias means that women/people assigned female at birth (AFAB) means the way in which our hormones affect our entire bodies in totally different ways to AMAB, to the extent where even doses of over-the-counter drugs are designed with AMAB in mind, simply haven’t been studied or fully understood because hormones were “too complicated” to factor in. So, how can even medical professionals help us properly when they’re been trained through this broken, misogynistic system?
It’s taken me years of repeated appointments about the same issue to finally be taken seriously enough for a referral to gynaecology, which I hope will provide some answers but nothing is certain for the reasons explained above. Currently, my periods cause me to miss work because I am physically and emotionally incapable of being productive on one or two days of every month. We cannot allow this to continue being brushed under the carpet as I know I am not alone in this, and I want answers. We need urgent review of how menstrual issues are treated, more research into AFAB hormones full stop, and greater awareness of myth debunking around how we talk about and understand menstruation as a society.
Anonymous

I started my period when I was 9 years old. My primary school did not believe me, claiming I was saying so for ‘attention’ and ‘copying my sister’ . I was really scarred for P.E. because we all changed in the same classroom, boys and girls, I was really embarrassed and worried. The school refused to believe me until my mum took me to get a doctor to assess me and write a note. It still sticks with me because they made me feel ashamed of my period by changing on my own in the staff toilet after that and the teachers acted a huge burden, and not being believed really knocked my confidence.
Anonymous, Sheffield

I started older so had “normal ” experience but I do believe and think all people should have access to resources as its important and essential. My experience was when 16 so people understood more but should still be essential to everyone and knowledge and guidance should be passed on and made more aware.
Anonymous, Sheffield

In school for me it was very hard as we wasn’t able to afford period products so when I was on I didn’t go to school.
Anonymous, Sheffield

I started my period in year 7 and I was so embarrassed as I was sat next to my mate who is a boy and it was in my citizenship class and we were learning about OUR body during the lesson my period pains got so bad when my lesson had finished I fell to the floor, they called my dad to pick me up .

14, Barnsley

It was my first time on my period at school, and at my school you have to get a teacher to do a call out for someone to come and collect you to take you to the toilet it was a male teacher who came I didn’t want to tell him what was happing to me so I walked off and went for some products at first AID, however, I got punished and put in isolation for not explaining
16, Barnsley

my first period story is from when i was at school, I was getting changed after PE when i realised I had started my period. Because of the stigma I was very embarrassed and waited until I got home to use a pad. People should not be made to feel like this it is natural and should not be taboo
17, Barnsley

periods happen at every age and though free period products are spreading across secondary schools, primary schools still make no progress. a lot of my friends started their periods in year 6, some either earlier and so many young girls are uneducated and unsupplied when it comes to periods.
14, Barnsley

At school, I asked a male teacher to go to the toilet as I thought i was starting my period. He denied me the right to go to the toilet unless I explained why I should go during a lesson. I refused as I shouldn’t have had to explain myself as to why in front of everybody. I told my teacher aside why i needed to go to the toilet and he replied with ” you should know when your period is coming”
16, Barnsley

I started my period in an exam and had nothing with me and the school didn’t provide me with anything so I had to go home
Anonymous, Hampshire

When I first got my period at school it felt weird. I hated it. I did not like having to constantly move around. I just wanted to sit in one place. It was the worst when I would have P.E. Occasionally I would be allowed to sit out (depending on how nice the teacher was). Our school would provide pads but you would have to ask at the reception which was kinda awkward and not very discrete (I have thankfully never had to ask as I always made sure to carry extras just in case). A school I moved to, would have them in a box outside the nurses office and the head of year office which was nice. I think during school, being on your period felt like a massive burden and somewhat embarrassing at times like being in a mixed school and all. I would be paranoid in case I leaked on to a chair and someone saw haha. I don’t know why but opening a pad in one of the bathroom stalls with people around had to be the most nerve racking thing. I feel like it was embarrassing having others know you were on your period. It was silly stuff like that. Asking your friends to see if you’ve supposedly leaked had to be the funniest. I think it got better and less embarrassing when I finally realised that there’s nothing to be ashamed of and it’s perfectly natural, every woman experiences this. Now I don’t care and I feel okay with telling people that I am familiar with that I am on my period. I don’t use it to get out of things but people can be more understanding at times when you tell them e.g when you want to cancel on something. When my friends and I are both on our period at the same time- we have a little joke that we are blood sisters haha. I just find that funny. To all those reading this and are younger, please know that periods are not something to be ashamed of. Do not be embarrassed. Also they get better and more manageable as you get older. Using a period tracker, making sure to take pain relief, stocking up early on pads and having a heat pack are all life savers 💜
Anonymous, 19 – Birmingham

