The Embarrassing Story of How I Got My First Period

“No One Ever Told Me That!” The Embarrassing Story of How I Got My First Period | Guest post By Katie from datingbitch.com

Welcome back to another instalment of Periods 101.

This post is so exciting because today is the first guest post in the series! And it is a pleasure to have Katie from Dating Bitch here with me to share her story.

I always enjoy reading about others experiences.

It’s important that we hear from a range of people what getting their periods is like and how they navigated that first time.

By opening up the conversation I want to make sure that there is a variety of representation within this series.

I am so honoured Katie wanted to share her story “Embarrassing Story of How I Got My First Period ” as part of it.

Katie’s Story

It was the summer right before eighth grade, and as if being a 14-year-old girl isn’t hard enough, I was also about to change schools. 

That’s right – my parents and I were moving, but actually, I was excited about the new adventure!

We were building our own house and for the first time in my life, I was going to get to pick out everything in my room, from a new bedspread to the colour of the walls.

And as silly as it was, I was pumped about this. I spent much of that summer feeling like a mini-interior decorator with my mint-green and pink aesthetic. 

“my entire family moved into my aunt’s house for a month”

But, because we were building our own house, it wasn’t ready by the time we sold and moved out of our old house.

I’m not 100% sure why my parents didn’t just tell the new buyers that they had to wait, but they didn’t. Instead, my entire family moved into my aunt’s house for a month while our home was being finished. 

This was OK with me too – my sister and I got to sleep out in the living room, which meant we got to fall asleep watching TV every night (a treat for us at the time!)

Plus, we were close with my aunt – prior to this, we would go over every other weekend to play games with her. 

So, my summer was going pretty smoothly… but then, I got my period. 

Now, I’d had enough education to know what a period was, so I didn’t freak out at the sight of blood down there.

But, here’s what I didn’t know: when a woman gets her period, the bleeding is continuous, so she has to wear some sort of sanitary pad or tampon. 

I thought that I needed to get the bleeding to stop, completely. Logically, that’s what made sense to me. 

So, I went to the bathroom, saw that I’d gotten my first period, and started wiping… 

And wiping, and wiping, and wiping. 

Eventually, it seemed to me that the blood had ceased, and I stood up to flush the toilet. I’m sure you can guess what happened next. 

The Toilet Flooded!  

I mean, what did I think was going to happen? You can’t flush that much toilet paper and expect the toilet not to get clogged. 

But I wasn’t in my own bathroom!

And there was no plunger in sight.

So, freaking out a little (OK, fine – a lot) I ran to get my mom and tell her what happened. My poor dad had to go and unclog the toilet. 

I’m not even sure I can adequately explain how humiliating it is to have your father fix a toilet that you’ve clogged with your freaking period, but on top of that, everyone in the house – my aunt, my siblings, and my parents – now knew that I was officially a woman now.

And that I’d clogged up a toilet with my feminine blood. 

Looking back as an adult

As an adult, I can laugh about my adolescent misunderstanding of female anatomy, and the embarrassing nature of the event makes for a pretty good story, but at the time, I was absolutely mortified.

But more than that, I felt really stupid.

How had I not known that I shouldn’t try and stop the bleeding?

Why did I think that that’s how women dealt with their periods every month?

Because, honestly, no one ever told me. 

In school, we learned sex-education – mainly, about STD’s and practicing safe sex.

And while we did learn about puberty and all the changes that it brings, they didn’t go into any sort of detailed explanation about menses.

All we were taught was that it happens to girls between the ages of 12 and 15 and that once it starts, it’ll happen monthly until menopause.

No mention of using pads or tampons, or of the excruciating cramps, fatigue, and bloating that’ll happen alongside the blood. 

Instead, I learned about using a pad after causing a toilet to overflow while a guest in someone else’s house.

And two years later, I learned how to insert a tampon at my best friend’s house because, once again, no one ever told me how to use one.

Thank you Katie for sharing!

A huge thank you to Katie for sharing her story “The Embarrassing Story of How I Got My First Period” with us. Although I can read along and have a little chuckle at the idea of a young girl clogging the toilet trying to stop the bleeding of her periods, I feel a little annoyed that there still isn’t enough education around periods in schools.

I know a long time ago there was a HUGE taboo with the subject, but I can’t help but feel like there is still not enough being done to break those barriers. Young people who menstruate need vital information and demonstrations to help them navigate what is already a confusing and stressful time.

Where you can find Katie

• Blog – datingbitch.com
• Twitter – @deardatingb
• Instagram – @deardatingb
• Pinterest – @deardatingb
• Facebook – Facebook.com/deardatingb

Please make sure you head on over to Katie’s blog for more entertaining and gripping posts! You will not be disappointed.

If you would like to share your story or get involved with this series, you can check out my post “Periods 101 | Opening up the conversation“. It has all the details at the end of how you can be part of Periods 101.

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