How Did Victorian Women Deal With Their Periods?

who's watching this while on their period 🙋
Music:
Gymnopedie No. 1 Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
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almost forgot! here are two articles worth a read: www.civilwarmed.org/menstruating/ susannaives.com/wordpress/2015/09/tidbits-on-mid-victorian-era-menstrual-hygiene/ also there was one interview with Therese ONeill who wrote "Unmentionable", but I can't seem to find it!

[@TheNinjaInConverse]

Definitely read this *Civil Warmed*

[@kaitycameleonshea8067]

I asked yy grandmother ; who was born in 1930 , what she did for her periods , and she actually did use a belt that had clips where she would clip on thick strips of cloth . She would also change it a couple of time through out the day. And then later on I'm the 50s and 60s she started using pads when they came out

[@mommyheart9628]

My grandmother also did this. When I started my periods she asked my aunt if had bought me a sanitary belt lol. My aunt told her pads stuck to you underwear now.

[@imadogwoof9628]

Yeah this is pretty accurate I got my period for the first time while staying with my great grandma who was like in her 90s /born in 1917 when telling her I got my first period she took me to a store and wandered around flagging down staff asking for starter belts who all looked at this strange little old women like she was insane an she then elaborated that when she was a child that’s what she was told to use an given her mother had used one etc

[@isabelleblanchet3694]

This menstrual apron is "interesting" www.mum.org/InsideMUM4.htm

[@tinycrimester]

victorian doctor: women on their period should just lay on a sofa and wait for it to be over. working class woman: what's a sofa tho?

[@pricklypear7516]

The "status" implied by having an "invalid" female in one's household (indicating that the family was rich enough to afford a non-productive woman) has been grossly exaggerated. I generally enjoy the historical accuracy of Karolina's videos, but she just really missed the boat here. To say that "Victorian doctors didn't know what was going on" is just absurd.

[@atiajanssens5654]

@@pricklypear7516 i think she doesn't mean that they were surprised by it but more that they didn't know the internal process and how everything is connected to each other. So for example that an irregular period might indicate problems with fertility. They knew where the blood was coming from and had a vague sense of all the processes being connected to each other, but didn't understand why exactly.

[@inkylace7045]

yeah

[@debbieharriman9146]

Yeah so there's nothing wrong with not working the husband cared for them. And there's nothing wrong with laying in bed till it was over .

[@kellyalves756]

@@debbieharriman9146 You’re not getting it. “Dear Mister Box Factory Foreman, I have my period. I cannot work today as my doctor has advised me to lay on a... sofa? for three days.” “Great. You’re fired just for asking. Bruce! Grab another job seeker from the stoop!”

[@n.j.9282]

‘Twelve months. Also known as . . . A year.’ me when i need to increase my word count on an essay

[@thcu]

lol same

[@realdeal7074]

Haha

[@particles_6765]

But twelve months and a year both have two words... So technically I doesn't increase de number of words. But if you're talking about letters than you'd be right

[@munzarinkhan804]

In my case it's often the opposite. I write too much.😂😂😂😂

[@richmcgee434]

Ah, you're not even trying. "Twelve months. Also known as...a year. One almost-complete revolution of the world around its sun. Three hundred and sixty five (and some change) days whirling by. Four seasons marching to the past. A lifetime of anticipation to a child, a half-forgotten eyeblink to an old man. This...this is what makes a year!" Milking it like a dairy farmer, folks.

[@ChildOfAshes1]

Men being clueless about women's health since......all of eternity.

[@AlaynaMoebius]

My husband.. Who has a passion for medical knowledge....didnt actually know that you are supposed to ovulate before menstruating... Our 12 daughter and I looked at him like... "dude!"

[@CraftQueenJr]

Carlo actually, that one makes sense. Because 50 was a pretty reasonable if high guess, for if she was on her period the whole time. Then double that in case there are issues, as they do with literally all supplies. Then ask her if it’s reasonable, and adjust from there. Which they did.

[@aliciavance4228]

Well... How many of us are interested in heretical dysfunction or prostate problems? Let's be serious now!

[@Widdekuu91]

@@aliciavance4228 I am! When my ex told me that a ballsack can sortof...twist painfully and things, I kept asking how and why. It's just that he didn't explain it properly. He said; 'Sometimes if you sit down wrong or if you run and you 'kick' it with your upper leg.' I asked what the pain was like, but he couldn't describe. So..well, I did ask. I just still don't know the answer. I know about penises that can "break" though, if you move wrong and 'snap' it. I know everything about them that he knew. He on the other hand, was convinced that when a woman urinated blood, it was just her period. So when I was in tears about a wound inside my bladder, causing me to pee blood, he didn't care to help because 'I should just get some chocolate.' And no matter how many times I tried to explain, he preferred to walk around on the gun-exposition and tell me to calm down about it. (It's my ex now, I'm alright and the bladder is fine too)

[@MWood-ry8uu]

@@carlo9059 lol. Yes its a funny story, but seriously the issue of sanitation is a real priority. Space flights may cause early, extended or abnormally light periods. Not to mention probably having to change one ever time she poops and pees which is 40 right there.

[@quiteindeed6809]

Historians probably said: "I don't trust anything that bleeds for 5 days and doesn't die."

[@FunSizeSpamberguesa]

I see what you did there.

[@becauseimafan]

LOL! I love it! I was just a kid when I saw _South Park: Bigger Longer and Uncut_ in theatres with the other women of my family, and we all laughed so freaking hard when they said that joke, oh my god 😂 A fantastic memory, and a joke we repeated often 😁 Thanks for reminding me of it!!

[@echo2893]

And pointed and yelled "Witch!! Witch!!" 🧙‍♀️

[@zhabo3963]

Woody allen said that shit. Idk why you american males think that could be a funny joke. You laugh at crap. Litterally. American sense of humour is well known for its dullness.

[@zhabo3963]

World average is 4.5 years. In the us is around 2 years. Therefore, it is not that much. Moreover, the reason why men die sooner it is because they drink and smoke way more alcohol. Additionally, some reaserchers are focusing on the benefits of household chores and time spent for babycare/family (+ parenting permits from work). It seems that women stay more active even after retirement, regularly cleaning the house etc. while men sit on the sofa, cut the grass twice a year and drink beer.

[@chizzieshark]

One might say, women back then lived through real period dramas. You're welcome.

[@JasonX00]

Very clever 😁👍

[@realdeal7074]

Good one haha

[@purlspaints8269]

😂😂

[@cloudsofsunset7323]

chizzieshark SOS

[@Anya-mw3gj]

Damn, I don’t get it ((

[@galaxymew5138]

Women: * has period * Some guy in the 18th/19th century: *_THIS IS A DISCOVERY_*

[@cloudsofsunset7323]

Galaxy Mew THE NEW AMERICA IN MY WIFE’S CAVE

[@catherineofaragon6296]

My ex: *THIS ISNT A SON*

[@mariareynolds6622]

More like 1200 b.c.

[@zxb995511]

Its not much of a discovery, if you read the Bible, in Leviticus (written maybe 3000 years ago?) it mentions some hygiene measures women should take when its that time of the month....so its knowledge that has been known for a long time....people back in the 19th century just didn't read much I suppose.

[@ChildOfAshes1]

@@zxb995511 Pretty sure you missed the sarcasm firstly lol and The whole point is that this has been around since there were female humans walking the earth, yet men to this day even in 2020 are painfully uneducated about it. And back the when they started to figure out more information about women's health they have "discovered" oh this ISN'T a disease or something of the sort after all. Well yeah, no shit...Primordial women have known this for millennia, but they weren't listening.

[@hopelessromantic8682]

I asked my 91 year old client whom I was caring for how she dealt with her period she said “Honey I was pregnant from the time I was 16 to the time I went through menopause so I don’t even remember.” 😂

[@toadscastj432]

Lmao

[@taniskaborah5093]

😂😂

[@aditisk99]

How many kids does she have?

[@hopelessromantic8682]

@@aditisk99 pretty sure she had 7

[@thatswhatshesaid3355]

👁️👄👁️

[@tinkerbellys]

My grandma grew up in an orphanage in the 30s, and she said when she got her period she was so scared, because she had no idea what was happening. Most of the nuns were very mean as she told me.. so when it was brought to a nun’s attention, she said “this is going to happen to you every month for a week, here is your cloth you use, you must wash it and take care of it”. So my grandma went to all her siblings, boys *and* girls, and said “you guys are going to bleed between your legs like me every month!!” And freaked them all out 🤣 she really had the best stories!

[@ReinaElizondo]

😂

[@cocola4373]

Gosh-Lol 😂😂

[@RedRoseSeptember22]

My mom thought she was dying when she got her first period lol XD

[@ikeepscreamingbutgodwontan3132]

I heard when people of old times had periods the usually had a feeling they were gonna die

[@sonofhibbs4425]

Your comment is why I feel so thankful for internet comments sections. 😄😊

[@MirnaXavierG]

I cant believe she passed the opportunity of calling this video PERIOD DRAMA PERIOD DRAMA

[@queerulantin6431]

XDDD

[@fossilfighters101]

+

[@a.henderson9559]

Just thinking about this.

[@arjunadelhy7411]

@Mina Xavier.Yess like my fiance

[@hannahj6398]

This needs more likes

[@jeannetterosa5852]

My mom NEVER discussed that "time of the month" when I first got it in 1960 at age 10. I freaked out because I thought I cut myself climbing over a fence. When she found me crying all bloody in the bathroom, she simply said, "this is what u have to do from now on" without explaining what was happening to me. First , you take an old t-shirt or an old towel and you cut it into strips, then you fold them over insert the safety pin to the front of your panty and pin the back to the back of your panty. When it gets bloody and you have to change, you put on another strip. After that you first rinse the used rag in cold water in order to remove most of the blood then in hot water and you wash the rag and hang it and dry it and put it away until you need to use it again. She also told me to keep a separate drawer of Rags just for this time of the month. I had no clue as to what was going on only that she said I will be doing this for the rest of my life. So fast forward to 1969 and I am now 18 and in my first year college. My roommates were playing cards when I discovered that I had no more rags in my drawer. So I asked one of my friends to lend me something for that time. And she said sure it's in the bathroom. When I went to the bathroom I saw a purple box and it had the word Kotex on it and inside were these pads really nice and soft. After examining it I realized I can put this on my panty and I was amazed. I looked at the box and there were 12 of them and they were only about a dollar fifty at the time. When I came out of the bathroom my three roommates we're still playing cards and I said to her very excitedly thank you so much for the pad. Then I went on to ask where did you get that box? And she said in the store. And I said really? They come in a box in the store? To which she said yes you can buy them in the store. And I said what a great invention that Mr Kotex must be very very rich. all of a sudden all three roommates looked at me as if I was crazy. And they asked what the hell have you been putting up there all these years. When I told them about the rags and especially washing them they went into fits of laughter. Apparently I had an older mom and her mom was raised in the 1800's she was very elderly. And this is how she said it was taken care of in her day. I am now 69 and that is such a vivid story with me that I made it a point to explain this to my daughters and my granddaughters so that they do not walk around wondering what to do or what is happening.

[@momcompickmeupimscared8635]

So until u were 19 u never saw the pads in a store ?

[@jenniferh.k.7123]

What an interesting story! I am glad that I live today and can open talk about these topics to my children.

[@brandielee7971]

What an awesome story!

[@fancydeer]

@@momcompickmeupimscared8635 if she did it probably never clicked what it was for since she hadn't heard the word "menstrual" or "period" or had any education about what was happening. It's not like pads/tampons say "This is for your BLOODY VAGAINA!" on the package or have an obvious indication what they're for if you don't already KNOW. And ads for them always use that stupid blue liquid to demonstrate how absorbent they are and talk about flow and stuff, they don't just discuss periods and make it obvious.

[@ManiacalViolet]

My mother was born in 1945 and got her period in 1962 at 17. She said that there was zero preparation for this in any way and she was so naive she sat in the school bathroom stall crying for a long time, decided she was dying, and went to her school nurse saying that she thought she was dying.

[@noxlumen2711]

I'm SOOOO glad this wasn't one more historian telling me "We cant document menstruation therefor women were all too radically malnourished to menstruate yet magically nourished enough to birth and nurse 9 babies because science!"

[@spy6205]

Gwendolyn Desa ugh, that particular bit of bad history always aggravates me!! clothes were so expensive, why would you ever risk staining it with blood by just bleeding all over? not to mention, if they aren’t bathing everyday, are they just running around with bloody legs and bloody stockings? no one sensible would put up with that, come on.