Our school has pads and tampons in the first aid room. We are allowed to go to the toilet. If you start in school you can walk out if the teacher doesn’t allow you to go.
Sheffield

Our school has pads and tampons in the first aid room. We are allowed to go to the toilet. If you start in school you can walk out if the teacher doesn’t allow you to go.
Sheffield

Boys should be taught about periods so its not embarassing for girls .
Age 12, Sheffield

I recently had to go to the toilet to change but I had run out of spare pads, the ones in the toilet cost £1 which most people can’t afford during the recent cost of living crisis.

Age 16, Sheffield

In my lessons anytime I go to the toilet I have to discreetly put a pad or tampon in my sleeve or in the waistband of my skirt. My uniform has no pockets and this is more difficult in summer when wearing t-shirts.
Age 15, Sheffield

In Year 7, my history teacher (male) used to ask if we were on our period if we wanted to go to the toilet during lessons. Boys always got to go but girls had to ‘be on their period.’ In our school toilet stalls, there are pad and tampon machines and we have to pay £1 for 1 pad and 1 tampon and apart from these machines there is no other reason for any student to carry cash so most times we have nothing to save us during an emergency.
Age 15, Sheffield

I wish I knew how bad period cramps could be. I started taking the combined pill to stop my periods for the cramps. After 8 months of being on it, why am I still getting terrible cramps?
Age 15, Sheffield

At my school if you want to go to the toilet you have to be escorted and will receive a behaviour point and detention. This makes me not want to go to the toilet and leaves me uncomfortable.
Age 18, Sheffield

I think it would be better if teachers and students just talked about it in the open with no shame so people don’t feel ashamed and they can stop using secret signals and let the students use the toilets during lessons.
Age 13, Sheffield

I was once told in a lesson when asking to go to the toilet on my period that she’d understand if I was younger but at my age I should be able to hold it. I also used to have a teacher, who, when someone asked to go to the toilet, it would go to a class vote. My ability to go to the toilet based off my popularity!? I always made sure I went before his lesson.

Age 15, Sheffield

I started my first ever period maybe 2 minutes before I was meant to take to the court in a junior netball match. I had received little education on this from school but had older cousins so knew what was going on. However, there were no products available in the leisure centre ( which to add, was not only home to every other sporting event you could think of, but without a doubt there would be 300+ female netball players from the ages of 8 all the way to adults week in week out) this meant in a panic and rushed I had to make a diy pad from toilet paper, whilst the seconds counted down on the clock for me to be on court. This was incredibly embarrassing for me, with the netball dress I was required to wear was extremely short, but at this point in time I was incredibly grateful for the shorts we wear. But the stress, fear and panic I felt that day is like no other I’ve ever felt, and could have quite easily been prevented had local facilities such as the leisure centre offered menstrual products
Anonymous, shared by Love your Period

My high school was an all girls convent high school. It was strict and fed us lots of stereotypes of what it means to be feminine for example, being told not to run around in the playground because it was ‘unlady like’. Sex education was limited and by the age of 13, I wasn’t entirely sure what a period full was, let alone the impacts of a period on the body. It felt incredibly taboo. I remember a friend whispering to me what they described as a tampon, which left me in shock. “You surely can’t stick something up there? how does that work?”. Once I started my period, I felt so much shame. I didn’t know what to do or who to tell because of the embarrassment, not even my own mum. I remember deciding that I was going to hide it, but what came with that was also having to buy sanitary products, which felt even more exposing to do. I had to toy between the idea of telling someone or trying to overcome the anxiety of buying pads for the first time- both felt like I was going to be laced with huge judgement because periods were something seen as bad and embarrassing. I decided to tell my mum and I remember her hugging me and giving me some pads- we never really spoke much about it, and it took me years till I told my older sister too. Following on in high school, I still felt petrified to buy my own sanitary products because if I did, the sales assistant would know I had my period and that felt overwhelming. I paid my friends to buy me pads or relied on my mum to get them for me. As I grew into my late teens, the talk of tampons returned. Because of the religious ideologies of my school, tampons were a huge discussion between our year group. So much false information was being spread amongst us. “If you use a tampon, you’ll lose your virginity” “If you use a tampon, you’re a slut” “People who use tampons are loose” etc. There was such a heavy weight of sexism and misogyny carried with whether you used a tampon or not and what that meant for you as a person (both spoken and unspoken). It took a lot of unlearning and self-education around periods to feel more confident in something that is so natural and beautiful.
Anonymous, 25 – London

