Menstruation - common misconceptions

[lilliesnremains.livejournal.com]

Hey all, if this isn't allowed, go ahead and delete it, but I read the rules it it didn't say no, so here goes.

I'm taking a human sexuality class this semester in college, and while i was originally going to do my term paper and oral presentation on "Female sexual abuse and later sexual dysfunction" i have since changed my mind and decided to do "Menstruation-How society views coming of age".

Here's where you guys come in. I have a basic outline of thing I want to talk about in the oral presentation portion, one of which are common myths associated with getting your period, or images displayed by the media. I'm looking for stories of your first time, and how you felt. i'm also looking for how you felt the first time you used a menstrual cup for those of you who use them.
Also, any links you have floating around that you think would be helpful to either suggest to the class or for me to use information from for my presentation.

What i'm hoping is that not only will many people benefit here from this, but that i will be able to change some peoples' minds about it in my class (i'll be talking about things like menstrual cups, cloth pads, and having sex while a girl is menstruating).

(on a somewhat related note, how do you pronounced menstruation? 3 syllables or 2?)

Comments

[girlofthemirror.livejournal.com]

I was completely terrified about the idea of getting my period. I knew what it was, I knew it wasn't a bad thing, but I was still petrified of the whole lot. I remember when I first learnt about it just being terrified that I'd start at Junior school, then terrified that I'd start in first year then the holidays and so on. I hated everything about puberty, I hated it when I grew or got hair under my arms and in my pubic area. I used to try and squish my breasts back in because I wanted them to just go away.

I was really late at the whole business and I didn't start my period until I was 15. I went to an all girls school and it was really quite open about menstruation and quite positive and I knew that most of my friends had already started. It was the first day back at school and I went to the loo and noticed brownish gunk on my knickers and rolled up some loo role and ignored it for a bit. I hated walking around with blood between my legs, so got some tampons from the machine (we had one at school, three cheers for my lovely progressive school, hip hip...) and used one of them after lunch. I didn't get it in far enough and it really hurt but there wasn't blood all over the place so I was much happier. The next one I used went in fine and I used tampons until six months ago when I bought a diva cup.

Once I actually had my period I got much less freaked about the whole thing and resigned myself to all the puberty stuff. I was to embarrassed to tell my Mum for days and days when I did she unhelpfully bought me pads (as she didn't like tampons) so I bought myself tampons all the time I lived at home. I got a divacup for environmental reasons; I really don't like the idea of all that cotton going in a landfill. It made me feel like I was saving the planet every time I had a period so that's nice!

I'm gay, and my girlfriend and I have sex when either of us our on our period she is quite shy about these things (I was before they started, but now I'm really relaxed and open about the whole deal) and it was never an issue. Our periods don't match up so we wouldn't be able to have sex for two weeks in a row. So not a good option!

I pronounce it men-stru-a-tion

[robynchick.livejournal.com]

Oh man I never thought of that 0_o
I've always dated guys so far so between the 2 of us there's only one period. Hopefully though, if you lived with your partner someday your cycles would synch up and then it wouldn't be as bad with timing.