[@kassistwisted]

Well, what is documentable is that before the 19th century, people did go through a period of fasting imposed by the scarcity of available nutritious food during the winter months. Everyone, rich and poor, was malnourished to a greater or lesser degree from January until March. When women lose body fat, their periods stop. Also, you don't menstruate when you're pregnant or nursing. And nursing usually goes on for about two years. And it is a well-documented fact that married women tended to give birth every two or three years. So if you string all those times together, yes, women in the past didn't have nearly as many periods as women today.

[@kassistwisted]

@@nobodyqwertyu You clearly think every period is the same. I never had a period so heavy that there would be blood on the floor. A spot or two on my underwear and then nothing.

[@noxlumen2711]

@@kassistwisted if by fasting you mean lent....take a closer look at what people actually recorded as lent recipe variants according to papal decree. Then stack on the drastic reduction of physical activity for both genders when house bound for most of the day in winter. Were soldiers eating preserved fish rations during lent actually more malnourished than in spring? And what of the famous story of the nettle soup fast that a clever cook slipped cream into when his devout employer became too thing from a misunderstanding of peasant foods? Also review just how much catholic decadence the reformulation raged against, including the number of saint feasts that got a lent fast exemption that permitted the wealthy to basically ignore their lent food sacrifice through the whole of the cold months. In short, those who COULD afford to eat well...did eat well. Perhaps look closer at St. Hildegard's writings on healing through nourishment taught at her convent for a more details perspective on historic understanding of nourishment. Then remember that nuns were women of wealth who's families paid a great deal of money for them to abstain from child bearing.

[@kassistwisted]

@@noxlumen2711 No, I don't mean Lent. I mean that it is well documented that people did not eat as well-rounded and nutritious meals in winter as in spring/summer/autumn precisely because of the scarcity of vegetables and fruits during the cold months. It has been argued by scholars that the Lenten fast was "invented" by the Church to make sure common people had the resources to make it through winter without dying from starvation. To ignore the fact that, before refrigeration and other forms of long-term food preservation and world trade in perishable items that people ate as well in the winter as in the summer is folly.

[@chrisf1361]

I love how the comment section feels like transcriptions of oral history. It makes me wish I was able to talk to my grandparents about their lives.

[@user-qq2ck9zk3r]

+++++

[@kyliepechler]

Yes! It is so fascinating to discover the magnitude of the many different experiences other people/families have had and then passed down verbally.

[@Martina-Kosicanka]

Lovely comment

[@acajudi100]

The school nurse had pads, and our schools had showers.

[@ResaChiic]

I wonder if there's a way to archive it or if there is already an archive of similar stories.

[@annaelizabeth6]

they actually didn't have periods, because that would be work, and victorian women *never* worked

[@gromit0299]

This got me good! 😂

[@jurajjakubec7796]

exactly, as far as I am concerned, vicotrian women were busy laying on their beds in their corsets unable to move.

[@zeinabhassan9260]

😂😂

[@abijewgay]

Juraj Jakubec and the corset cut them in half and they would have to be resurrected

[@tyrant-den884]

I will assume you are being ironic.

[@zocansew]

women: has had periods for millennia men: look what we discovered!!! =D

[@bugra6798]

@@sadamiamani no?

[@matthewwilliams1212]

Hey, all men stopped women from even having their periods, well, only for 9months then we were born... 😆

[@JereeAnderson]

😂😂😂😂

[@g.a.6978]

I know. Dont you just love it when some of us start crying when an opinion is said?

[@veronicabasile1464]

how could they think it was a disease? there’s even a passage on the bible that talks “her rules were late”. So if you’re late and you’re pregnant, you’re healthy?!

[@himansigupta18]

My mom would tell me some stories about how badly women were treated during their periods in India, they would be put in a separate room where they would be kept away from people and basically be treated like monsters for those few days. It’s so sad to learn about the mistreatment of women just because of males dominating the information given to them.

[@dreamer9375]

Yes, I've heard of this one too. In small villages, women would be sent away from the village to go live in a hut made for menstruating women. Pathetic, isn't it? 😬

[@asphyxia7784]

My mother also told me that they had to wash themselves in ice cold water and sleep outside at night without any blankets during winters when they had their period. They were not allowed to enter the house or kitchen and had to eat leftovers and not freshly cooked food. It was really bad. My mom was weak and she used to get quite sick during those days.

[@himansigupta18]

Ataraxia oh yes I’ve heard of that too, even to this day women don’t cook during their periods. Wish our culture would adapt to things that are natural

[@komalashar9287]

I am from India and I can confirm that although many things have changed, women still aren't allowed to cook and go inside a room that has an idol or temples ( basically holy places). And you aren't allowed to touch the woman. Of course, in many houses such things are not practiced.

[@himansigupta18]

Komal Ashar I’m always conflicted about these things too because on one hand it’s tradition and we do these things out of respect but it’s also so old fashion and seems to discriminate against something natural about women

[@lyndaolney1475]

"women on their periods can't work, they should just lie on the couch till it's done"... I wish they'd say that now... I'd be like .. YUP..

[@nalanihamby3710]

😂😂 yup. Let me nap and forget about the dishes.

[@Harpeia]

We joke but imagine four days of paid leave monthly in these capitalist times!

[@lenar6381]

It wouldnt be good though because then our rights will go away again

[@ville666sora]

I work from home, so I do sit around for the first couple days of my period lol. Mine have always been horrendous compared to other women I knew. My friends would go out and have fun, exercise, do yard work, even go swimming on theirs and I'd be hunched over in pain and feel miserable for the first couple days of mine. I was always so jealous lol.

[@crassiewassie8354]

@@Harpeia oh nooo the multi millionaires will only have 1.1 billion instead of 1.2 billion

[@betsysmith9023]

I’m 70. My mom told me she used homemade pads, made of strips of cloth, thick for heavy days and thinner for light days, which women washed and reused. She stored the soiled pads in a wooden box until the period was over then wash them in the creek when the men were gone. If the period was heavy, the women put thin strips of wood bark in the middle of the pad to soak the flow. On heavy days, they sometimes used the phrase, “ under the weather” and kept to their room. Men never questioned them, just accepted their word as gentlemen should. Beats spending the time in a menstruation hut.

[@auradragonfly]

Haha don't understand why you had to hide it from a man but then again it was long time ago. My hubby actually buys me pads.

[@realdeal7074]

😯😯 would that not smell keeping the used ones like that??

[@marissalorion1244]

So interesting, thank you for sharing!

[@TexasPelican]

Another common euphemism was "she has a headache and needs to lie down" which everybody knew what that meant.

[@staceykersting705]

@@auradragonfly Well,ya...of course he does. That said, I'm 'old fashioned' enough not to go into details of that or any bump, blister or boil at the dinner table, or in front of guests. There's a time n place for everything, and thank god bathrooms have doors!

[@arnamckee6366]

My grandma passed when my mom was 7 years old. One of her older brother stepped up and showed her how to cut a sheet. Fold it and pin it to her underwear.. God Bless his soul..Were talking 1930s

[@titanic157]

That's stepping up! Awesome!

[@serpentgoat6875]

That's the manlyest thing a male could ever do.

[@arnamckee6366]

@@nobodyasked2000 His name was Clifford.. Grew up to be a brilliant man.. Patented several pieces of equipment to help the men in the coal mines...

[@arnamckee6366]

@@nobodyasked2000 TY

[@antoniamills3000]

Lovely brother 💖

[@humanperson3733]

Random fun fact: periods were actually one of the most commonly used arguments against giving women the vote (at least in the uk) as they “made women physically and mentally incapable for at least a week every month” yep.

[@RobertsAdra]

That argument was only used once ... until a bunch of women on their period got a hold of that politician ... and proved to him that they were at least physically capable of beating the fleas out of his hide. ;)

[@samalamamarriott4784]

@@RobertsAdra can I get the name of said politician, this sounds funny :)

[@humanperson3733]

@Charlotte Surrey ye

[@minty_may349]

My periods only last a day or 2 and they don’t make me emotional-

[@hannahbanana9901]

@@minty_may349 wow I don't have mine yet but you're very lucky

[@eleigar1]

My grandma was born 1931 and as she was working class she couldn't take days off. She told me that she worked in a factory and there was some hot room and all the girls who had their periods invented excuses to get there. They would rest their back to the oven (or whatever the hot thing was) to ease the pain. The old man working in that room knew why the girls came into the room and didn't drive them away to harshly.

[@misst.e.a.187]

That was a kind and empathetic man

[@irinakl441]

Ok, here is my humble contribution to the subject. My mother in law told me once, that when she got her first period, her grandma (who was born in 1880s') was the one to guide her through. She told her, that when she got her period growing up in the mediterranian area, they used sea sponges wrapped in old cloth as young girls and sea sponges without wrapping as tampons after they got married. She said that the sponges were easy to clean and very absorbing. And if you had dripping blood, you just had to rely on the long dark skirt to cover it up. You could also get the sponges yourself, if you were a good swimmer and you were allowed to wonder around by yourself.

[@Elietaisfairy]

Sponges are still used. Really environmentally nice + some people really enjoy it. I personally prefer using a menstrual cup

[@hannahdivic28]

Wow I’ve never heard of that how resourceful!

[@basketofavocados926]

In Middle Ages women used moss🌛

[@luaraujo3416]

I remember reading this as a kid, on a "witchcraft" book (that was mostly a book about popular medicine and other useful tips).

[@crismonmoon332]

L Araújo what book was it ?

[@sunnysorrel]

Our meme mom being an actual mom

[@Laurengrey410]

She taught me more about periods than my own mom did when I was a teenager. She's basically raising us.

[@moon-cf2vw]

Dohwan Woo sorry your link isn’t really working

[@moon-cf2vw]

Dohwan Woo 😶😑

[@Mike-zh1ew]

I don't think that's her bf, since it appears to be yourself, judging by your profile pic...

[@LindeusTheBaum]

Fun story: my great-aunts period thingies were Just drying in their house. My great-grandma told my grandpa they were used against tootaches. So he put one on his head This was 50's Belgium Edit: he was 7

[@ireneultramarine244]

Wow that's such an interesting story! so cute and funny

[@spazzyshortgirl23]

All I can think about is Channing Tatum with a tampon up his nose

[@kyliepechler]

But.....wouldn't he have been suspicious that his mother and sisters had lots of toothaches on a monthly basis!? lol

[@LindeusTheBaum]

@@kyliepechler I dont think he knew who used them exactly and when

[@LindeusTheBaum]

@@kyliepechler and he was about 7 years old

[@janice1131]

In 1966 my mom handed me a booklet and said “don’t tell your brothers”. When I finally started at 14 my mom gave me theses giant pads she used with the belt. I could not wear pants while wearing the pads because “ the boys could tell”. I couldn’t go swimming, and could not wear tampons because they were only for “married” women. I tried going in the pool with a pad and it blew up like the Hindenburg !

[@fredjohn3015]

Hello Janice

[@rebeccagable9629]

Was the booklet called "On Becoming a Woman"?

[@janice1131]

It was advertised on the Kotex box. Then my mom bought me some “Miss Deb” pads at the store where I had a crush on the sack boy 🥵

[@lisab9541]

@@rebeccagable9629 was in 1974/75 when I got that booklet. Kept it for years. Wish I still had it now. Lol

[@rebeccagable9629]

@@lisab9541 Memories!

[@bakachan6541]

I'm Italian. In Italy, it is really a big deal. When I first had my period, my mom called all the female relatives she knew as if it was a big event. Some of them even gave me pocket money lol.

[@user-th2xz7gy3y]

Same here. My mom told the female relatives that I because a lady

[@karentucker2161]

That sounds like my mom, but she's not Italian.

[@saritaw4739]

Jewish moms do the same! I got more of Han 20 phone calls ( grandmas, aunts, neighbors, friends of friends etc) congratulating me for becoming a lady, and the speech about the responsibility of it, pregnancy etc! Oy!

[@realdeal7074]

Haha

[@nathaliaquagliato5789]

I'm a Italian descendent in Brazil. Maybe it explains the flowers and cards and kisses and hugs I got from pretty much all my female relatives on my first period. Some of them told me "to be careful, because I could get pregnant now" and all I could think was "bitch, I'm 10 years old, all I want is to go buy my InuYasha manga, you think I'm fucking around or what to say something like that?"

[@somethingclever8916]

Victorian and edwardian were too proper to have a period. They had commas.

[@moistsquish]

SKSKSKS STOP

[@bho-lj1jk]

::::::::::::::0 I want to make an elaborate visual joke about public use of the colon but it just seems like too much work before breakfast.