I always felt like I had to hide my pads and like it was a shameful secret to bleed in school. I felt very misunderstood when I had too much pain to even go in. I think the education around periods wasn’t sufficient enough, especially around the LGBT+ community. Growing up I didn’t have access to this education. Whereas now I am trans and nonbinary and bleeding i a big part of my life, in terms of living in a cyclical way. It’s a way for my to honour my inner rhythms and changes, having read Wild Power. I remember there was a protest in our school where one of my friends stick period pads all over the walls to make a point about how sanitary items should be free.
Aged 24, Prestatyn

I could afford products until the cost of living crisis. I started accessing products from the Love Your Period Campaign in Wales because I didn’t know schools had them. I met with [Love Your Period] who always gave me products who told me they’d had them since 2019 but I didn’t know and there’s never any posters or advertisement anywhere. Anyways so [Love Your Period] asked me what I’d do until then and I explained that when I got home from school I’d use one of my socks from that day over night and then go to school the next day using the second sock from the day before. I didn’t really have a choice because I couldn’t get pads and toilet paper wouldn’t hold but my socks absorbed and I wasn’t creating any more washing. The scheme was out 4 years and I’d never heard of it so there’s bound to be loads more.
Anonymous, from Love Your Period

Being on my period, throughout the years of secondary school, was extremely difficult. My attendance was extremely poor due to extreme menstrual cramps, the poor state of the bathrooms and fear of being unable to access any menstrual products if I required more during the school day. There were on multiple occasions times where I would bleed through my trousers, onto the chair and because of my own embarrassment and the shame I felt, I would pretend I was unwell just to be sent home, as I was too embarrassed to reach out for any support or to ask for any period products. I believed that there wasn’t a lot of support or understanding from staff, even coming down to situations when I needed the go to the bathroom during class and wasn’t allowed as I “should’ve gone during break”. This was a huge struggle for me as I suffered from heavy bleeding to the point I was medicated for this. I couldn’t just stand up and explain why I needed to go to the toilet during every lesson. I believed that if there were more support and knowledge during my school years, my attendance would’ve improved greatly and I could’ve been more focused on my work.
Anonymous, Shared by Love Your Period

I didn’t know until I followed Love Your Period in 2022 that you could get free period products in school. Only then did I get them from school because they aren’t in toilets they’re in the caretakers locked cupboard and there’s no posters or signs. I do buy them but they’re expensive so I just use like one heavy tampon for the whole day or get a pad and wear in for 24-48 hours try stretch it out as they’re so expensive
Anonymous, Shared by Love Your Period

This may seem a little basic but I started my period in class and waited to go to the toilet when I got there they didn’t have any products on the toilet I knew that they were in the library but going there whilst I had leaked didn’t feel comfortable and It was on the se cone floor in the other building so it would take a while to get there. I think that we should’ve had some in the toilets.
Anonymous, Sheffield

I remember when I was 10 and sitting in assembly, I started to feel something wet underneath me. I didn’t think anything of it, but when I stood up there was a pool of blood underneath me. Everyone around me saw it and I just left the hall without saying anything
Anonymouns – shared by Love Your Period

When I first started my periods they were extremely heavy but I had no idea how to control what was happening to me. I had seen quick demos on how to use a sanitary pad but no other types of period products. As a result I spend most of the school day running back and forth to the toilets to change my pad, which meant asking especially in class to leave, this wasn’t always allowed. I would wear 2 or 3 pairs of pants to try and stop leaking. I remember standing up at the end of one lesson and feeling the blood run down my legs. I was so embarrassed and luckily had a friend who could help me. I plucked up the courage to speak to my mum and explain what was going on and we talked about it together. I was so scared and ashamed. If I had received better education in first place to understand that there are different types of flow and periods impact people in different ways and that’s ok. I felt that I was weird for having heavy periods as none of my friends or sisters seemed to have this kind of experience. There needs to be better education around the types of products available and how they work. There needs to be a way that people can talk freely and not feel afraid to ask what they should do when they are struggling to control their symptoms or are confused.
Anonymous – shared by Love Your Period

The first time i ever got my period i was in an exam in school. I went 5 hours with just tissue in my knickers because their was no services for free pads which would’ve helped me a great deal.
Anonymous – shared by Love Your Period

