When I was about 7, I thought pads were used for when you farted and you had an "accident." I didn't learn the real use until I was about 10. My mom still makes fun of me for that. :-P

LB

When i had my first period, i wasnt really prepared so my Mom had to go buy me some of my own pads, my sister who was a very curious little girl snuck into the closet and found the pads, later that year my family was having a get-together and my sister blurtted out to me, "Sissy! Do you still have to wear those diapers?" I laugh now, but back then I was so embarassed!

Mindie

I remember when my mother explained periods to me, she said that it's when part of the woman's womb comes away. For ages I thought that meant that you kept losing some until eventually there was no womb left once you were a certain age. Thank goodness for sex ed!

Anon

i used to believe when iwas young that during periods, one bleeds through thier breasts

Anon

I first got my period when I was in Singapore on holiday almost twenty years ago. My mother had warned us about not drinking from the taps for fear of getting a tummy bug, and had told me and my brother off serverely for buying and eating an ice cream from a street vendor... When my period came for the first time it was brown rather than red! Despite being informed on periods, with all the lectures on tummy infections I was sure that the brown discharge was due me dying...I was so worried that my mother would be angry at me I threw out my underwear for the rest of the trip - luckily we were on our way home in just two days!

anon

I used to believe that when a woman had her period, her urine would turn to blood, and the only reason you had to wear a pad was in case you couldn't make it to the bathroom in time, during your period. And when i first got my period, I thought that my pad would somehow leak, so I ran to the bathroom every 20 minutes to check the back of my pants, adjust my pad, etc. The thought of anyone seeing blood on my pants horrified me. Still does.

Anon

When I was little and went to the store with my mom she always bought those maxi - pads after getting me some candy to keep me quiet. I thought the maxi - pads were candy, too, and that she was trying to hide them from me. I used to go home and yell at her for not sharing her candy.

tHeCaNdYqWeEn

One time I found my mom's pads, and looked at her, and said, "Why do you have diapers?" she told me, "They're not diapers. They keep all the bad things from getting in your underwear."

Astonished at these protection devices, I wondered why police didn't wear them. My little sister started sticking some all over the walls one day, and I snatched them from her, yelling, "Are you stupid?! Do you want the bad stuff to stay in our house?! Take them off right now and put them around you, or else some bad people are going to come into your underwear!"... Unfortunately, some guests were over, and I ran into the living room, grabbing my sister's arm, and pointed at one of my dad's friends, who I thought was a bad guy. "See! If you don't put these around you, not the wall, then that guy will go into your underwear!"

I then glared at the man, and pointed my finger, yelling, "You stay away! We got pads and you're not going to get into our underwear!"... Boy, was my mom upset with me.

Nicole

When I was about 6, I knew about pads but not tampons. I thought that you pulled the tampon out of the plastic then unfolded it until it was a pad. Now I'm really a little glad they explained tampons to us before I tried to unfold a tampon into a pad and use it...

Ginny

This one's about my boyfriend. He thought that when girls use tampons, they wear them all month long. I must mention that he is 19, with a mom and a 17-year-old sister. You'd think he'd know these things!

SS

When I was in about 3rd grade I still didnt know about periods so I always used to tink that the pads in my moms bathroom were things kinda like diapers, so when my mom had to go pee in public, shed just go in the pad. So one day I went to school with a pad in my underwear and during class I had to go pee. So I just went in my pants. Then, to my surprise the pee didnt soak into the pad to well, I ended up going home that day early because my pants were all wet. Once I found out wat pads were really used for I felt so embarassed and so stupid...

Megan

My mum was in the bathroom with my sister, explaining about tampons and how to use them. At this point my dad acidentaly turned on his electric toothbrush. It sounded like it was somthing to do with tampons. So I believed for years that you had to put in tampons with a little machine thing!!

I d i o t

For some reason, during my first period, I thought that the bleeding would never stop; that once you "became a woman", you bled forever. I remember thinking that this wasn't a very good deal...

Michele

my mother and aunt shared this belief with me right after the subject of periods were brought into conversation when i was 13. my aunt was a year older than my mother and when she was younger, her own mother had bought a large quantity family sized pack of pads and suddenly they all went missing within a week. when asked why there were so many gone, my aunt replied that the girls at school told her if she didn't change her pad enough, she would get pregnant!

Anon

I used to beleive that when a girl wore a tampon she couldn.t go to the bathroom until she removed it. I thought they had to hold their pee all day!

anonymous

I used to believe that when women got thier period they bled from their nipples and that's why women would wear bras, I also thought sex involved putting a long tube down your throat and having a doctor put chicken eggs into your stomach, they would magically turn to babies

Claire Medals

In elementary school I thought girls only got their period once, but they bled for a whole month. Until I figured out the truth I couldn't wait to get it, but it was mostly just so I could have it over with.

Amanda

When I was young I used to believe that women only got their periods during their teen years - so from 12 to about 19 years old. I was really disapointed when I learned the truth!

Tamara

When I was little all of my older sisters and their friends were getting their periods and talking about them. I didn't know what a period was, so I associated a 'menstrual cycle-period' with the 'punctuation mark-period'. I one day chased my older sister trying to see the "period dot" on her "peepee", that they called a "period". I thought it was a little tiny dot somewhere down there that bled. Of course, unfortunately, I know NOW what a period really is.

Miranda

When I was little, I always thought the pad despenser in public bathrooms gave you sugar cubes. I'm not sure why but I was always mad when my mom said I wasn't old enough to need one.

mandy