periods

Due to all of the commercials showing how sanitary pads absorb wetness and keep women dry, for the longest time I thought that periods were simply women peeing on themselves.

Thought this for years. :-(

Lady at Last

I used to believe that sanitary napkins were for the working women. If she got so busy at work and didn't have time to go to the bathroom she could just pee in the pad and keep going

Anon

My boyfriend and I have been together for 4 years so our conversations are pretty no-holds-barred. I had my period at the time and had to go pee. He asked me if I needed my purse, when I told him 'no' he looked confused. He then said 'how do you pee if you don't take the tampon out?'. He's 25.

Anon

Okay when I was younger I happened to catch an episode of Roseanne where the daughter was all pissy and mentioned getting her "period last night." I had no idea what that was, so one day at dinner, I ask out loud "Mom, what's a period?" Her boyfriend looked up and goes "The dot at the end of a sentence." Now, I knew that wasn't it, but I didn't press the matter.

A couple days later I was in the bathroom when mom started getting ready for a shower. She took her pants off and I saw a string hanging from her ladyarea, and I was like "Mom, what's that?" and she goes "That's my period." So for like, years after, I thought the period was when a string hung from your lady part. Haha

Lea

Not mine, but the little brother of a friend.
We were playing with our dolls at the time, and one of the kids had somehow got a hold of a box of tampons and filled the back of a toy car with them.
Upon discovery, my friend's youger sister asks "What are those for?". Her brother answers enthusiastically, "You're meant to eat them!".

We spent an awkward few minutes convincing him not to do it.

Steph

I was a early bloomer and when I was in the 5th grade I started my period and thought it was because I drank red fruit punch all the time and that i was drinking so much it was leaking out of me. It wasn't until I was 12 that I actually understood what was going on.

Anon

i used to think that PMS stood for "pregnancy morning sickness".

confused little girl

When I was really little my mom was putting this short thick blanket on my sisters bed. I asked her what for and she said because my sister had her period. I asked what a period was for and my mom said it's when a woman lets go of all the eggs she didn't use. I pictured my sister laying eggs like a chicken.

Good times

When i was young i always thought the maxipads under the bathroom sink were big band-aids and i would stick them all over my arms and walk up to my mom. very awkward now that i think of it.

Devon

I used to believe that maxi pads were for very old ladies who couldn't control their bladder. I was shocked to see that Mom had some.

Haifa

My sister and I used to believe that tampons were for making older women feel younger. We thought that once they were using a tampon, old women were able to dance around and do high kicks.

M

I used to believe boys could have periods after hearing about them from a girl in class.

I asked to be excused to the nurses office by my teacher one day cause I was having a bad stomach, when she asked if I had eaten anything bad.. I replied "not really, I think I must just be starting to have my first period" she looked back at me, a 9 year old boy trying very hard not to laugh.

This memory still haunts me to this very day.

Anon

When my brother was about 4, he had a horrible nose bleed in the middle of a long road trip, which of course occurred when we were out in the middle of nowhere with no napkins or towels in the car. So my mom handed him a tampon and told him to put it up his nose. I think he still thinks that that is the proper use for tampons...

Chris

When I was very little I overheard my older sister saying that she started her period. When I asked her about it she said that once a month older girls bled from their special place. Soon after that I saw a tampon commercial showing girls doing stereotypical girly things including painting their toenails. I heard them talk about periods and I saw the girls wearing those pedicure toe-separator things and, up until I had health class in 5th grade, I believed that girls on their period bled between their toes every month. From that moment on, I have always hated feet.

Rachel

I once saw a used sanitary towel in a toilet, and asked my mum what it was. She explained how a lady gets rid of her egg once a month and that's what a period is. I spent the next few years of my life thinking women laid sanitary towels when they had their period.

Anon

I use to watch the sanitary commercials, the ones where they are running, jumping around and walking dogs and riding bicycles in complete freedom, so I thought that a sanitry towel was extra padding you put in your shoes to make it more comfortable to walk.

Catherine

When my oldest sister started learning about periods and how they worked. She had seen the films they used to show in class about the menstrul cycle and she stumped my mother with the question about, where do the egg shells go, after the egg had been released. hehe I still find this funny and tease her to this day asking if she'd found any eggshells yet when she has her period. hehe

Anon

I used to think that period blood was going to be blue because in the commercials in which they do an absorbency test comparing two different brands of sanitary napkins they use water with blue dye in it.

Anon

When i was about 10, i had seen a commercial about super absorbent Maxi pads. So, i knew my mom kept these similar looking ones under the sink in the bathroom. I took one and decided to experiment myself how much they did absorb. Taking red paint and watering it down i drenched this maxi until it over flowed with water and paint. I threw it out. Later my mom came to me very concerned thinking that i had gotten my period and she hadn't the chance to explain to me what it was all about. Poor mom, she got scared.

KM

When i found out that your period was a new egg that needed to be expelled once a month, i imagined a large, squishy blob the size of a chicken egg, and i could understand why a woman couldnt just sit on the toilet and drop it in all at once. I was really disgusted when i found out that it had to leak out in small chucks, because i imagined a soft-boiled egg sort of deal

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