Did you get adequate health information growing up?

I think I was very fortunate as I was born in the US and had a very enlightened, open and communicative Mum because I had my 1st period 1 month before my 11th birthday.  My periods only actually started again, regularly, exactly 1 year later.  In the early 1960's, sex education sessions i.e. girls and boys, separately, received both verbal and written information about how our bodies would change when we reached puberty and I remember that because I had "started" quite awhile before these sessions, this information was nothing new to me.  Going to school, still in the US, between the ages of 12-14, these sex education classes evolved, progressing  to initially girls / boys only sessions and began to discuss deeper issues of puberty i.e. different emotions, sensations, desires we may have already or start to experience.  Once the teachers thought the girls / boys were feeling more comfortable discussing these personal issues amongst ourselves, we then had a number of "mixed sessions" - with both all the boys and girls discussing these things together.  I remember how unfamiliar I was with what the boys were experiencing because always being so knowledgeable about my own body and knew about boys genitalia was more than a little surprised to find out how it all actually worked, in practice.

I don't remember my mum telling me about periods but I was one of the last to start at senior school so it was actually quite a relief when I started because I was beginning to think I was some sort of freak.

As for sex education at school all I can remember is being taught to put a condom on a banana or something like that. Not a lot of help really 

My mother advised me before I entered puberty about menstruation and other changes. I am grateful she did.

I went through painful periods monthly, and also during this time my seizures were worse.  They settled down once the cycle started. For many years I battled with pain. During my first marriage all went as usual until I got divorced. My periods stopped altogether due to all the stress involved, and never re-started. Due to my epilepsy I decided not to have children, so followed through with a full hysterectomy and put on HRT. 

This stopped the menstrual cycle totally apart from being on HRT which supplied oestrogen. I still went through the pre-menstrual symptoms which the gynaecologist explained I would. Early menopause started early for me. 

My mother explained to my sister & I about the birds & bees before we began having peroids.

I didn't realise how irregular they could be though.

I was 10 and the only information I’d gathered was from Jackie magazine and hushed tones from my giggly peers who were more “in the know” on the school playground.

I had heard the word towels and when the blood first appeared I was at a loss as to what type of towel to use - a hand towel? A bath towel? A tea towel? They were all too big. My mum only used tampons. I naively put one inside my knickers but obviously not inside my body. I hoped it would magically absorb the blood.

By my 3rd menses, I didn’t bother to hide it. I left my soiled bedding and clothes for my mum to discover and open the discussion and understanding. To my dismay, she left a packet of the large Dr White sanitary pads with their information booklet for girls just starting their periods. It was 1981 and if memory serves me right, it hardly made feel reassured. I’m sure it warned me against certain activities. It definitely instilled a degree of shame anyway.

I ended up quite severely poorly, and bed bound, with iron deficient anaemia when I was 11 due to the heavy monthly blood loss. Riding my bike the length of our street drained me so I believed the pamphlet re: abstaining from activity!

Even though up-thread I said peers discused periods, it was spoken about as something that happened to others and anybody suspected as having “started” was ridiculed. Thus, it was a very lonely thing that I took from primary to secondary school. Until I was 14/15 when my friends had caught up, it was a hidden, dirty secret.  I cry for little me looking back. I’d wear the same pad all day. Terrified to change it. The toilets where were the louder girls hung out. Too long in a cubicle or attempting to dispose of a pad would arouse suspicion and ridicule. I would wrap toilet paper around the heavy soiled pad each time I visited the toilet. By home time, I would have deep cuts into my thigh where the blood had dried on the heavy cottoned seam of my knickers (usually gym knickers) and chafe until my skin opened. In addition to this, I suffered the most unbearable cramps, anaemia and migraines which made school impossible.

Fast forward to having my own child, a daughter. I sat her down aged 8 or 9 and opened the discussion with her. I told her all about puberty, how it was perfectly natural and not something to hide away or be ashamed of. Thankfully, she didn’t take after me and was 13 when she started. She wore it like a badge of honour, a ‘rite de passage’ into womanhood. Of course, she suffered terrible cramps, as I did, etc and was comforted with hot water bottles, painkillers, lots of love and days off school if needed. I never wanted her to suffer like me.

My subsequent offspring were boys, however, they too were sat down at a similar age and told not only about the change that would happen to their bodies but what happened to a girl’s body and how he needed to emphasise. Menstrual paraphernalia has never been hidden away in the bathroom or shopping basket from their sight and if my daughter or I are incapacitated with mentrual related illness we don’t hide the reason. I was taught that it was shameful and embarrassing for the males in the household to see our feminine products and instructed to say I had a headache when my insides felt like they were being torn out and I rocked in pain and perspiration.

I don’t blame my mum, she was a product of her generation. I was her eldest child and she was barely out of her teens when she had me. By the time she had her youngest child, 15 years later, she was a very enlightened parent with a relaxed, informal relationship with my younger siblings. In fact, my youngest sister’s friends turned to my mum because she was so open. It’s just unfortunate that I was born back in unenlightened 1970.  I do believe starting my menses so young, impacted greatly on my character. I was already showing signs of social phobia (or anxiety) at a very young age. This further ostracised me and pushed me further into my self. My teens were lonely, depressing and frightening and the monthly pain, embarrassment and forced isolation really did not help.

I’m dismayed that I still have my periods regularly. I naively thought that I’d be perimenopausal by now because I started so early. I’ve been shedding my womb lining for 48 years now. I really need a break!  However, the next phase of womanhood is as equally unknown to me. My mum died last year. She briefly told me when she was going through the change. I remember her being on hrt, then coming off it because of associated health scares. She developed osteoporosis but that became a secondary factor after she was diagnosed with PD so I can’t really recall how it was managed. She did take calcium supplements and have infusions but everything is muddled up because of the Parkinson’s overtaking every other complaint. When she first entered the change I busy with pregnancies/ nursing and didn’t pay much attention as it felt light years away. How I wish I’d listened.

*38 years not 48 obviously 🙄🤦🏽‍♀️

I’ve just caught up with this thread and I’m amazed how many of us were so young (9 in one case, wow) and how we were left in the dark and suffered deliberating side effects eg anaemia etc. I could weep for the past “us”,             I really could.  My sympathy to the contributor who discovered she was born without her reproductive organs, too. That must have been harrowing.

Thanks all for sharing 💐

I was told nothing I started on Christmas eve when I was 6 years old I told my brother and he told my mum and my nan took me to buy Dr whites with a belt. I didn't have a clue 

@JosephineO Hi - my mother did tell me about the facts of life, and about periods later on. She also got a booklet for me, which gave me more info. I was born in 1954, & my mother was in some ways prudish, but I have to say she did a good job in this respect.

Why does nobody ever explain what Menopause is like ! 

Nobody told me about the hot sweats, mood swings and hair !  Not to mention the changes in your body shape - what the heck happened to my waist??  Maybe it moved up to join my chin?  That would explain why I now have two !!  

Have a good day everyone xx