What I was Taught About Menstruation

“I’m waiting for it to come.” my 11 year-old student told me through the bathroom stall. After frequent disappearances and leaving the class, she told me, “My mom said it would come if I wait here.” Right then and there, a middle school girl waits on the toilet for her period to arrive.

I was 7 years old. “That’s woman’s business, asi es la vida” my mother would tell me over the kitchen counter. I was told little to nothing regarding menstruation, or getting my period. My mother looked embarrassed whenever I posed any questions regarding my body. “You’ll see when it comes.” She said in exhaustion.

I was so incredibly unprepared when I began menstruating in the 6th grade due to the lack of education my parents provided for me. Though I had zero knowledge of having a period, I was waiting for the day I saw blood in the toilet. I thought it would make me cool. I thought it would make me grown. I remember being 10 years old and my mother handing me boxes of heavy flow overnight pads, tylenol, black underwear, and panty liners. But no tampons whatsoever, because “tampons aren’t for virgins.” Amongst other cultural notions and taboos that were seemingly untrue. It was almost as if it was this huge secret everyone knew of, but no one spoke about it. Half the global population goes through this once a month, but talking about it? Hell no. You better keep that to yourself. It’s dirty, it resulted from Eve eating the apple, it’s the consequence women have to face for being so lustful, and it’s a crime to bleed from anywhere BUT in between your legs. I had no choice but to learn about menstruation through experience, trial, and error.

I vividly remember unwrapping a pad in the 6th grade bathroom stall- trying to be as quiet as possible so that no one could hear what I was doing. So that no one could know I was on my period. I would even flush the wrappings down the toilet, (Something you’re not supposed to do) in order to avoid my classmates knowing I was bleeding. At 11 years old I had this recurring fear that I would bleed through my pad during class, and get up from my seat leaving a bloody stain behind. That fear was instilled in me after it happened to Jennifer Ramos during 3rd period Science. The whole school humiliated her and labeled her as the blood bird and she was absent from school for an entire week.

As I got to high school, I gravitated towards using tampons because wearing a pad all day felt uncomfortable and disorienting. My mother repeatedly told me “tampons are for older married women” and that a teenage girl has no business putting anything like that in her body. I was taught that tampons disrupt your virginity, and they make you “fast.” Despite all these false notions, I decided to try wearing one when I was around 16, out of spite.

As I grew older, the shame and embarrassment behind having periods fled my mind. I became proud to bleed once a month, while still managing the other responsibilities of life. I grew to be more open when talking about the bodily functions of menstruation, because what is there to be disgusted about? Our bodies act as vessels that sustain us through life. Our wombs generate human beings, and our periods even sync up with the women we spend a lot of time with. I suddenly became filled with rage when I realized that my experience is not an anomaly. SO many women, particularly young women/girls of color, get told these ridiculous myths and taboos about our bodies. This is why Casa de la Luna is needed as a company to provide education surrounding women’s health, and feminine hygiene. Let’s be the generation that dismantles the cultural stigmas that surround periods. As you are reading this piece, and maybe reflecting on your own personal period experiences, I urge you to submit your own story on what you were taught growing up. Were periods openly talked about? Or was it a mysterious secret like how it was in my household? Please submit your period stories at *insert link here* so that we as women can create a space where menstruation is not hidden, but embraced.