Growing up I was always told that our 'lady time of the month' was a private issue. I was the youngest of five children and three of my siblings were boys.
I learned about periods at school when I was 10 years old in 1996 and I remember all the boys in the class laughed and said “ewww” as animated pictures were shown, I laughed along with them agreeing it was disgusting. I never shared any official period talk with my friends, as I grew up if we said to each other we had some tummy pains we knew exactly what that meant, it was your own personal secret.
Times began to change as I got older hitting my twenties, girl talk started to include your period and you started to share personal information. We were openly asking eachother things like, do you suffer badly with pain, do you bleed a lot, does it make you hungry? The list became endless.
But I remember the big topics that were ocassionaly discussed, tampons vs pads, and more importantly, cost! Cost was important; I mean who really wants to spend a lot on products every month for something we did not ask for? There are budget option but then again, I did not like the cheaper products as they just did not feel comfortable to me. So where does that leave us?
As time went on, I entered my thirties and there seemed to be more talk about periods from adverts on TV to people happily posting on Facebook that they were grumpy because it's their "time of the month" and ofcourse there were still people who felt this subject should be kept private on not put on Facebook as who wants to know about that?
When my two eldest daughters started their periods, it was important for me to talk as much as I could about it. Not just when they entered this time of their life but I've been talking about it since they were little (I mean children always want to talk to you when you are on the toilet). It is important that they voice how they feel and that they know this is not something they should be embarrassed about or feel ashamed for.
Cost is now bit a factor in my life now as it's not just me needing period products, but three of us! It's expensive and I have had to put other bits of shopping back sometimes so that we have these in the house. I'm so proud of the #BloodyGoodBucks campaign as now I'm a student, it really is vital that not only can we talk about it openly but also for it not to be a financial burden. Period Poverty should not be around today and we should all be able to bleed with dignity.
-Amy
Do you want to share your period story with us? You can submit it anonymously over on our #BloodyGoodBucks page.