I didn’t have access to period products in school, even the school nurse wouldn’t provide pads/tampons. In my last lesson of the day, after using 3 night time pads over 5/6 hours I ended up bleeding through my clothes and onto the chair, I was in a physics lab and we always put our chairs onto the tables at EOD. I was so scared and embarrassed and ashamed that someone would notice, especially as I was at the front of the class. I felt awful that our cleaners would then have to come and clean up possibly harmful bodily fluids too. If I had access to free period products and closer toilets, the shame I felt and carried for years around my period wouldn’t had been so intense and crippling. I’m sharing so my younger cousins and others around the UK and further world won’t experience this, de-stigmatise bleeding!!!
Anonymous – shared by Love Your Period

I always get warning signs before my period starts but the day it starts is always unpredictable and is normally a heavy flow. I have been caught out a few times especially at university. My university started a free period products scheme in the women’s bathrooms across campus- I know that if I need something there will be somewhere I can get it on campus quickly and for free and makes my period less stressful and more spontaneous
Anonymous

One time I was having a super heavy period and had to sit on a stool in a biology lab for 3 hours whilst bathroom breaks were discouraged meaning I ended up leaking through my underwear, tights and skirt onto the stool. I was mortified when I realised but I was so embarrassed that instead of asking for some tissue to clean it up or asking to go to the toilet to sort myself out I decided to use my jumper to wipe it up and had to spend the next 4 hours of school hiding the fact that I had leaked and that it was on the majority of my clothes at that point.
Anonymous – shared by Love Your Period

I was in University provided shared bathroom accommodation, which did not have a sanitary bin provided. As we were a mixed gender flat, the girls who menstruated put in to buy a bin, otherwise we would have had to use the kitchen bin which is unsanitary and uncomfortable. The university provided bins in the kitchen and bedrooms, but not in the bathroom where it was needed. I felt as though they did not care about people who menstruate as such a basic product was not considered.
Anonymous, Sheffield

No access to any toilets they are all locked during class lessons so unable to go out during these, if you do try they refuse to let you go.
Only one block of toilets are reopened at breaks, now due to new rules there’s a descriptive sheet that has to have your name, time entered/excited and if you take to long they shout, hurry up continuously to get you out. These are very busy as most need the toilet so none are free to use.
I have to wait until the end of breaks to try and go to change, which sometimes doesn’t happen before they lock them which can make me have to wait for the next break which can cause me anxiety, especially on my heavy days, as i may leak which would be very embarrassing and feel unhygienic.
16 year old, Chichester

Whilst at school, I concealed my pads in my blazer pocket as I was too embarrassed to take my bag with me to the toilet. The shame was too much as boys would make fun of us for bleeding.
I remember a male teacher making a big deal of a girl taking her bag to the toilet, telling the boys ‘She’s on the blob’. That really stuck with me.
Anonymous, Leeds

When I was on my periods at secondary school, I had to go up to the front of the class to my form tutor and tell him I couldn’t do my swimming lesson today “because I am indisposed”.
I found this intensely embarrassing every time.
I wonder how schools do things nowadays?
Anonymous, Lancashire

My daughter was shamed in front of the class when she asked to use the toilet and was asked in front of the class how many times she needs to go in one lesson.
My daughter was mortified. Like me, she gets extremely heavy periods on day 1 and 2.
Parent of 11 year old, Buckinghamshire

When I was a teenager (in the 90s) my mum couldn’t always afford sanitary towels for us both. There were no spare to take to school so if I started my period while I was at school I used to use the thick green hand towels in the toilet as a substitute.
I never want another child to go through that so my 12 year old daughter personally carries around and discreet bag of sanitary towels for her and her friends if they need them.

Anonymous

I started my period at age 10, in primary school. My mum had died 5 months earlier and I was being raised by my stepdad – who didn’t know anything about menstruation. I hadn’t had sex education in school yet and so I didn’t know what was going on. At the time, everyone would get dressed for PE in the same room and I had to ask to go to the bathroom to get dressed out of embarrassment, while everyone else laughed about me.
Anonymous, Essex

I lost my period when I was diagnosed with a life limiting condition. I was told I was infertile at the age of 19, and I didnt realise how badly I would feel about that. That’s when I wanted people to know that; Periods aren’t just for women and not all women have periods. And the best time to remove stigma is at a young age!

Anonymous

In 2014, I started a petition to end tampon tax and at that stage, I started to realise how wide-spread period stigma is and the impact it has in terms of period poverty, impacting confidence, productivity and self esteem. After campaigning for years to end tax and tackle stigma, the petition gained over 300,000 signatures and we successfully lobbied parliament into ending the tax in 2021. We’re now campaigning to get retailers to lower the price of period products in line with tampon tax ending.

