It was a hot summer day; I remember that it was the 17th of May and I was enjoying my summer vacation, and only two days were left for the classes to reopen. After having a heavy lunch, I slept with my mom and when I woke up in the evening, I felt something wrong with my body. When I went to the washroom, I saw something on my undergarment, I thought it was just a colour so I ignored it. But the next morning when I woke up, and after taking a bath, I again realized the same. So, I went to the washroom again, and saw blood on my undergarment. I was tensed, I don’t know how to tell my mom even though I didn’t know what it was.
I decided not to tell anybody because I was scared that I had contracted some kind of disease. After sometime, my mom took me inside the bedroom and asked me to take off my underwear. I was scared, even I started to hesitate in front of my mom. But she forced me to do it immediately, so I took off my underwear and my mom then told me see what were you hiding from me.
I started crying because I still didn’t know what it was. My mom asked me have you heard about periods? I replied in a trembling voice, yes but didn’t know what exactly it was. Now my mom explained to me about the menstruation cycle and the concept of sanitary napkins. But still I was scared, then she again explained it is a symbol of maturity, now you are going to be a woman, it is a body process that will come every month.
That day my legs and back were paining and I was shocked that every month I will face this pain. Even in serials I saw that during periods, the girl had to abandon her daily chores, the girl even had to sleep on the floor. My mom told me that is not going to happen, we are not old minded. It was my first period. Now we will know what we can do during this period and what we cannot do.
Menstrual cycle or period cycle is a monthly series starting from approximately 8-9 years of age and continuing up to 35-45 years of age depending on every individual woman. It is a phase that every girl goes through and many changes take place externally as well as internally during periods. It is a stage where we are on the way to growing up into a perfect woman. During periods, we experience discomfort, irritation and menstrual pain. During periods, we use sanitary napkins or menstrual cups, which are the safest and comfortable of all that prevents the blood from flowing out of the undergarments and helps the person to continue with his routine work.
For hygiene, every girl should follow some steps during periods like take a warm bath, do some exercise, eat a lot of iron-rich whole food. If there is body pain, then use hot water bags and also drink a lot of water. We should change our sanitary napkins every four hours and wrap the used napkin in a paper and throw it into the dustbin. In villages, many women or girls still use clothes instead of using sanitary napkins. But using cloth may feel discomfort and cause rashes and infection.