What Was Your First Period Like? 10 Thai Women Reflect.
Your first period can bring about many different feelings: excitement, shame, fear, celebration, anger, stress, teary, pain, messiness, newness… and the list goes on.
We often treat one’s period as an individual experience - something that should be kept to yourself, even kept a secret, because it’s not “appropriate” to talk about in social settings. But doing this further creates shame around the menstrual cycle, and harms how we perceive periods as and towards women.
Vira aims to reframe our feelings and thoughts about periods. Yes, it’s an individual experience that many people, collectively, go through. We wish to find, and continue to build, a community in periods in a positive, supportive, and informative way.
What better way to do so than to reflect on the first time we got our periods?
We asked 10 Thai women the question: “What was your first period like?”. Here are their responses.
(We kept them anonymous to protect their privacy, but all are true responses from very real and very incredible women who were willing to be honest with us. Thank you to you all.)
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“I had a feeling my period was coming, so I started secretly carrying pads and tampons in my school bag. When it finally arrived, I felt oddly excited—it felt like my first step toward becoming a woman.” - Age 26, first period at 12
“I was swimming in a khlong, and when I surfaced, I noticed blood stains on my sarong, and I thought I was bitten by a leech! The bleeding didn’t stop, and I ran home to tell my stepmother who told me my story was ridiculous, as my period had begun. I felt ashamed. Back then, there were no sanitary pads so I had to make one by using another sarong. I washed and reused the sarong until the bleeding stopped. I felt very confused and embarrassed, as nothing was explained to me.” - Age 92, first period at 16
“I recall feeling a lot of pain lying on my bed. My mother was so kind and kept me company. She made me delicious fried rice and her presence, warm gesture, and kind words helped me through the pain.” - Age 62, first period at 16
“My first period was so painful I had to leave class. When I discovered it had started I felt so much shame, and was too embarrassed to ask anyone for help, I pretended that it hadn’t happened until I got home.” - Age 25, first period at 12
“When the first bloody smear appeared in my underpants I knew what was happening and felt a little nervous. I was also thrilled to be joining my ‘mature’ friends who had already started their periods. It was the moment I crossed the threshold from girlhood to womanhood.” - Age 59, first period at 12
“I remember telling my mom, and she told me that this meant that I was now a woman as I started having my period! She gave me a pad and told me how to use it, and how many days I would probably have my period for. I was lucky enough to have a mother who I have an open dialogue with concerning this.” - Age 26, first period at 13
“I don’t remember.” - Age 56, first period at unknown
“I was the first in my friend group to get my period. I remember waking up, walking like a zombie to the bathroom, and seeing red in the toilet bowl. I burst into tears—I was overwhelmed. My mom handed me my first pad. She didn’t say much, just told me this was my period now, and I’d need to wear these pads when I bled. I just remember thinking, ‘This is awful.’ It felt lonely, confusing, and like something I had to endure in silence.” - Age 27, first period at 11
“I pretended it didn’t happen, and kept secretly changing my underwear whenever it would fill up with blood. I didn’t know what to do, and thought it might go away.” - Age 26, first period at 13
“I wish I had a better experience but I was so worried and scared and I didn’t want it to be happening to me, even though I knew what was going on because I had learned about it… but nothing really prepares you for what to actually do and to feel positive about it.” - Age 30, first period at 12
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💌 If you have a first period story you’d like to share, let us know through Instagram DM.
And if you know someone experiencing their period for the first time, Vira might be a good resource for them.
You can learn more about our PERIOD POWER workshops - which empower young girls with the knowledge we wish we knew when we first got our periods - by emailing us at viracare.th@gmail.com.
Or you can purchase resources - like our PERIOD POWER Kit below - to support your period in caring, informed, and sustainable ways here.
With love,
Vira
References
Article image credit.