[@annas.5894]

J'me Despence - now that’s funny!!!

[@PiscesVirago73]

This made me snort laugh

[@miriamhavard7621]

😂😂😂😂😂😂😂💕

[@catsensei8322]

(Indian) Well, my mom till few months ago, didn't knew why periods happen, she said it was "bad blood" that gets flushed out. I had to teach her (I am 20) about it and in embarrassment she closed her ears and said "i don't wanna talk about it, go" so i explained her in "ultra kid mode" quickly and she was horrified but now she realised the connection between "pregnancy and no periods" too.

[@Jennawxyz221]

Its nice you explained it to her but that is also just sad. Its not bad blood. its literally the lining the nourishes life.

[@OlivePapyrus]

Thank you for this video because it led to this comment section. A community of women, of all ages, chatting about the history of menstruation. So rare yet so necessary. I'm glad I was here.

[@giasharie274]

Same here!

[@b.d6642]

As a guy this comment section is honestly very informative

[@justsomerandompersononthei5087]

It’s super interesting!

[@tandemcompound2]

they let their servants have their menstrual cycle. simple.

[@richmcgee434]

They certainly would have if they could have. The very idea lends itself to an amusing fantasy, though. "Cost me three footmen, my lead gardener, and a butler last year alone. I really *don't* see what their objection is. What? Have my lady's maid attend to it? Don't be absurd, do you know how hard it is to replace a good maid?" Hmmm. How to work that into a Victorian Fantasy setting?

[@AlextheENTP]

This reminds me of the scene from _The Mick_ , where Alba the housekeeper states during a rant about the family she works for, "I breastfed all three of those kids!" But she never even had any kids of her own, so how did they get her to lactate for their kids??? 😂😂 Edit: As some of you know, I only found out about induced lactation by casually reading an outdated medical book (as in, published before I was born), which stated that induced lactation could take up to a year. After that I never gave the topic any thought again, and when I saw the episode, I just remembered what I'd read and figured that that was what made the joke funny. Nowadays it only takes a few weeks! Yay progress. (Although I still find the joke funny.)

[@richmcgee434]

@@AlextheENTP I hope you're kidding but if you're not, go look up induced lactation. Honestly, what do they teach people in health and biology classes these days?

[@AlextheENTP]

@@richmcgee434 Hi Rich. Thanks so much for being a snarky prick who judges people for not knowing some random fact, but doesn't actually supply any useful information. That's the spirit, well done! For corrections, please see above.

[@richmcgee434]

@@AlextheENTP Oh, I'm sorry, you're too lazy to do a google search of your own as well as too ignorant to know basic facts about human biology. Silly me for assuming you were functioning adult. Here's your link, baby. lllusa.org/induced-lactation-and-relactation/

[@nofosho3567]

I have my great grandmother's journal and she barely even goes into the birth of her own child (my grandfather). It was the 1930's and shes like "________ (my great grandfather) came over and we sat outside talking. __________ met me at church and gave me a song book." Then out of nowhere she's like "got married last week" and then like 5 months later she wrote "_________ (my grandfather) is a month old today, he is very fat and it's good". I was hoping to find something scandalous, not sure why, but even though it was her private journal she barely wrote about anything not 100% readable by other people. There's more recipes than anything else lol

[@shelthesea]

nofosho i love her

[@vt1527]

well it could be considered a tiny bit scandalous that your grandfather was already a month old even though his parents got married only 4 months before his birth ;)

[@nofosho3567]

Yeah she was a good lady. She died at 101 when I was 12 so I have good memories of her, she was a feisty lady lol. Granted she got pregnant out of wedlock and had a shotgun wedding during the great depression/Dust Bowl period in the midwest US. She literally never mentions any of it in her diary, but she constantly talks about desserts and how much she was a better cook than her mother-in-law. Pretty good book, would be better if she had nicer handwriting tho haha

[@baxterandcotton]

A lot of old diaries are like that. My 94 year old Swedish grandma's is mainly one line about the whether, one line about if someone visited. The entries where her grandkids were born are just like "it was a rainy day. Daughter in law gave birth finally, thank goodness that's over." Lol. The *one* entry (she has many decades of diaries) that has some emotion to it was her husband's death, and even that was mainly a description of the funeral. It's interesting because of course people have always had emotional lives, but we emphasize that so much more now.

[@EmissaryofWind]

@@vt1527 Not really, it was actually much more common than we'd expect. There's a saying that goes "the first child takes however long it needs, all the ones after take nine months." As long as the bride wasn't visibly pregnant when she got married, nobody batted an eye.

[@lisamedla]

Haven't see any Kenyan or even African stories. So my country has 42 tribes and for one of the ones I belong to and their immediate neighbours they used a special piece of cloth. Clothes then were made exclusively of leather. The cloth was processed more than the usual clothes. It was fastened I believe to the underpant. As a plus society was largely ran by women. In many homesteads the husband only knew only of the first wife's period, assuming she did not get pregnant on the honeymoon or he was too poor to get another wife. With colonialism came the piece of cotton. Not many people could buy cotton to last so they used blankets which functioned much the same as cloth diapers. They were soaked overnight with what I know not and we sun dried. Sun was mandatory. Then came the adhesive pads. Tampons to date are not as popular here and really stuff like menstrual cups and surprise surprise reusable pads too.

[@regann7227]

Interesting

[@heatherjones6647]

Menstrual cups are the way to go. Durable, easily washable without using too much water, and can be sanitized. Love Kenya and can't wait to go back after Covid vaccine.

[@queerulantin6431]

Thank you so much! ❤️🧡💛💚💙💜🌈✨✌️

[@greenybeeny7139]

dang that's cool

[@AN-ou6qu]

Pretty sure she specializes in Victorian culture but this is a cool insight and I’d love to see a historical channel like karolina’s but for Africa (or likely a particular country or part)

[@tmsuter2186]

My daughter was raised in a hiuse with 5 older boys. When she got her period her brother made her a cake and iced it with congratulations. They said rhey wanted to celebrate. They said maybe she would only be a little witch to them for one week a month, instead of all the time like she had been for the previous 6 months. Being the only girl in a house full of teenage boys and their friends ( all under 22) was a challenge.

[@mr.icecream7880]

Haha that’s funny

[@aditisk99]

What a nice brother!

[@lord__pasta]

Lmao. My brother is stuck with 4 of us girls, and that's it, so he is stuck having all of us complain about cramps and whatnot. Doubt he'd ever want to make us cakes lol

[@londolanindou9836]

I'm in South Africa, my Great grandmother once told me that in the 1920s they would dry up slabs of cow dung and wrap it in fabric and place it on the traditional loincloth (a string around the waste and a strip of fabric running from the pubis to end of the bum). Dried cow dung has no smell and it is super absorbent so they were dry and didn't smell throughout the day. Cows were everywhere so there was plenty of dung, and they just threw the soiled dung away where no one could find it and washed the cloth. Pretty cool

[@kimberlethlippington3711]

You can get so many infections from that though

[@malinasworld]

Kimberleth Lippington cow dung actually has antibiotic properties. I mean, I’m not about to use the stuff to clean up my house (two Latvian women are actually marketing it as a household cleaner) or as a pad, but it appears it was relatively low risk enough that these South African women didn’t bother using just rags and other absorbents for a while.

[@SweetOsoka]

I saw a paper that was made of elephant dung. They eat and shit told of fiber. So in japan they decided to recycle it that way. I use a sea sponge for period stuff so i dont find it too odd.

[@Loreman72]

Cow dung turns into dry grass over the course if a day or two, it's not a bit like the cowpats you see in wetter climates. Cow dung had other uses in African settler times, too, they mixed it with mud to make floors. Those floors could be polished to quite a shine. You can see them in some museum houses.

[@malinasworld]

Loreman72 oh yeah, I totally forgot some people might not know cow dung in a dry form. We used to use it for flooring here as well. Keeps the place cool.

[@joyjones8231]

Probably the same way I do, miserably with lots of swearing.

[@zoehenwood9706]

Mine is miserable with lots of sweating.

[@MsLilly200]

Mine is miserable with lots of backpain.

[@no_onewhatever9514]

Mine is miserable with lots of vomit.

[@toqa6735]

Mine is miserable with changing the pads every three hours in the first two days , and me forgetting to have my medicines in the first day...... I'm on my period as I'm typing and i forgot to have my pills in the first day so *-fuck-*

[@toqa6735]

@@no_onewhatever9514 My sister vomits and now she's on a kito diet with medicines for her health , hopefully you'll get better 😬

[@nadiau]

Here in Russia we dealt with periods in a pretty much Victorian way all the way up to USSR collapse, when finally we got imported tampons and pads that actually worked.. I was so happy the day mom bought me my first box of Tampax in early 90s. It truly changed my life lol.

[@summersunday8965]

Yep. My first period was in 2001, and I used rags: washed them, dried, ironed and kept them hidden until in 2003 I was to go to a summer camp, and mom got me a box of pads (apparently to avoid the shame if other girls would see my rags). I still remember my astonishment at the difference

[@SmittenKitten.]

I have two young sons. Like all children, they're super curious and in my business all the time, even when I'm peeing. Well, I was on my period one time, and one of my sons walked into the greater bathroom area, and I realized that I didn't have any pads in the little toilet room. I asked my son if he could go get Daddy, but Daddy was apparently talking to a neighbor, so I had my son get a box of pads for me. He asked what they were for, and I was like, "Do I tell him?" I decided there was nothing wrong with telling him, so after I was done in the bathroom, I told him all about periods in a child-friendly sort of way. At first he was kind of scared when he heard there was bleeding involved (scared for me), but once I explained it was normal, that I didn't need a bandaid, etc., he calmed down. As they've aged a little, I've explained a little more, and it's such a normal and comfortable topic now that they make fun of me when I complain about being on my period... -_- My MIL told me it was "improper" of me to talk about periods with little boys, that it's "women's business," etc., but I don't think there's anything wrong with it as long as it's age appropriate.

[@MeganMay62442]

Good for you! Your sons will be more educated about women's health and this will help them to have better respect for women. I think it's a good thing.

[@SmittenKitten.]

@@MeganMay62442 Thank you!! I can't tell you how much I appreciate hearing that!

[@susanhepburn6040]

Couldn't agree more! I educated both of my children (one girl, one boy) about periods, condoms, respect and consent etc. Also taught them both to cook, iron, basic sewing and doing the laundry, as soon as it was appropriate, i.e. safe. I'm 69 and they were born in '72 and '74.

[@lokicooper4690]

Your MIL is a dinosaur! I think it's absolutely necessary to tell them. So many males haven't the slightest clue what is going on with women and periods, it's shocking. They really need to know so they can understand what is going on. It's not like it's something secret, it's basic biology, and there's nothing wrong with males learning it too. I really appreciate when I hear parents who educate their kids, in stead of relying on school to teach them about it.

[@SmittenKitten.]

@@lokicooper4690 She really is a dinosaur... That's a great word to describe her ideology. She's a conservative southern Christian, and is pretty Karen-like. I try my hardest to get along with her, but oh my gosh is it difficult! I'm so glad to hear positive affirmation in the way I handle my sons in this regard. No one taught me about periods, and it always felt taboo, so I don't want my sons to feel that way about something so normal and ubiquitous. Thank you for the kind comment!

[@rawonions8827]

If only women could stay home and rest on their period today- trying to concentrate while your ovaries are trying to rip themselves out of your abdomen is kind of distracting.

[@paisley293]

It's the blood clots ripping themselves out of the uterine lining, that really got me. But I think the ovaries are just chillin'.

[@birflurnstun1346]

@@paisley293 mine r overactive lol

[@AlexChavez-wz1ok]

I am not against it. Sign me up!!!

[@negautrunks]

@@paisley293 this. Your ovaries are not involved in menstruation beyond supplying the egg 2 weeks or so before. That is their only involvement. Overactive or not, PCOS, ovarian cancer, whatever, nothing is going to cause your ovaries to become an active participant in your period while you're bleeding. The blood comes from your uterus period, not your ovaries, fallopian tubes, cervix, or vagina! There are lots of great videos on KZbin explaining your period :)

[@paisley293]

@@negautrunks : thanks for the explanation. I'm sure some others might benefit from it. However, if you looked at my post, I never said that the blood came from the ovaries or the other parts of the female reproductive system that you enumerated in your post. But if you read *my post* again, I *did* mention the uterine lining. I'm a grand mother now, who happened to teach NFP reproductive health in my younger days.

