How long did it take before you felt like you had a good handle on how to manage your period?
- 29 years.
- A few months.
- I still don’t think I do and I’m 25.
- I still feel like there must be something more or better I can do, I would love to not take medication for the pain but at the end of the day, people don’t wait for you to feel good, especially at work.
- I feel like I’m still learning all the time as it changes. I had a baby so it’s difficult again now.
- Years!! Probably 15 years! Apps are super useful in tracking your cycle.
- YEARS. Also the teenage years are rough because not everything is as regular as they say it is. Now that I’m older it’s pretty consistent in timing and how it affects me so I have a better understanding of what is happening with my body.
- Into my 20s.
- Few years? Still things I don’t know at 22.
- They changed so much it felt hard to. I’m not sure I have it now!
- Quite young, I had a very supportive mother and sister who helped. But actually understanding it and 'why' i feel certain ways, and predicting my cycle etc came much later in my late 20s.
- I still don't and I'm 32.
- 10 years.
- I'm still figuring out tbh because it's changed over the years!
- As a teenager it took the first few years.
- I still often forget tampons and get blindsided by a heavy flow. I’ll usually bleed through at least once.
- 27 years (I'm 29 now). There wasn't enough information/research out there growing up. Now there are period tracking apps that offer advice/info.
- 3 years or so.
- I’ve had my period since I was 11, so let's say 30 years.
- It changes throughout your life, so you have to track your cycle all the time to know what to expect.
- I was 32 when I felt like I was in control.
- I’m still figuring it out and it has become worse lately 😅Now at least I see it coming more than when I was a teenager and I generally avoid getting all my pants messed up.
- About five years.
- I got my first period at 15. Was misguided and uninformed (by doctors) till I was 33 and decided to stop the pill. Since then I’ve had divine periods, no more acne or other minor infections or bacterial reactions like I used to have when taking the pill. No one told me to do it, I just did and I couldn't be happier.
- 2-3 months and the best handling was 3-4 years before.
- Don’t know if you could call it handled, but I’ve got used to this reality in the past 2 years – that’s 2 years since endometriosis diagnosis and giving up on trying to find answers/solutions with GPs/‘specialists’.
- Still working on it (I'm 39).
- Never! I’m 44 years old and I hate everything about my periods and I’m always surprised by the level of pain and volume of blood I experience.
- Years.
- Tbh, I still don’t really feel I have a handle on it, feels like it’s constantly changing!
- Gets worse as I get older – don't think I've cracked it.
- Around 9 years.
- I felt like I could handle them when I was younger because they were much lighter. In recent years they're much heavier and I'm struggling again on the heaviest days.
- 3-4 years.
- Still working it out.
- My first period started when I was eleven years old. I still don't feel like I have a good handle, because it changes over time getting older. The older I get the more symptoms.
- 4 or 5 years.
- 13 years.
- Good question. A year? It tickled all the time and I wasn't sure how long one pad (or tampon, later) would last. Also I was super scared someone might notice. First time I used a tampon I used a huge one and didn't know how deep it should go in. That hurt.
- I still don’t.
- Still don’t! (Mid-30s.)
- I still don’t think I do.
- I still don’t, sometimes I ruin my clothes and underwear! They change throughout your life too so it’s hard.
- Well, for the first few years of my period I wore pads which I discovered really irritated my skin and would always slip (when I slept especially) and I would stain my clothes/sheets/embarrassingly some cushions. It wasn’t until I started using tampons that my period felt controllable and less messy (for me) having a heavy flow.
- 2-3 years
- I'm 30 and sometimes it still throws me. I carry spare underwear and wear dark colours just in case.
- About a decade.
- Probably about 3 years. So when I was about 18?