Older People Are Sharing How We Handled Periods Back In The Day, And Frankly I’m Horrified

Recently, Reddit user Jello_Biafra_42 asked people on r/AskOldPeople to share what having periods was like when they were younger, stating, “My grandma told me a story about how when she had her first period at school and needed to use a ‘toilet paper tampon’ for the rest of the day. What was a girl treated like back then when she had her period? What blood collection methods were popular/common? Was it ever talked about?”

The responses were eye-opening. A lot of people talked about the stigma around menstruation:

1.“Mostly silence and shame. No one explained anything. You were expected to figure it out, hide it, and keep moving. Pads were bulky, and belts were a thing before adhesive. Tampons were taboo, especially for young girls. No internet, no open convos, no dignity in how it was handled. You bled, you improvised, and you didn’t complain. Wild how far we’ve come — and still not far enough.”

—Thin_Rip8995

2.“The important point is it just wasn’t discussed. Discussing menstruation would lead to discussing sex. Oh, god, that just couldn’t happen. Let alone discussing birth control. As a young tween, I had no clue, no warning. My oldest sister explained it to me in the most basic terms, when it came time.”

—Frosty058

3.“Looking back, it’s rough that the info about periods and the info about sex were all together. Especially since lots of girls got their period long before they would be involved with sex.”

—MissHibernia

4.“When shopping for pads, the box was first placed in a paper bag before going into a plastic bag, for modesty! Actually reinforced the notion we should feel ashamed.”

—Tammy993

Many people shared how the adults in their life were less-than-forthcoming with information:

5.“In the early ’70s, girls saw a movie in fifth grade about Snow White growing armpit hair and getting her period. The school nurse gave out a package from Kotex with big, fat, ugly pads that hooked into a belt. We weren’t allowed to use tampons because people thought it would make us lose our virginity. It was horrible. Girls didn’t have many sources of info until the book Our Bodies, Ourselves came out.”

—FirstClassUpgrade

6.“I remember when my mother saw her first Tampax commercial on TV. She said, ‘They can’t talk about that on TV.’ She then turned bright red and ran out of the room. She didn’t come back for at least an hour. I was 11 or 12 and had no idea what a Tampax was or what it was for. I asked, and my father told me I would learn about that when I was older, maybe after I was married. One of the older boys at school clued me in. Anything to do with periods was absolutely taboo information for boys and for girls who hadn’t had one. This was the early ’60s.”

—Far-Dragonfly7240

7.“My mother just handed that stupid belt and a pad to me and told me to figure it out.”

—PomeloPepper

8.“Started my periods at 9, about two years before I was told anything about them by my mother. I thought I was dying, but we had a medical book at home. My mother eventually bought me a packet of pads every three to four months. When I turned 13, she told me that girls go get a job to earn money for these things. My pocket money was just enough for a small pack every month. I needed at least two big ones. I would steal every sock lying around at school, wash them, and stuff them with toilet paper, which I stole from the girls’ bathrooms. Then I would wash them in the evenings once everyone was in bed and hung them over the window to dry.”

—Alternative-Cow-8670

9.“I was totally unprepared for ‘the curse’ when it hit me…my grandma gave me gin in orange juice for my horrible cramps. Fainted at least twice in school.”

—Craigh-na-Dun

Others detailed the old-school ways people had to deal with period blood:

10.“My mother went to a convent school in the 1950s. They used rags, which they had to wash at school, and hang them on a clothes line facing a back lane. Apart from the embarrassment and ickiness of washing your own bloody rags and hanging them out, local boys used to ride their bikes down the lane and try to steal the washed rags from the line while taunting them. Plus, there was usually a nun telling them all the pain and distress and inconvenience was because of Eve’s original sin and God’s punishment on them.”

—JellyPatient2038

11.“I had to wear a thick Kotex napkin with a belt. Don’t even know how to explain this belt to young people. The pad was very thick.”

—pinekneedle

12.“My mother used rags and sometimes moss in the 1930s.”

—youprt

13.“I got my period at 11. My mum gave me this huge thick pad I was meant to put in my knickers and a stringy belt I was supposed to attach each end to. It was the most uncomfortable thing to use. Looking back, you could probably tell when girls were on their period because they walked like a cowboy.”

—lovinglifeatmyage

14.“I was 10, five feet tall and about 90 pounds. When the grand moment arrived, my mother showed me how to use the Modess belt (which needed a safety pin because it was too big) and attach the pad, which in my memory was the size of my torso. It was a tad uncomfortable, and I felt like a freak. The next day at school, the oblivious kids teased me about my diaper. I couldn’t correct them, of course, because those things weren’t discussed. I mean, talking about it, especially with boys around, was absolutely taboo. At one point, a teacher said I should wear dresses during ‘that time’ so I wouldn’t attract attention. It was a lesson in humiliation, shame, grief, and silence, and it was taught everywhere.”

—Maleficent_Scale_296

And many highlighted how tampons were actually taboo:

15.“My mom freaked out and told me I was a slut for trying to use tampons when I was 14. I had no idea what she meant. The school nurse had said they were fine. It was completely bewildering, her losing her shit over it. I wondered how a girl with no boyfriend and no prospects — who simply longed to swim during her period — could possibly be a slut.”

—Ok_Membership_8189

16.“My ma didn’t believe in tampons because she didn’t believe in touching your own ‘privates’. Thank goodness I had an older girlfriend who taught me about them, because those old-fashioned pads were awful — they crinkled when you walked and smelled like baby powder.”

—CommanderShepMander

17.“Learning to use tampons and spreading that knowledge was practically a revolutionary act of sisterhood. What a liberation!”

—YouProfessional3468

Thankfully, things did get better — albeit slowly:

18.“I’m Gen X, born in 1975. I grew up with Are You There, God? It’s Me, Margaret. We learned about periods, pads, and tampons in elementary school. I had aunts who were close to me in age, and my grandfather used to buy their tampons for them because he worked at the grocery store as a meat cutter.”

—The_Ninja_Manatee

19.“I came of age in the ’80s. The belt was gone, but the pads were literally like these big foam mattresses, and they would leak very easily. By the ’90s, they’d improved significantly.”

—No_Conversation_5661

What do you think of this period lore? Share your thoughts in the comments.

Note: Responses have been edited for length/clarity.