[@sarahg1583]

In 1974, my mother never talked about "such things" so I was shocked when this happened. I still vividly recall her cooking dinner when I approached her, scared, crying in pain & bleeding. Her response: "go get a napkin & belt in my room”. Having no clue, I went to her room but came back empty handed. She then got angry; when I came back a 2nd time still questioning the location of the items. Frustrated, she then had me follow her into her room & pointed out a box of napkins hidden in her closet & several menstrual belts hidden in her lingerie drawer. (Like I would've ever found them!) She then left me alone & knowing she was pissed I didn't dare ask another question. I had no idea what I was doing, but after several trials & errors, eventually figured it out.

[@levierina]

Ooof, she was rough. I can empathize with you :(

[@hypatiakovalevskayasklodow9195]

oh wow I am so sorry, that's terrible. Surprised she was that inconsiderate to you

[@apseudonym]

poor kid. not a nice induction to womanhood

[@politecat4236]

That's just straight up abuse.

[@nox9749]

Nguyen the whole process of womanhood is not nice period (pun intended 😂😂😂)

[@uonigiro]

My grandma is from a small village in Greece and she would take cotton or little rags and just put them ... where they needed to go. Fast forward when I get my periods now whenever I visit her and I have my pads in a little bag she always scolds me saying this is a secret between women and nobody should know not even my brother. Also when she was young she wouldn’t be allowed to go to church on her period because it was an “unholy” time for her. It’s crazy how I literally am so vocal to my family whenever it’s that time of the month but my grandma had to keep it to herself and not receive any helpful products.

[@deirdrerdj]

What, are they under Levitical law in Greece??

[@uonigiro]

@@deirdrerdj idk what that is but maybe consider the cultural shift from like the 40-50s and nowadays 😂 also I’m only 15 and I got my period like three years ago so there’s a big difference in our outlook of things. I mean my grandma considers herself a feminist because she would lie about her period and go to church anyways like this is they kind of gap we’re talking about. Also Greece is very homogeneous and most of the population is Christian so the culture heavily implies Christian beliefs etc. Because of us being reliant on the church many tend to be conservative (since the conservation of our language is thanks to the church but that’s a different story) so yeah the church kinda held us back. Also like I said before there is quite the gap between my grandmas teenage years and mine 😂

[@26chiapet]

That’s so odd, because I always thought that only countries like in Southeast Asia wouldn’t allow women in worshiping grounds whiles she’s menstruating.

[@uonigiro]

@@26chiapet Yh I mean Greece back then and especially the church is very conservative. Although now theyre still conservative they allow women to go to church when menstruating

[@lonelynightlights]

the same "" unholy on your period, don't enter our holy grounds"" notion ..also exists in muslim communties and is still practiced!

[@jennieredd]

I’m a Gen Xer from the Deep South. Periods were never discussed. I was 11 when I started my period. I told my mom I was bleeding and her response was “I guess you’re a woman now.” That was it, conversation over. I had to figure everything out all on my own. Also, I suffered unbearable cramps that would have me doubled over in tremendous pain and vomiting for hours. A few times I almost passed out from the pain. Not one person in my family suggested I go to the doctor, get on the pill, take something more effective than one aspirin, etc. I suffered alone in my bedroom and missed many days of school for years. The day I turned 18 I got a prescription for birth control and have since vowed to never let my daughter suffer.

[@ysag.1227]

My parents are gen x and your icon is so on brand :)

[@cyndiveach4279]

My daughter is the same way! Getting bad cramps and throwing up was so foreign to me. I had no idea as to what to do for her.

[@SibylleLeon]

I'm Gen X but I learned about this stuff in school. So thankfully I knew what to do when I got my period. We were also encouraged to talk about it very openly and get checked out by a gynaecologist regularly from at least the age of 16, and the girls all did. My very conservative mother didn't understand and her upbringing probably just didn't allow her to be this open about it, but thankfully I had my own support system, haha!

[@nodell1567]

My great grandma actually did the patent on the sticky part of pads! I thank her every month 😂

[@blackswan4486]

Wow really? Cool. What was her name?

[@nodell1567]

@@blackswan4486 Laurel Hendricks!

[@nodell1567]

@@blackswan4486 She totally got screwed and didn't get royalties, just a lump sum BUT I mean she bought her first house with the money so 🤷🏼‍♀️

[@blackswan4486]

Nico would be fun to make a movie about her “on the rag”

[@blackswan4486]

Nico would be a great title for a movie. Double entendre since they always accused angry and rejected women of being on the rag. A story-ized history of how one woman made life easier for others at a very oppressive and shaming time.

[@yoellen1]

The body friendly attitude in this comment section is giving me life

[@Julia-jc6xu]

Periods were such a taboo even in the 70's. My mom once told me she would go to the store, ask for menstrual pads and they would give her a box wrapped in brown paper, no labels, nothing. They would't even display them on the shelves. 🤷🏻‍♀️

[@susanhepburn6040]

In the early 60s in my part of England, pads and belts were usually 'under the counter' in the local haberdashery store and asked for (by my mother, buying for me) in a kind of coded phrase. Very sad. Also handed to you in brown paper wrapping!

[@MR-nu2ew]

My mom told me the same story! She said it was actually embarrassing to pick up the wrapped brown packages because everyone knew exactly what was inside!

[@MzClementine]

Hence the claim, “being on the rag.” I asked my grandmother this very question my great grandmother told me well you’ve heard of being on the rag ...correct we used rags and attach them with these terrible belts. Very uncomfortable very uncertain if everything will stay in place. Those days it was best for you to do things you could do sitting down like mending... folding... anything to sit... hahaha. Grandmother actually had one of those loop belt things from the 40s or 50s. The pads that they sold with those oh my goodness my aunt my mother my grandmother and great grandmother we all laughed as my grandmother came out with it on and showed it off and give us a fashion show.. absolutely hilarious!!! I was just 10 then, and there were plenty of girls that could start there period then. I tried it on. And the cries and laughter commenced, I swear that thing came up to my armpits. If I even had budding breasts they would’ve been in between it... I started my period when I was 13 so grateful for the modern things that we have today... so grateful I got to experience four generations of women. Now it’s just me... I miss them so.

[@elizabethdickerson2915]

[@LL-tr5et]

maybe someday you'll be the grandmother watching over your children

[@missj6923]

Gorgeous story, thank you for sharing. Slightly off topic but I remembered my great grandmother buying me tights and they came up to my armpits so I'd wear it like a onesie and dance and creep my mum out. I thought it was so fun, good times ☺️

[@58jennypenny]

you couldn't fix the back loop on otherwise the pad would ride up the back while walking.

[@theembersinside1420]

Eeeew really? U gotta say "budding breasts???" Ughhh.. 🤢🤢🤢

[@leraost]

I was studying this subject at University a little. Russian peasant women from Middle age up to the beginning of XX century were using the so-called under skirt, which was used for wiping up blood. As for women in more northern regions where it was common to wear trousers made of animal leather with fur for all community members, they used some soft reindeer moss or other moss. One day I was on camping far away from any civilization and my periods surprisingly started. And who knew that reindeer moss is actually unbelievably comfortable. And eco-friendly 😄

How interesting!

[@AlexaFaie]

Moss is also antibacterial and antifungal so its actually pretty hygienic too. I love that you actually tried it out.

[@kahorere]

This is super interesting! Do you have anything for further reading about this topics? (both on periods and those women wearing trousers)

[@leraost]

@@kahorere I can find some articles about it, but in Russian. Regional studies are usually not translated in English in Russian scientific community. Unfortunately :(

[@sasy1533]

Lera Ost yes! In post war Spain, not that long ago (like 70 years ago) they just let the blood flow, rubbing their legs so the blood would smear and dry off. If it was heavy, you would use your underskirt to wipe the blood. So they walked with bloody underskirts. People were just so poor.

[@tanja-k]

This has to be the most interesting comments section I have ever read on KZbin. When such a barely noted subject within historical/past literature causes so much discussion it makes me wonder how future generations will discuss the time we are living in now.

[@drorydressage]

This, and older people relying anecdotes from their own grandmothers... preserving knowledge that would otherwise be entirely lost in a few decades.

[@MyCrystalSwan]

Indeed! This comment section is seriously so wholesome I cried a little.

[@simranbtsarmy4417]

Good thought

[@yourboss8176]

I'm so happy to live in a time where this topic is not being silenced to death

[@ladyjustice1474]

Are you sure about that? A lot of parents don't talk to the kids about the physical changes they'll go through. Sex ed in the schools doesn't deal with the emotional fall out that occurs during puberty.

[@TheTiffgriffiths]

great topic! my great grandmother would never say anything, but when my grandmother got her first period she thought she had sinned and was dying!!! My native american heritage has taught me that a Woman's First MOON is very important and to be celebrated :)

[@catvergueiro8905]

I would love to know more about the native american beliefs when it comes to womanhood :) u know if there are books about it?

[@saturniiiidae]

I was fascinated with Native American beliefswhen I was in 2nd grade but haven’t put much thought into it anymore as it was a long time ago. I find it fascinating though and I read some articles about the moon time. I would also love to know more about this :)

[@LL-tr5et]

me too! id love to know

[@indumathi6501]

I'm from South India , u can search for puberty ceremony in KZbin

[@missnerd9555]

It's worth noting how indigenous cultures celebrated periods, and saw it as something powerful. I am from India, in my midtwenties and i am only now discovering a whole lot of beliefs that have been misrepresented as taboos as a result of being knowledge being colonised, what with many non-eastern beliefs about periods seeping into the culture. I am glad you are in touch with your native American heritage. :)

[@annaf.2779]

My great-aunt, who is now 88 years old, told me that when she started her period she was given one of those belts by her mother. She doesn't know whether this was the most common "period product" in her country though, or if it was just what her mother was used to and passed on to her, because she was the only girl in the family and nobody talked about that part of the month anyway...

[@namewithay]

My mom was a teenager in the early 70s and she wore the belts.

[@susannaholdren9625]

@Asha My parents knew a lady who, when she was around 14, (and this must have been in the 1930's I think), she knew about periods and that if your period stops, it's because you're pregnant. Unfortunately her parents never told her how a person actually gets pregnant. Well, one month her period was late or skipped, which is normal, and she told her mom she thought she was pregnant. 😂

[@nienazwane1]

@@susannaholdren9625 my grandma told me story about her aunt. Nobody have told that aunt how to gets pregnant and one time she came to her mom and told her that she was pregnant because she was sitting on a chair after a man 😅

[@jd-no7rw]

@@nienazwane1 My step-grandmother, on asking what girls talked about talked about when she was growing up promptly said, "Boys! Of course we didn't know if you could pregnant from kissing or washing clothes together."

[@jd-no7rw]

@@lex6819 I was at school once and got my period, and didn't have anything, so I went to the nurse's office and she gave me a belt. I think just by my look she knew I had no clue what to do with it, lol. This was in the early 80s.

[@shekimarie6280]

The last time I was this early they still call corsets, stays.

[@Geeky.rainbow.vampire]

Mood

[@MissCaraMint]

Oh wow, that is early

[@Evija3000]

Why do I feel like one is a french and the other an english name.

[@MissCaraMint]

Evija3000 Because that’s the case. Though I belive they’re both French in origin if we go off technicalities

[@Evija3000]

@@MissCaraMint Checked wiktionary. There's a whole forest of middle/old english, french, even dutch, swedish, etc. But, yeah, old french is involved.

[@kaleey]

My grandma, who has 2 younger sisters, always told me that when she got her period, at 12 I think, she never told her mother (her mother never, ever, talked about it, my gran had to figure out what it was from her girlfriends). Years later, when all of the three sisters had their periods, my grandma's mom saw one of the cloths they used, with a little bit of blood, and she asked my granma, very afflicted, silently and disturbed: "Did you... had your period?" And my grandma responded her very angrily, asking her why she, their own mother, had been avoiding the subject for so many time... Because it wasn't the first time she saw the blood, just the first time she wanted to mention it. Pretty sad

[@ysag.1227]

Wow, so your grandma didn't know?

[@GradKat]

Ah, periods! The only benefit of getting old is at least you don’t have to deal with that monthly misery any more.

[@macocadena]

ah then the hot flashes began, the loss of sleep, the depression, the dry vulva...being a woman ain't easy- but we can take it!

[@teachersusanute199]

Yep

[@taylorrice8612]

@@macocadena I’ll take the discomfort of menstual cramps in exchange for my libido

[@peggyscott125]

Girl, ain't that the truth. Praise God!

