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I Learned About Shame When I Was Eleven
My journey with menstruation in India: Part One
The First Shock
Growing up, I had a strange relationship with my period.
When it first came, I had no intimation that something like that existed. It came as a rude shock — the blood between my legs when I woke up one morning.
It was 2002. There was no internet in my town back then. The only source of information I had was the “Ask the Doctor” column in an old newspaper where a 52-year-old man had inquired about finding blood in his urine. The doctor had suggested the man get admitted to a hospital and get a proper medical examination done immediately as it might be cancer.
I was terrified. At only eleven years old, I had too many dreams in my eyes for my little heart to hold so much fear.
I didn’t know how to talk to my parents about it. While they had never been overly strict, I knew there were some “boundaries” between us and having blood coming out of my vagina was definitely too “personal” to discuss with them.
And so, as I got out of bed that morning, I wiped the tears from my eyes and the blood from between my legs with a tissue and resolved to carry on with life as usual.