Laura Coryton, Sex Ed Matters

Feeling really unwell with period symptoms but not feeling able to talk about it to teachers. Symptoms, especially the emotional ones, are not discussed seriously enough and there is not enough awareness among other students about how debilitating these can be and how they affect studying. PE teachers not being sympathetic

Anonymous

My period gave me crippling pain for years. I’m trying to get diagnosed with endometriosis but the NHS keep forgetting about me. I don’t have the luxury of forgetting; this is my body. I am campaigning because nobody should be in severe pain from their period and I want everyone to know this. We deserve to be listened to.

Anonymous

The first time: Being unable to talk to my mother just because I felt awkward. I went to my sister crying and she told me that it was normal and at that time I was fasting and when you’re on your period you can’t fast which I found out that day. Going out and being on my period was something I didn’t care about, I was never embarrassed but once I asked my mum for a pad and she was hiding it, not that big of a deal but it made me see the difference between the way she thought of them and the amount of awareness given to her as a kid but only made me more comfortable.

Anonymous

I have never had a natural period and I have no idea why. There is a lack of knowledge around menstruation, not only among the general public, but seemingly also in the medical field. This perpetuates stigma and it needs to change. We have the right to see a gynaecologist and yet we never get referred. We have a right to education and yet we do not receive it.

Anonymous

I was informed by one of the relatives that women’s bodies start menstruating when they . are about to reach adolescence. I remember I felt disgusted by that story. Although I did not know about the physiology of menstruation, I knew I would start bleeding someday. And then I got my first period when I was 13.I went and told my mom, unaware of how to handle it. It was the first time I got to know about sanitary napkins. I was also advised to stay hush about it and not get involved in any religious activities, and of course I did not know anything about the cramps.

Anonymous

The first time I got it I was sleeping then I told my mom to come down stairs. I started so she came and then that’s it. But when I went to school I was scared because I had P.E. so I told the teacher and they said that’s not an excuse to not do P.E

Anonymous

During my year 10 English Language exam, I leaked on my exam chair and went 2 hours sitting and not saying a word, at this time products were hidden away in the cupboards and none were available in the exam venue. At the end of the exam I broke down as I didnt know what to do. My school had locked the girls toilets and we only had one unisex toilet, the girls toilets were destroyed, no locks on the doors, always dirty, sinks falling off dirt spreading around the walls. My school uniform is very period unfriendly as it is made of thin material and is uncomfortable. My period became a big issue for me in school, not being able to focus and the constant fear of leaking and people seeing. A few of my teachers were supportive but not all that made me feel more uncomfortable about my period in school.

Anonymous

Ever since I started having periods I have suffered with them. I was never prepared for the pain and everything else that goes with it. School never supported or made us feel ok when it came to them, they would stop us from going to the toilet or give you a detention if you went, even the female staff, who you would have thought would understand. Schools should provide and let us go to the toilet when needed. I now work in schools, and whenever a student needs the toilet I will always let them go, as it is their human right to use the toilet. Young people need to be taught what human rights they have, this way teachers cannot stop them from going to the bathroom or give them detention or even isolation if we decide to walk out and go
I used to miss days of school every month as I couldn’t cope, and am still having days of work due to them.
All the doctors do is put you on tablets (the pill, not caring what side effects we will have) , even from such a young age, i have known people being put on them from as young as 14 , if that doesn’t work, they’ll put you on a different pill, and then another one. If that doesn’t work its the implant, if that doesn’t help, the coil, if that doesn’t work, the injection. There’s no actual help out there when we are suffering, the whole stigma around periods makes you not want to talk to anyone, as it’s “embarrassing” and something we apparently have to be ashamed about.
In schools, boys make you feel even worse about it, making comments that make us feel even more uncomfortable and ashamed. Boys would often make nasty comments to any girl, boys don’t understand what they are really like, it’s kind of like they take the mick and want us to be embarrassed that we have them

Anonymous

When I was at school (10 years ago), if you started your period and hadn’t got any materials, there were none provided by the school (or if there were, no one told us) and we couldn’t leave to go to a shop, so had to ask a friend or just keep using a saturated product. I was too embarrassed to change my pad in the school toilets so often wore the same pad all day which was uncomfortable and leaked through onto my trousers and chairs. Me & my friends were so embarrassed of our periods that we didn’t talk about it, even though we were going through the same thing! Not all cubicles had sanitary bins so sometimes you’d remove a product with nowhere to dispose of it. Boys had no understanding of people menstruating.

Anonymous