[@peggyscott125]

I started at 12 in 1969, one night before bed. I saw blood in my cotton undies, thought I was dying. Ran to the kitchen screaming. My mom said let's go in the bathroom, your father doesn't like to hear about female stuff. Lol. One thing I found out back then was that PMS caused me to throw a mean sucker punch! I hit a boy for sitting in my chair. He was stunned! Fast forward to 2011, it stopped. I went thru a mini menopause. Had a few headaches and I was done and I've been cheering ever since!! Worst thing for a women to endure every month. Glad I'm 64!

[@sarasolomon4812]

This is by far, the most fascinating comments section I have EVER scrolled through. One interesting point, is that a lot of women mention ancestors from not do long ago, in the 20th century, but who lived in small villages, or had less than modern conveniences. I think it's important to note that this whole concept isn't only for the history books. There are millions upon millions of women who live in our modern era without safe and sanitary period products.

[@annas.5894]

Sara Solomon - yes. That is a very important point. Thanks. We all need to help our sisters everywhere.

[@thekingsdaughter4233]

While many modern women are grossed out by the idea of cloth pads, there are organisations that provide such pads for girls in underdeveloped countries. This helps them stay in school- sometimes even prevents child marriage. A worthy cause to give to. Organizations can be found by a quick internet search.

[@aud7593]

@@thekingsdaughter4233 oh i love cloth pads! helps with my guilt in using so many one-time use pads as well. AND ALSO people living in poverty in "modern"/"first world" countries often desperately need sanitary products, bc it's hard to prioritize that over food, especially when sanitary prods can be wicked expensive :/ so if y'all are able to: donate pads and tampons to homeless shelters!

[@PauliEvansBlack617]

Absolutely, just last week a friend who is around 30 years old was telling me that when she was in high school she didn’t have money to buy sanitary products so she would have to use rags.

[@idonotresidehere.5709]

when my mom wa younger, visiting Prauge with her father and sister, she got her period and was given a mesh bag full of cottonballs, because, that's just what they had.

[@ivygilliam5168]

"Their opinion didn't mean that women listened to them" I laughed way to hard at that.

[@totallyawsomeh]

My great grandmother told us how she she handled with hers. They definitely wore some kind of split underwear when she was a girl. She talked about how you could just lift your skirt and ‘make a branch’ which means pee. But she said she was lucky her grandmother sewed button in their underwear so they could button in their ‘panty rags’ when needed, and go about their life’s.

[@Delicate_Disaster]

The underwear were most likely like puffy shorts. Tied around the legs and waist but loose in the middle. The crotch area wasn't sewn shut, it was more like mens boxers, but between the legs. So you could lift your skirt and open the underwear up and be quick.

[@sheilapasquini6232]

My mom was a nurse and we went over several booklets, along with Q and A. She had everything ready for me when the time came, including menstrual meds. Thanks, Mom!

[@fredjohn3015]

Hello Sheila

[@peggycorbett2679]

My great grandma told me women would go to the back of the store where they would buy rags which would be put in a paper bag so they could be discreet about it.

[@aformerhiro7383]

Heh. Reminds me when I was in a pysch ward and I got my period. The staff was all male and when I asked for a pad the staff member I asked grabbed me a bunch of oads, placed it in a little brown bag, folded said bag twice, patted it down and gave it to me. I'm guessing that's what women would do in his time too, as he was an older fellow. Freely buying menstrual products without hiding them is a very modern concept.

[@roshalee5839]

@@aformerhiro7383 Psych ward. Now you have my attention. Can you tell us about it

[@kontrapunktalna]

The packing in a separate paper bag / wrapping it in paper actualy still happens in rural communities here in Serbia, and I've also experienced it in Morocco

[@aformerhiro7383]

@@roshalee5839 I dont see how it relates to this, but sure. What would you like to know?

[@monkiram]

I still hide them in my sleeve when I need to change in a public bathroom. Not when buying them though, but having everyone around know when I'm about to go to the bathroom to change my sanitary products is a little too personal for me, even in 2019.

[@blondinevloggt]

my friend's family has a history of extremely painful periods (fun!), her mom and her would literally pass out from the cramps when they didn't take painkillers. when she asked her grandma how she used to deal with it pre hot water bottles and painkillers she said: a sheepskin for warmth and vodka.

[@online2000.]

Blondine vloggt that’s badass

Quite similar to what my great-grandmother used to give to my mother and my aunt when they had cramps. Simply... gin.

[@zeineb8870]

@ should try that😂

[@user-mv9tt4st9k]

Your friend's great grandma is my kind of girl, ha ha.

[@petlover79]

My mother gave me tequila for the cramps, 👍🤣😂🤣

[@mysafespace1744]

My grandmother first got her periods at the age of 17-18. It's kinda late but it was post-war (late 1960s) Soviet Union countryside and because of that she was malnourished and very skinny. She got it at her prom while she and her classmates were waiting for the sunrise. She did not know about periods (because in USSR there was no sex) and she was surprised and scared but her more experienced classmates helped her to calm down. So she bled through her white dress and headed back home with a towel (or was it a scarf?) tied around her hips. At home her mother explained how to deal with periods. Basically they used to sew multiple layers of fabric onto crotch of panties and changed them when it got used up and bloody and then washed them with cold water only, sometimes leaving them to soak in cold water. And there was no soap back then, at least in that part of USSR, so yeah, it was crazy.

[@renf1ower]

goodness I can spend years in this comment section I absolutely adore the older ladies here sharing their stories I love reading them

[@sophroniel]

I have been interested in this myself, and some points that may be of interest: - In more ancient times, the Red Tent was a thing--go into the tent and free bleed on the straw until you're done - dampened sea sponge wrapped in wool, cotton or rags was surprisingly effective, when included internally. It's a trick p*rn stars use, apparently, that sponges/makeup sponges put up there deal with it for a number of hours - poor women might just stuff compacted rags up there. If you were to (forgive me for the description) shove it all up there high enough, it is quite effective EDIT: someone else mentioned it and i can't believe I completely forgot most women had a red flannel petticoat for this reason. WHAT KIND OF NERD AM I - the menstural cup was invented in the early 30's As another avenue of thought, also consider the differences in women then. The average age of menarche was about 17 in 1880, so teenage girls were not generally getting their periods when we are now. Additionally, poor women may not have had the body weight necessary to menstruate regularly. It also bears discussing that, for the women who had no birth control, they would not really *have* that many periods. When you breastfeed, unless super fertile, it often stops you menstruating for some time, and it is not uncommon to not get a period after having a child for up to 18 months after birth. If a woman was near constantly pregnant and/or breastfeeding, the issue may not have been as pressing as it is for us today. Many women have irregular cycles too. Edit: Wow so many likes!!! I should also add that women are highly individual, and have such wildly different experiences with hormones and menstruation etc that it's almost impossible to generalise even today, when it is more discussed, let alone 100's of years ago when it wasn't necessarily taboo, per se, but where it was more private and maybe almost inconsequential to some women; you don't generally hear about things recorded re this because, unless it was unusual or a medical issue, it was probably just not really important to mention. I think it's likely it was certainly taboo in some families, areas or classes, but just as likely it was openly talked about with sisters or aunts, but just never recorded because men weren't privy to it. There is a huge variation in "normal" and women are totally ingenious with this stuff, so there were probably many successful solutions to their periods that women used and maybe told their sisters or daughters but no one else. The thing I found most interesting in my research with family history (I have delt with.... SO many parish registers all around northern europe and the east coast of USA) was that many women started their periods so late in their teens, and 17, 18, 19 even 20 were not super unusual ages to begin having a period for normal women. Always there has been exceptions, but culturally it more co-incided with when we traditionally think of "womanhood". I could write novels about why the early marriage trope is wrong too but that's another barrel of fish haha. Re menarche age, there have been more modern studies about how things like father-daughter relationships, single parenthood, socio-economic stability/wealth and early sexualisation statistically affect onset of menstruation, which I find totally facinating, as to how social environment can affect what is essentially fundemental body processes (epigenetics maybe??). Correlation =/= causation of course, but as someone who was sheltered from sexualised media until my late teens, who had a stable home life with parents who were happily and healthily married, where my questions about bodies and sex and things like that were not shameful or taboo but my questions answered honestly and accurately, and as someone who had a very close and positive relationship with my dad, I think there might be some truth to these influences. I had my first period at almost 15, and I remember being basically a freak to my friends and classmates at a girls' school, where most of them were 9 - 11 when they first got their period. This stuff is so, so interesting I could go on but i'll shut up now haha

[@racheldreamslife]

Sophia Neilsson what an interesting insight. Thanks for sharing!

[@wckd4u]

@Anna Heebsh The fact alone that people back then were on their feet and more active than we are today, would impact the quality of cramps and volume of flow.

[@raraavis7782]

Sophia Neilsson The sponge thing isn’t that ‚deviant‘ anymore...you can buy packs of individually wrapped little sponges in the pharmacy for that purpose...I‘ve been using them for many years, when I wait to have sex during my period. I‘m just not into the whole ‚red sea‘ scenario 😎 They work pretty well. Although I wouldn’t give them more than an hour or two with a heavy flow - they’re pretty small. But otherwise, you wouldn’t even know, you’re bleeding. Can you imagine just bleeding onto a straw bedding, though? I mean, the stench must have been...awful. Or stuffing random rags into yourself. Hello infection. Yikes.

[@baxterandcotton]

@Anna Heebsh it almost certainly has gotten heavier, because body weight has a big impact on heaviness of menstrual flow.

[@elvingearmasterirma7241]

@@wckd4u Eeeehhh I have painful cramps and I am active and it still hurts. Its lighter, but boy is it still there. I feel so bad for the women who are knocked over by their periods... What does help is mental distraction. Its about the only time I like my maths because I need to pour all my concentration into that, and my brain just "forgets" I am currently in a physical hell.

[@endiliel]

My grandmother had 5 girls and 2 boys throughout the 1930s-50s. There were also extended aunts, uncles, and cousins on the farm, coming and going at all times of the year. All the ladies used rags and, for the most part, kept that part of their lives private from the men. They would all come together a few days a month when all the men were guaranteed to be out of the house for hours, and boil their rags in one huge pot on the stove. I'm not sure where they would have hung them to dry. The girls' bedroom? The root cellar? When I began menstruating around 1980, my mother was still using a belt. She let me use her belt and pads my first period, and said we'd get my own belt the next time we went to town. I demanded that I get Stayfree and she finally switched to the modern pads with me. Now that I am in my 50s, I have developed a sensitivity to the man-made materials which pads are made from. I will suffer the use of pads for my now rare periods, but cannot use panty liners daily. Instead, I have a collection of bandanas for daily use which I fold into the correct rectangular shape. I can't help thinking of my aunts and grandmothers with their rags, and buy the most outrageous bandanas I can find in their honor.

[@cfrost87]

There are cloth pads that you can buy online.

[@Elietaisfairy]

Try cloth pads or menstrual cup :)

[@lilyl5492]

love the bandana idea. don't know why people assume your solution doesn't work fine for you

[@loading1345]

I love this!!

[@bonnys3015]

Oh kindred spirit, I salute you!

[@JanetEsq]

Just the way we celebrate birth, reaching adolescence, and marriage, we should celebrate MENOPAUSE!

[@cormacscorner]

Big brain time

[@MamaKatFrog]

Yes please.

[@vanderbam2741]

Yes I think so. An older lady at work told me she had just gone through menopause and she felt like she had more energy than she'd had since childhood.

[@taylorrice8612]

@@vanderbam2741 don’t believe her. She may be taking hormones which will give her a boost. Can’t take them forever. Menopause changes your brain. I know that you are will be blessed and celebrate all the changes in your life.I’m one of five sisters. Each of us is different.😊

[@SibylleLeon]

I do!! I'm going through peri-menopause at the moment and I'm loving every minute of it. I realise some women have a hard time of it and I'm sorry - but I won't feel guilty, because my periods have been raw torture for decades, literally crippling me while I tried to appear "normal" in work... ugh... And now I get it every 2-3 months and otherwise I'm fine! Can't wait for them to stop altogether and be FREE!

[@Martinique325]

Menstruation is one of the most monumental experiences for a woman. There are 2 things you never forget; your first period and your last period. I started mine 10 days after my 12th birthday. It will be 2 years since my last one this upcoming July. I chose to do what my mom did. I decided to go through this life change naturally. I'm really grateful I did. I was also blessed with an easy transition. I don't get hot flashes. It did take a long time going through menopause. I started around age 45. It started out as them being less regular. After a short while, I started having a lot of clotting. What was funny was, I remember going for 7 months without one and I was so happy. Right after telling my sister-in-law and we were like "Yay!" 2 days later I started. I was so pissed because I had to start my count all over The sucky thing about being a female is that you spend your entire life in 'bondage'. We wear diapers the first few years of life. We get a little break fora decade and then spend the next 40 years in pads and tampons. When we finish that, we then end up wearing protection for urinary stress incontinence. I did a happy dance on the 12-month mark.

