When I heard that comprehensive period education would become compulsory in schools by 2020, I was really glad, although I am still apprehensive. I hope it will be better than mine.
I was one of the ‘lucky’ ones who did have some period education whilst at school, but it consisted of: ‘you’re going to bleed once a month for the rest of your life, here’s some pads, don’t tell the boys.’
This did nothing to prepare my classmates for what would become our new normal, and didn’t help me – especially for the tough times that lay ahead for me.
I was 17 when I first got my period, which was quite late, but I was a late developer and very underweight.
I was taught at school that to get a period was a magical thing and that I was finally becoming a woman. So why did it feel like my world was beginning to crumble?
For the next decade, I suffered from heavy, irregular periods, sometimes with only four days break and then sometimes I’d have nothing for three months.
I saw many doctors but always felt I was seen as a silly young girl who was over-exaggerating, and without the language or confidence to discuss my period openly I had to try and gain knowledge myself through endless google searches.
I tried six different methods of birth control, each time answering humiliating questions that seemed to be more focused on sex than menstruation. My GP focused on the fact the pill was for birth control rather than the positive affects it can have for painful and heavy periods.
Young people should be made aware of what the body goes through every month, and girls especially need to be told that it’s OK to express period pain.
I was referred back to and forth to gynaecologists, tested, discharged and eventually brushed off as a hypochondriac even whilst struggling to stand from pain. One doctor even told me ‘maybe this is just the level of chronic pain your body needs to get used to.
At 25, I desperately agreed to try the coil, despite having heard many horror stories about negative side effects but my GP told me this was the last option. Because I didn’t have the education to back me up, I was given a coil that made me lose weight, be in constant pain, lose my hair, lose my sex drive, have contractions every month and become suicidal.
After I finally got this removed (only through begging) I began to campaign for a hysterectomy. I had to endure appointment after appointment being asked ridiculous questions such as ‘what about your boyfriend?’ and ‘you know this isn’t reversible?’.
Having a hysterectomy was the best thing that ever happened to me, but it’s left behind a lot of medical PTSD and a distrust of doctors.
I don’t regret it but better education around periods, pain and the related illnesses could have gotten me better treatment and perhaps have prevented such drastic measures.
It shouldn’t be a shameful talk directed just at the girls while the boys get a free period, or, worse, involve a group of boys sniggering in the corner and throwing around pads like I remember.
Young people should be made aware of what the body goes through every month, and girls especially need to be told that it’s OK to express period pain.
Too often, complaints about cramps are written off, girls and young women are told that’s just how periods are, therefore dismissing their pain and making them doubt their own bodies.
Period education should work alongside sex education and include young people of all genders.
Including boys will give them a better understanding of the physical and psychological aspects, which will lead, I hope, to less teasing and blushing boyfriends in the playground, less stigma around periods as shameful and not to be discussed in front of boys – and eventually to a generation of more caring, compassionate men.
It will also offer girls more information of the different stages of their cycle such as spotting, breakthrough bleeding and heavy flow, and make them more informed on how to avoid becoming pregnant.
It will be vital to that the future lessons include information on what is and isn’t normal for menstruation and menstrual related illnesses such as endometriosis to give girls better tools to deal with their pain, something I never had.
With better period education I wouldn’t have suffered for so long and been able to fight better for what i knew my body needed. Who knows – I might still have a uterus.
I hope the next generation of girls not only have a broader understanding, but more support.
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