I still remember that day as if it were yesterday. I was 12, sitting on the cold, hard toilet seat, feeling a strange fluttering in my stomach. Moments earlier, I had brushed it off as just nerves or possibly a bad lunch. However, that flutter turned into an unmistakable pain, prompting me to rush to the bathroom, convinced I’d have a regular visit.
When I glanced down, my heart sank. There it was—a stain on my underwear that filled me with confusion and dread. Mortified and unprepared, I felt like I was in a scene from a movie I didn’t want to be in. My mom had briefly discussed periods before, but at that moment, her words faded from memory, leaving me feeling utterly lost.
Panic set in as I tried to clean up, my hands trembling. I could hear my heart pounding, each thump echoing my anxiety and the overwhelming newness of it all. As time ticked by, I listened to my mom knocking gently on the door, concern lacing her voice, “Are you okay in there?”
Swallowing my fear, I hesitantly asked her to come in. Her expression shifted from concern to understanding as she saw the stained evidence of my confusion. She sat me down and explained everything, her tone soothing and reassuring. She told me that periods were a regular part of growing up. Yet even with her reassurance, I felt the weight of stigma pressing down on me—a weight that seemed impossible to shed.
It wasn’t until I joined a girls’ empowerment group that things began to change. Those safe spaces became a haven where we could openly discuss periods and the complex emotions surrounding them. We shared our stories, laughed through the awkwardness, and formed bonds that helped us navigate this shared journey. In those moments, I learned to embrace the experience rather than hide from it, transforming my initial fear into a sense of empowerment.
Let’s build a #PeriodFriendlyWorld together. Let’s normalize periods and celebrate the remarkable capabilities of our bodies.
Share your story. Break the silence.
— Tavishi Dogra