[@lokicooper4690]

Can't say I really remember the first one. I do remember that the second month I skipped, and then I never skipped a month again until the late 30s when my body, which had already been miserable at that time of the month, started really going haywire. Spent the next decade asking for a hysterectomy because they were all over the place, and an absolute nightmare. During my second last period I hemorrhaged, which put me in the ER. Due to that, I finally got my wish, and they removed it at 49. Best thing that ever happened to me. I am finally no longer a prisoner to my body and the bathroom.

[@Alexandriaaaaaaaa]

All I remember for my first one, I was 9 years old abt to go to school. My upcoming one is gonna be on August

[@grayskindablue]

So I asked my grandmother about this! She’ll be 93 in January ‘20, and she was in Germany and Poland as a kid and young teenager before immigrating to the U.S. (and then moved to Peru with my late grandfather.) After Poland was invaded her family hid in the outskirts of Sweden for years, the men in her family didn’t want to fight. This isn’t super important but it’s some background, how stressful is it to get your first period while there’s a massive war and you’re hiding in a cabin in Sweden?! My grandmother said she didn’t know what a period was so she ran to her mother, and her mother helped her make little garter belts that would hold cloths in place she’d rip from old skirts, and she’d have to go get a bucket of water from the well to wash them out and hang them to dry, and in the winter they sometimes would freeze solid and she’d have to rip up other clothes. BUT, Victorian Era: her mom told her she was lucky, because she didn’t have to use “sheep’s wool that was itchy and often made the pain worse.” And also “nobody was telling her she was ill,” instead her mother congratulated her and said she was a woman and one day could have healthy children- which I think is a remarkable thing to say in like 1940? Again, hiding in Sweden! So that’s not a LOT, but it confirms the sheep’s wool thing, confirms thinking it was an illness, and I’m sure either of those things couldn’t of made people feel great whatsoever. Fun fact: She had 4 kids: 2 girls, 2 boys (one is my dad), and was very honest with them about things like periods and sex, “not proper” for a mom in the ‘50s but she was always as honest as she knew how. (Also very progressive. Women’s rights, she’s always SO proud her mom fought so she could vote, marriage equality, 3 out of the 16 of us grandchildren are LGBTQ and she’s incredible. Went to my cousin’s wedding for him and his husband and stood in place because his mother wouldn’t. Supported my transition and then my step-cousin’s a few years ago.) After having 4 healthy kids as her mom predicted, she raised most of her grandchildren... and now is raising most of her great-grandchildren... and there’s a couple great-great grandchildren toddling around her house now too! She does stuff like hold premature babies at the hospital that need skin-to-skin, knits them tiny, cozy blankets, and minuscule matching socks and beanies. She carpools most of the middle and high school age grandkids and their friends several days a week, every week, even to all their sports and little part-time jobs. She supports all of us, tirelessly. From her kids who’re ages 57-70, to us young adults all on different paths, still figuring out life, to the angsty high schoolers, the middle schoolers just trying to get through their awkward phases as we’ve all done, to the younger kids overflowing with energy 24/7, to the tiny 2-and-unders that tirelessly investigate everything and ask “why?” From divorces to college applications to job interviews to first days at school to sports tournaments to hobbies to babysitting/dog-sitting to moving first loves, first broken hearts, and overall always being there with anyone through their happiest moments and their equally dark moments. She’s there for every single person in the family and friends who’ve become family, (even the “black sheeps”) and is filled with nothing but love. I hope to have the kind of impact on my loved ones she does someday. She and Pop were married for 65 years when he passed. She cared for him for almost a decade as dementia slowly took his mind and then his body. But every day she did the same routine. Just her. At home. No real help or equipment available. So she kept him comfortable, figured out how to get nutrition in him, lovingly sat and talked as he babbled incoherently. I can’t even imagine loving someone so long and losing them; having to watch them deteriorate. But even stronger than the grief was relief she felt that he was no longer in pain and locked somewhere really deep in his mind. It just encouraged her to keep her family closer, show more love, spend more time together. I sometimes forget she’s elderly. She’s almost 93! She just takes all the hard things and makes lovely things from them. OH yeah, and she’s battled melanoma that off and on spreads to lymph nodes in her neck and breasts for the past 20 years that refuses to 100% go away. I can’t reiterate how strong she is. I’ll absolutely always brag about her. Back on this general subject, she went with my cousin recently to support her while she got an IUD placed and said “I wish they’d figured this out when I was 18!” almost the entire time lol. Such a sweet woman, she’s just wonderful. Sorry this got long! But I really hope someone found this interesting.

[@robertabellman9330]

Skyler Gray , Hi my name is De An I am 57, and I found this very interesting, I like learning about all things ! Thank You for you share, wish there was someplace we could all go and write and share a topic. That would be very cool 😎

[@vourdalak1]

Thank you so much for sharing this!!!

[@TheWBWoman]

Wow! Thank you for sharing the story of your grandmother. She sounds like quite an inspiring woman!

[@ilseappel]

Skyler Gray what an incredible woman!

[@PrincesslilBB]

She needs a medal from Congress!!!! Wow...... or maybe she's a B.A.B.E.!! Of course my definition is this BAD ASS BITCH EXTRAORDINAIRE (this is a really tough woman) and my Grandma fit that bill perfectly. We had a special relationship. My grandparents have their stories in a book. Maybe you should right one about her so that when your future ancestors want to here about her life they have something.

[@christinakav5029]

When I was younger I would watch westerns where a girl was captured and I would wonder what did she do about her periods?!!

[@janetrogers5429]

I did too and also on wagon trains no bathroom and stagecoaches

[@celesteadeanes4478]

rags and pins. Wah and wear.

[@09penny1]

It would probably be a good way to get herself immediately released by her captors! 😄

[@Oakleaf700]

@@09penny1 There is a film made by Afghans called ''Osama''........abut life under the Taliban where girls pretend to be boys.... A girl was given the name 'Osama'......but there is a really tragic part of the story where she gets a period while being tortured by the Taliban ...makes me want to weep.{the film is on YT}

[@carolyndarley1045]

@@Oakleaf700 Osama gets into trouble for being too wussy. The Imam decides to beat Osama in order to toughen him up. The teachers and the other boys have noticed that he was too "swishy". Osama is hung over a well and whipped..horribly. The trauma brings the blood of her period running down her legs. The Imam and all of the boys and teachers watch as her real identity is exposed. This is a film about the Taliban restricting the rights of women to go anywhere outside of their homes without a male escort. Since many of the men had left home to fight or had died in the conflict, this left households of women and children only. If you had a son, regardless of age, he could walk you to the store, doctor, etc. If no men in the family, you could go nowhere. There are reports of elderly women who had no families, but would have been capable of going to the store if allowed, die of starvation and illness..alone. Osama is the story of one such family. At a very young age they cut her hair and had her act like a boy so they could leave the house. The charade continues until the above named climax.

[@PumkpinSpiceAvery]

I actually use cloth pads, and they're not bad with modern underwear and washing machines. They're soft, don't dry me out, and they save money because of how many times you can reuse them. Not some horrible thing to fear.

[@ysag.1227]

Yeah. I feel that moving back to the older ways of life can relieve so much financial burden too. One of the biggest expenses with modern babies are diapers. I asked my grandma (80) what people did before plastic diapers and she said they just used cloth and washed it! Meanwhile, in my neighborhood growing up diapers are kept behind a counter due to theft

[@justsomerandompersononthei5087]

My mom uses some as well. I’ll probably won’t anytime soon, but I’ keeping it in the back of my head just in case.

[@yamigurl822]

I WISH someone would write me a doctors note for once a month I need to lay down for 6 days, my periods are BAD and it’s hard to keep a job because once a month I get so sick from my periods.

[@maggir528]

I had the same problem. I went to several doctors about it, they always give me some meds for the pain and sometimes a little laughter for being over dramatic. After looking on internet, I found it's very common to have something called "endometriosis", one of the symptoms it's really bad cramps. I insisted to be tested and surely I have it. Maybe it's not your case, but also it's not normal to be in such pain

[@lisab9541]

@@maggir528 right. It should not be incapacitating or excruciating.

[@underwaterdream2870]

@@maggir528 I know about the endometriosis, but not all women with bad pain have it. Sometimes it's some magnesium or potassium defficiency or just how their bodies work. From what I know now, in my country, you can go to gynecologist and they can give you one or two days. On the other hand I know about practices in Japan that working women are not required to go to work one day a month. I guess they don't get paid for that one day, but they also are not required to tell anyone what is happening. Just call their boss they can't be that day there.

[@maggir528]

@@underwaterdream2870 Right, the thing is to go to check up. However, I don't know where you live, but here it's very common from the doctors to not take it seriously because they think we are overreacting

[@MeganMay62442]

There should be some kind of medical funding for women who have bad periods like that do you don't lose your job

[@martamaria6714]

I have an idea. In old novels very often a lady is hidden in her room for longer time, because of migraine. Then, maybe heavy migraines were more common than today; but maybe that was convenient excuse for heavy period?

[@SiobhanJohnson]

Given that period-connected migraines are also a thing, it definitely could be a really convenient excuse because some women really do have a migraine at that time

[@abigaelmacritchie1365]

I was thinking that too, and all those mentions of a woman "beeing indisposed" and "needing rest" that sort of thing

[@MissCaraMint]

Interesting theory. It makes a hell of a lot of sense too.

[@Evija3000]

@@abigaelmacritchie1365 In the game Witcher 3 being indisposed is equated with period so the game makers agree with you there. 😄

[@martamaria6714]

Evija3000 actually „beeing indisposed” is modern, elegant expression of having period too, at least in polish. We said that at school when we couldnt train because of that.

[@Premchik]

I'n Russian, my grandma told me that when she was at the university and lived in a dormitory with like 40 other girls, they used cloths, handwashed them and dried them by hanging UNDER their beds!!

[@mountainmawmaw863]

I am 60, grew up on a large farm, at 11 yrs old I came out of the outhouse screaming thought I was bleeding from my hind end, my bloomers filled with blood. Ma was hanging out clothes on the line and told I now has the curse, get to my room and lay down. I always felt so ashamed.

[@vanderbam2741]

I'm so sorry that happened. It must have been awful to carry that shame around for so long.

[@mave143]

I'm so sorry ❤️❤️

[@kyralaurenz9395]

When I first got my period I asked all of my female relatives about it. My great grandmother born in 1912 told me a story about her mother born 1873 dealing with her period. She said that her mother had some soft natural sponges in an little box and in her special time she used them. But I have to notice that my ancestral family was kind of really wealthy ^^"

[@quittenfee42]

My grandmother was born in 1905. She told me about those belts. That she used them as a girl when she first had her period at 12. She thought she was about to die because no one told her about it. (That was in Germany)

[@oliwiabelica1011]

My grandmother thought the same

[@Vohalika]

My grandmother has a story about her older sister thinking she was about to die and her looking to check where the blood was coming from and neither of them knew. Germany in the 1950ies, everybody.

[@eval4495]

I thought I was going to die too 😅 I had no idea what I was going through the first time 😆

[@Happy_Tails_Toy_Poodles]

My mother in law is 90 and also wasn’t told about her period. She thought she had sat on a tack! Poor woman! She also used a belt.

[@MissAlyssa108]

My grandma was born 1924 in a rural ranching town in the western United States and she thought she was dying too and burned her underwear. Once that was straightened out, she had crazy painful cramps in her twenties to the point of passing out walking home one time. She got married a bit late I think and so it was likely into the 50s at that point so.

[@katy6516]

I guess it was one bloody Period drama

[@hannahc3317]

This is the best joke in the comment section.

