The Museum of Menstruation

[gobe]

I find this site quite fascinating:

www.mum.org/menarage.htm

[Poppy]

Bex it's most interesting, thanks for posting it.

Noted this at the end:

The basic conclusions are that the age at menarche in British girls has fallen very slightly (by less than six months) over the last 20-30 years. It does make the point though that almost 1/8th of girls are still at primary school when they get their first period, and that more should be done to provide for them (in terms of education and dispensers in the toilets, etc.).

Most of my teaching has taken place in sixth form colleges, although for a while recently I worked in a local primary school.
Astounded by the lack of facilities for the girls, who would often come to tell me that their period had started- unbelievably, no supplies kept in the school office either.

By the time I left, proper dispensers & disposal system in place

xx

[jacksfullofaces]

The museum of menstruation is a great site. I recall when I was 14 and in hospital I had a period start. My stingy cow of a mother flatly refused to buy my usual tampons because the hospital had supplied me with a bulky towel and belt. My mother said that as I had protection she could save the cash.
Jacks

[Poppy]

Oh Jacks, that's awful.

xx

[jacksfullofaces]

She was so mean that when my scar opened after leaving the hospital she forced me to stand on a crowded bus to return to get the wound examined. But when he dog chewed open its stitches the same week the dog got a taxi.
Jacks

[gobe]

Good grief! She treated her dog better than her own daughter! That is just awful. xx

[jacksfullofaces]

Ah well my mother hated me and loved her dogs.
Jacks

[Robyn]

Oh Jacks, that's awful. Sometimes our mothers can do some horrible things to us.

I got my first period about two months before my 13th birthday. I was totally unprepared for it because my mother's idea of telling me the facts of life was to throw a book on my bed and tell me to read it. Discussions were never encouraged by her because it just wasn't "proper".

For the first few years I had to endure using her version of home-made sanitary towels, which were made out of old cut up nappies that were folded and stuffed with cotton wool and then fastened with safety pins to a piece of elastic worn around the waist. Everyday they'd have to be soaked, washed and bleached. It was always a very secretive affair as well, lest my father or brother would see anything.

There was no way she was going to buy proper sanitary towels because that would mean spending money. I started buying them myself when I started working, and few years later I started experimenting with tampons. It took me a while to get the hang of that, but eventually I managed it. My mother was horrified when she found out I was using tampons because it just wasn't "right" to be playing around with yourself and inserting things.

She has always had a lot of hang ups about anything to do with sex etc, and it's only in the last 6 months or so that I've even mentioned my menopause problems to her. She has no understanding of what I've been going through because she says she never had any problems. Bully for her......

[jacksfullofaces]

Robin
Your mother's sanitary towel version sounds like something my mother would have done if she had thought of it. Something about menstruation can bring out the bitch in women.
Jacks