[@Blackbeltkitten2D]

[Sensible chuckle gif]

[@elizabethstephens8801]

This actually made me laugh out loud😂

[@sarahwaite50]

Good one!! 😆

[@froggdoggs8551]

Men: oh you have your period? You aren’t fit to go out just stay on the couch and rest. Women: *well yes but actually no*

[@Widdekuu91]

Haha, what you want them to say (about everything) is the following; Woman: *is on her period and has a very heavy flow, lots of pain.* Man: I can see you're trying to stay strong. You are so strong, you could probably barehandedly drag an ox by his horns around town in this condition. If you put your will to it. But please, let me make things easy for you and help. I'll get the groceries and cook. You can go and rest. I know you cán help, but I don't want you to right now." Woman: *Is offering to help carrying the groceries bags, without being on her period. 3 flights of stairs, two heavy bags.* Man: "Oh no, I would like to do that for you." Woman: *Is already on the first floor with the bags, before the man even gets out of the car, because she is in a hurry to get everything upstairs.* Man:"Oh dearest...oh you are too quick. May I take the bag from you? Not because I think you can't do it, but because I would like to do it for you." Woman: *answers yes* Man: 'Thankyou, thankyou for bringing it to the first floor my dearest.' OR Woman: *grunts No while she climbs up the last stairs.* Man: *Stays silent and watches, while he walks behind her.* Woman: *Puts the bags down in front of the door and walks inside.* Man: "Thank you dearest..you keep amazing me. I'll do it next time! OH NO, you are not putting it in the refrigerator, I will do that for you. You can lay on the couch." Or something along those lines. I'm probably making things more difficult, aren't I?

[@mostlyh2o233]

OK, look, I’m 54 years old (born in 1965) but I was the youngest by far of a large family (3 girls, 3 boys) and by the time I got my period at 13 in 1978, my mom (who had had a hysterectomy when I was born) basically had me use the last thing my sisters had used 10 years before: a belt and a pad. This belt was basically an elastic garter belt with one elastic band hanging down in the middle in the front and another in the back, with a sort of plastic paper clip on the end of each. Kotex sold sanitary napkins at the time which were, in essence, a thick bandage-pad (seriously, like one inch thick!) that had long tabs at either end (about 5 inches long and made out of that “material” that hospital gowns are made of. You put on the belt and then twisted the pad’s tabs into the plastic paper-clip thingies to suspend this giant mattress between your legs. Huge, bulky, and with no real leakage protection. Lemme tell you, I was SO excited when I got a package of promo “Rely” tampons in the mail and I asked my mom if I could use them and she said yes! Miracle! But (sad trombone noise) said Rely tampons were associated with the Toxic Shock scare of the 80s (they had little sponges in them, allowing you to keep them in longer, resulting in a fermentation of lots of baddie bacteria.) Thankfully there were other alternatives (OB tampons were my favorite until I stumbled upon the “Instead” or “SofCup” in, I think, the late 1990’s which was similar to a diaphragm but for your period.) I still use it to this day, though I rarely get my period because I’m deepinahearta menopause. The nice thing about the Instead was you could have sexy times while on your period without things gettin’ messy.There’s a bit of recent bloody history written down for the ages!

[@paulvikkay8940]

My grandma (born 1919, married 1940) told me that she used rags and how horrible it was. She lived on a farm but had a job as a seamstress for a few years before she was married. In Brisbane, Australia, the summers were hot and humid and they did not bathe every day, only once a week. She said that it was a terrible stink that they just had to put up with, and periods were no excuse for missing out on any work that they had to do.

[@rbguerreiro2466]

Didn't they have bidets/portable buckets to clean the genital area?

[@grittykitty50]

@@rbguerreiro2466 even if they could take time out to cleanse the genital area, they couldn't do it all day and they had to wear a rag that would eventually get soaked. If you lived in an isolated area, you just didn't have an endless supply of rags. Most women had to use old clothes, etc. They couldn't always afford to buy rags.

[@eighteen18eighteen]

I've heard this from an older lady as well. Those poor women

[@brib7141]

My mom has told me she remember when she was little visiting her grandmother and her young aunts on the farm. They lived off the farm and rarely even went into town. They used rags and had a bucket of water sitting on the back porch and would throw the dirty rags in the bucket to be I guess hand washed.

[@deanwinchester3356]

No excuse? Wow how times have changed with women who have PCOS and endometriosis... sure we still don’t have period sick days at work or school, but to tell people you have hormonal issues that affect your period or even body is more empathic now.

[@pay1370]

Currently bleeding and sending a prayer to the ibuprofen gods

[@raraavis7782]

pay1370 I can’t even imagine going through that every month without painkillers - man, we‘re sooooo lucky!

[@t.h.1492]

If it helps, I’ve heard caffeine has some mild analgesic qualities. Good luck and drink tea!

[@bayinthebooks4286]

same here dude

[@ElinWinblad]

Rara Avis I be only had period pains a few times in my life and those only happened to me when I went vegan. I quickly stopped And went back to how I had been eating and haven’t had pain since. I did read in high school ppl thought the pain could be linked to specific nutrition deficiency but I’m no scientist.

[@sinapisalba]

i can't take painkillers during period, they make it stronger :o( but thank god for modern tools to deal with it :oP

[@alysiajarman9158]

My mom from Jamaica actually explain to me how she used to take care of her period. Before she started using pads she would do a similar thing to the bell construction but with a string. She would have a string around her waist and then fold a cloth into a long rectangle fold over the strings and pin it on both sides Front to back so it formed a T. She was from rural Jamaica.

[@a-l9158]

I saw someone share their period story from the 60s and my mom was in the same situation. My mom was not educated about it, had no idea it was going to happen and when it did she got so scared, she thought she was dying. It became like a traumatic experience for her. It is so awful that it was never talked about and girls had to suddenly find out about this incredibly significant and uncomfortable part of a womans life. She was always extremly uncomfortable with the whole thing. For example she would always hide the pads in the cart in the store, so no one could see them. She felt a lot of shame. Which is very understandable considering. My dad got very worried that she would pass on the shame to me and my sister by behaving this way. I remember how he would tell her to think about what she said and how she talked about it, to not make it seem scary to us. And I remember at some point when my mom hid the pads under some other grocieries in the cart, he just grabbed it and put it on top haha, go dad! Fortunately it wasn't passed on and I feel no shame bying the necessities. But I thank god I was born when I was so I can cancel the whole thing out by the use of a pill.

[@juliettemarie3255]

I really love how you always remember the working women. Fashion history tends to only focus on the rich or well-off women

[@ofpine]

gosh same!

[@morganmiller5413]

Ikr! Because of this I know very little about the clothing that the middle and lower class wore.

[@Happy_Tails_Toy_Poodles]

My mother in law just turned 90 a couple of days ago (she was in her 40’s when she had my husband and my husband is 46). She told me that her first period scared her to death because she was wearing white pants and was playing on the playground when it started. This was in Chicago. Someone pointed out the blood and she ran home thinking she had sat on a tac! He mother gave her a belt and explained things and she wanted NO part of it. 😂 she refused to have her period, but of course that doesn’t shop biology. She also didn’t know anything about sex and on her wedding night she refused (this was in the 40’s) and her husband called her mother to talk sense into her. Her mother said, “don’t you want to have children?” And she said, “No!!! Can’t he just stick it in my ear!??” 😂😂😂 when she finally did get pregnant and went into labor her husband thought the baby would come out of her belly button. 😂🤦🏼‍♀️

[@nincigo9499]

I would refuse to have it, if it would do anything😂

[@leventdhiver]

I adored this story!!!!!

[@samanthareardon3330]

This is a great story, I love hearing about stuff like this considering how different things are today. I read a story once about a man (late 1800's - early 1900's?) Who considered filing for divorce after his wedding night because his new wife didn't look like a female Greek statue, which was the only reference he had for naked women. All that body hair freaked him out! I'm glad we can openly talk about things like this nowadays, it makes for many less akward moments.

[@scarlettstott7570]

Yeah my great grandmother thought she got pregnant by her husband touching her knee

[@rebeccatexaschick7621]

@Dela Flowers i don't even know how because even the bible describes a man coming into a woman and she conceived a child.

[@DEADisBEAUTIFUL]

You kiddin’? My mother didn’t say a word about my period. My father had to explain it......as best as he knew. Which for a man at that time was still pretty much nothing. Damn.....I’m old.

[@lbh515]

My great-grandmother had her first period when she was in a nuns' boarding school, she thought she was dying and cried in the bathroom- one of the nuns found her and said it was just like that ghyfykfynvtydswtfyhfuftfg

[@sunsetbluff]

I am 67 born in the 1950's. I was the oldest girl in the family. My mom an only child raised by her grandmother never ever mentioned that at some point I was going to have a period. I started when I was 13 and freaked out. I had seen a blue box of Kotex in my moms room but had no idea what it was for. I ran to my mom told her I was hurt and bleeding but was told no you are "sick" and you will be sick every month for years. I was devastated I was very athletic and this was really going to be a mess. She set me up with a sanitary belt and Kotex blue line towards your underwear. She showed me how to change roll in toilet paper and to keep it all private. She also gave me a pamphlet which I wished she had given to me before. Anyways this pad thing was misery after a year I found out about tampons and never went back to pads until the birth of my children. I never had girls but still explained to the boys about periods. Their dad was very informed also before we met. I think because my mom was raised by her grandmother it was very taboo to talk about periods as she was a totally different generation. I was lucky never had cramps and only had threes day periods. I had a hysterectomy at 40 it was the best thing ever. Love reading about everyone's experiences.

[@ah5721]

I wish I had 3 day bleeds. its always been 7 :(

[@Tesjhkyayy]

My mum showed me also how to change the sanitary towel... rolling it in toilet paper. But I think it's a good thing, in this way it's not disgusting for guests or other people in general.

[@osiyetteopurupruprupurupru3334]

@@ah5721 lol l wish l had 7 days l have 13 days bleed its so anormal but idk

[@ellismartiskainen7729]

@@osiyetteopurupruprupurupru3334 That is a bit concerning. Maybe you should talk to a doctor

[@osiyetteopurupruprupurupru3334]

@@ellismartiskainen7729 thanks

[@tempusfugit7127]

I am almost 70yrs old and was almost 17 yrs old when my period started , because the subject was a no no unmentionable I asked female friends at school as I had no idea what the heck was going on . Brought up by my grandparents it was a difficult conversation with my grandma who came with me to a shop for what were called towels ( in a whisper to a female shop assistant ) and were wrapped up carefully in a brown paper bag .😨😨😨 . Grandma was a typical Irish woman. .Roman Catholic. ..rosy red cheeks and bright blue eyes , she waited until grandpa was out of the house and told me what happened in her day which was using cut up towels with a belt around the waist. .a hook at the back and at the front to hold the towel in place .These towels were washed twice a day and replaced with clean dry ones . Unmentionable 's still make me laugh. ..nowadays nothing is sacred.

[@chloekit4861]

Tempus Fugit same in my family I come from a strict line of Irish catholic women straight off the boat from Ellis Island no one ever spoke about sex, periods or anything of that nature

[@kristyansooknanan4409]

Do you want it to still be sacred ?

[@houndtwo0783]

I grew up with only male friends and dead friends I found out I was a psychic when I was four years old I can see ghosts are unlike the ways you see them in horror movies most of them are friendly but some of them can be rude so far I’m in the process of explaining to a medieval plague doctor that the plague is gone and that doctors dress differently and have different cures I’m also having to teach him modern English we are teaching each other he’s teaching me medieval french and I’m teaching him modern English I call him jay it Just Suits him to well he’s actually quite shy and easily scared he is also extremely friendly towards me.

[@houndtwo0783]

@Silvia C it’s that I don’t have anyone to talk to about getting them I don’t trust my parents and I spend most of my time talking to ghosts

[@LL-tr5et]

@@houndtwo0783 tf?

[@danielanjegovan3865]

Honestly, the "have you found the bloodbag yet" meme has got me in stitches!

[@echo2893]

Same here!!

[@beatricebrooks9966]

yoisss

[@Ari-pn9zh]

A couple months ago I ran out of pads for a day and didn’t care to go out- so I had fun making a nice linen pad. I even hand stitched the seams and sewed on leather clasps/buttons so it stayed layered nicely. The linen was pre softened and medium weight. It was the most comfortable pad I’ve ever worn. I’d just like to make some oiled/waxed linen cloth or soft waterproof wool as an underlayment for maximum efficiency. I’m sure many women would have used some oilcloth from an old cloak or something to help with leaking, and probably a softer fabric. I’d try hard to make it comfortable if I knew I was going to have this every month for the rest of my life

[@ah5721]

PUL fabric works better for keeping the blood from going through the back.

[@sarahwong5592]

I don't sew much, so I haven't made my own, but I use cloth pads purchased online, which have some type of felt as their water-resistant layer. Love them! So much more comfortable than the dispodables, and a money saver too.

[@deirdrerdj]

What do you think about the cup? I'm afraid I'd make a mess.

[@vanidaknutson4616]

Back in the 70s I had my first baby, and of course huge pads were used with a belt. My husband came out of the bathroom waving a pad and asked how do you get one of these up inside of you? 😂. Bless his heart at least he asked right? .

[@juliab.75]

Vanida Knutson lol haha 😂 aww that's cute and funny

[@victormillen8393]

@@swissuz lmao

[@SusanBishop555]

OHHH...lmaoooo

[@ragnkja]

Vanida Knutson Then you had to explain the difference between pads and tampons?

[@lauraarcher1730]

Vanida Knutson awww.😂😂😂

[@Uapa500]

In Italy, since my grandmother was a girl, a woman starting her period has always been seen as an event to shout out to everyone and celebrate, which was quite embarrassing for me, I must say 🤣 She and my mum used to pin cotton diapers to their underwear and I imagine that wasn't much different from the Victorian solution you talk about in this video 🙂 Mum is still grateful for modern pads, far more comfortable than the ones you needed to pin. When I went back to reusable she was puzzled 😅 We're lucky really, we have so many alternatives today 🙂

[@bodyofhope]

That's actually very cool. Everyone should celebrate when a girl has her first period!!! Here in the states, it's pretty much mortifying lol. Even though popular culture pretends we're all comfortable with it now.

[@gracie9658]

@@bodyofhope I don't see why we should celebrate it. Though I agree that it is a natural bodily function, and that women should not be ashamed of them or taught to hide it, it is very much an intimate thing, and I wouldn't want everyone shouting it on the rooftops.

[@Maja0001]

@@gracie9658 we should celebrate because we are not pregnant, duh!

[@lisaheisey6168]

My mom, who was Italian, called every relative she could when I got my period at age 11, to tell them the "news". Lol I was fine, with getting my period. But, I thought, that my mom calling one female relative after another was kind of overkill. Lol.

[@evvunja]

@@lisaheisey6168 wooow, that's so different, I barely told my mother and just because I didn't have any tampons or so. She went to the shop and bought a chocolate meaning that I will need it too xd

[@katie7748]

I remember when I had my period during one of the months I had to live with my gramma. She told me about how she never had anything like that (pads and tampons) when she was my age. She and her sister used rags. Wish I would've talked to her more about life when I had the chance. Stupid me.

[@exoduskamman1413]

My grandmother and mother were watching television in like, the 70’s or 80’s, and a pad commercial came on. The ad boasted, “Now with three adhesive strips! Stays in place better than ever!” My grandmother, looking dumbfounded, asked, “don’t they hurt when you take them off?” My mother was confused until she realized that my grandma thought the adhesives stuck to you because when she still had periods, she used a belt. Underwear had nothing to do with it. Funny generation gap moment. Pun fully intended

[@vt1527]

Fun fact about the topic of periods I recently learned. In ancient rome boys had legal capacity when they became fertile (when they started puberty and grew a beard) and later on the romans decided to go by age and settled on 14 years (in an empire as large as ancient rome it was simply easier to go by age than to look for a single little beard hair). Girls however had legal capacity by age 12. The ancient romans always went by age when it came to the girls. Now one would think it rather easy to tell when a girl starts being fertile - when she gets her first period - but the ancient romans found it immoral "to ask about these types of things" so they never went by the rule that applied to boys in the earlier times lmao

[@gia3442]

kshiftkometh true like i’m pretty sure i know how my uterus works

[@catherinelempke8451]

I'm sorry, but I'm afraid you're mistaken. *Puberty* for the ancient Romans, was deemed usually to hit around age 14 for boys and 12 for girls (though children could legally become betrothed as early as age 5), but the age of *majority* was held to be 25 for *both* genders. Before age 10, children were not held to have any legal rights; once they hit puberty they had some legal rights (they could get married, or drafted into military service), but were still considered in need of protection in regards to legal cases, property law, official decision making, etc. In fact, The lowest rank of the cursus honarum, the sort of "employment ladder" for the Roman government as set out by the Emperor/Princeps Augustus, had a minimum age of 20; the next rank, a minimum age of 28, even for members of the nobility. Between puberty and the age of majority, a male (or highly ambitious/respected female) relative would be appointed as a guardian of the teenagers affairs, and would take responsibility for their moral character and education. This guardian had legal power to overrule any decisions made by their ward. Only in rare instances of demonstrated and unusual maturity could someone apply to the state for full legal rights prior to reaching the age of maturity. This was called venea aetatis, and in order to be granted this privilege a public hearing would be held and high ranking character witnesses would have to vouch for the applicants exceptional maturity and intelligence. But even the application for this status was age restricted, at least by tradition, to a minimum age of 18 for women and 20 for men. Sorry, I don't mean to lecture but I've been listening to the History of Rome and History of Byzantium podcasts, and have taken an interest in the subject. I hope this is helpful to you!

[@monkiram]

@@catherinelempke8451 Omg I love those podcasts!! It's so cool to find somebody else who listens to them. Well, not them as I still have not finished Rome, I'm like 3/4 of the way through it

[@daphne4983]

@kshiftkometh wait, what questions???

[@mollyahern6982]

At least they had a legal age (to them, the earliest age at which the boy or girl could reach puberty.(. In the middle east, to this day, there is no legal age for marriage and shocking young children end up married.

[@GiantParfait]

I've just spent half an hour reading really interesting comments and noticed not many Asian examples were present. So here is some trivia about Japanese women. The monthly blood wasn't understood, and was associated with death. There was a time when women would go into these.. Purification huts and even a couple rituals to ward off death, so says me mam. My mother also said her _grandmother_ told her about a kind of.. Loincloth? (You can look up traditional Japanese undies if you want a better idea, they were like loincloth thongs lol) And they would stuff flax or silk and paper in there depending on what kind of household you were in. It wasn't until after the second war that they started to use cottons. Tbh I bleed clots and I bleed heavily so I'm glad iron supplements and hormone balancing medications like birth control/iud and painkillers exist. Otherwise I'd be bedridden the whole time.

[@anti-ethniccleansing465]

AJ D Hormone medications and birth control pills and such will end up giving you cancer of some sort. You should stay away from that shit.

[@mrsanchor9019]

Perhaps it might be helpful? Or maybe someone else might find it useful. (Short Story) Fish Oil Supplements did the trick for me!! And I had all those “remedies” which are just Carcinogenic...So my Dad getting desperate like parents do since I was missing plenty of School and having many ER visits. He decided to read up on the matter. He found a U of A Doctor speaking about how many Women experienced a balance in their menses/period/menstruation by taking Fish Oil Supplements for over a little more than a Month to feel the Healthful effects for the next Menstruation Period. The First Period after being on it was better than the last and so I continued to see if the next month it would work. Lo and behold, much better improvement from the last... It took 3 months for me to even Notice I was on my Period thats how well it worked for me who by that time was getting shots to subside the pain at 14.

[@rebeccaartemisia96]

Anti - Ethnic Cleansing some women with endometriosis really need them, it's the only thing can relieve their pain and other symptoms

[@theMoporter]

@@anti-ethniccleansing465 Not only is this a greatly exaggerated risk, it ignores that life is literally untenable for lots of people with extremely heavy or frequent periods or conditions.

[@anti-ethniccleansing465]

@theMoporter I don’t think it is an extremely exaggerated risk. I think you are severely understating it. Fucking with our bodies hormone levels isn’t a bright thing to do, when all is said and done. I am a female myself and I get really painful periods as well, but I’d much rather douse myself with Aleve/painkillers, heating pads, and things of that nature then to pump hormones into my system. This is related: my mother took hormone supplements while going through menopause, and she ended up getting breast cancer from it some years back. She defeated it with radiation and cutting it out, as she luckily caught it very early on since she gets her routine mammograms. She then got breast cancer a second time and is currently getting a mastectomy for it, along with undergoing chemotherapy (you can only do radiation one time and then never again). They tested her for the gene that some people carry which is genetic and causes breast cancer, but she doesn’t have that. The doctors are certain that it was from the hormone therapy.

[@MikaelaCher]

Imagine Jane Eyre just talking about her period lmao

[@beanbagonfire]

Honestly as a relatively young girl who loves reading I was just kinda shook at the lack of mentioning periods like??? There's always a main female character and tonnes of other female characters,, all the authors must have some sort of experience with periods and for a lot of them it's a big part of life. Like how the flying flip did Hermione deal her periods during deathly hallows?? If there are any authors/writers in general pleease write periods into your stories (sorry for the rant) Thx :))

[@nisey1201]

I'm 58 years old and when I started my period I used sanitary napkins during my teenage years that had a long strip of (for want of a better word) gauze on each end that would be attached to the belt type garment. Your video brought back the memory of using the belt. I remember when Proctor and Gamble introduced their "Always" brand that had the adhesive strip and subsequently "wings" so the belt was no longer needed. I can't believe I experienced an evolution of sanitary napkin usage.

[@nisey1201]

@@Jen-il4lh I agree with you 100%. The infiltration of men in dresses and wigs trying to access female privilege is extremely disturbing and is a threat to our vulnerable spaces and sex based rights. Biological women MUST push back. Biological women have periods. Biological women have babies. Biological women breast feed. I REFUSE to be erased.

[@aprilwest1883]

Me to . I'm age 61. We used pads and the waist belt. Then the adhesive pad was invented.

[@chelamcguire]

@@nisey1201 Well said, my darling. We must stand up for our gender.

[@nisey1201]

@@chelamcguire Thanks and yes indeed.

[@genicabre]

@@nisey1201 You are missing the point. If you are born with the body of a woman but feel like a man, you can choose to be distraught the rest of your only life, or you can try to live the best you can. It might involve having to keep part of your original biology. It is not black & white, we are grey. And it happens in other species too, not only human. P&G has great values and embraces diversity.

[@ilovefonebone]

In Maori culture, menstrual blood was (and still is to an extent)considered to be extremely powerful and sacred. They believe it carries their ancestors and is a connection between the people and the land, so when a girl got her period it was cause for celebration. They used to use absorbent moss as pads and periods were often discussed frankly among everyone in the family. Then colonization came along and kinda fucked that up.

[@alechiavassa]

Such a shame that colonization changed the view on that so drastically (as well as fuck up a lot of other things). It's good to hear a culture seeing menstruation as a positive thing.

[@grittykitty50]

@kshiftkometh Likewise, if you call in sick at the job and your nosy male supervisor asks what's wrong, just start talking about cramps and he will get ghost.

[@oats4632]

Menstrual blood is different from other blood in the body, it has reproductive tissue, bacteria, and mucus. I wouldn't consider it to be sacred.

[@Angi3_6]

That sounds so cool!

[@heirofblack4456]

It sucks though when you get your period and aren't allowed in the marae so are excluded from important events.

[@Jones4Leather]

I was born in 1954, my mother was born in 1926 and my grandmother was born in 1892. My grandmother described using rags folded and pinned as others have described here. She said it was a mess, and sometimes you'd bleed through your bloomers, underskirt or even all the way through. The women had to wash and dry rags where no one could see, hiding the rags under sheets on the clothesline to dry, fearful they'd be seen by the men or boys as they hung them up and removed them. She thought sanitary napkins were an absolute godsend. They were pinned to a cloth skinny belt with straps front and back. My mother used the same kind of belt, but by the late 1930's they had a metal clip like the one used on garter belts to hold up stockings. My mother learned about tampons in her teens. She and 2 friends tried to convince one of their mothers to try a tampon. The mom went to the bathroom to put one in, and came back downstairs walking awkwardly with her legs wide apart saying "I don't know how you girls find this comfortable - it's so stiff!" She had left the cardboard tube applicator in, not realizing how it was supposed to be pushed in and then removed. The mom and the girls all just about died laughing when they told her! I got my 1st period in 1966. I had been told by my Mom what it was before it happened, but had never seen a sanitary napkin or belt - same type my Mom had used with the garter style clips. That ended the mystery of what was in the Kotex box in the bathroom. The belt was uncomfortable and as a 12, 13, 14 year old, I felt very self-conscious when using it. We still were required to wear dresses, and the pads could slide sideways, or ride up your butt - nerve-wracking to be active with. The pads were one size only and felt huge. I always feared the boys might notice a bulge, but it really could not be seen. By the time I was 14, I could use tampons, which also came in one size only. Before then, my flow was too light and they dried me out, making it uncomfortable to remove. After a short while I stopped using them because they aggravated my cramps the 1st 2 days. it was years later that there were different levels of absorbancy in pads and tampons. I remember when the peel and stick adhesive on pads came in and then the addition of wings to prevent side overflow - very helpful for heavy flow and for being very active - like bike-riding, gymnastics and tumbling. I was so happy to stop using that damn belt. Carrying tampons or a pad to school was also a concern in Jr High when the boys would try to grab girls' purses and wave it around.