5th Grade and a half
For most girls the first time they begin menstruation is a time for celebration and the beginning of a new stage in their lives. For me it was a time of humiliation and didn’t help the ‘big boob’ problem. For my generation, young girls are beginning menstruation earlier and earlier, yet I was still the first one in my grade. It seemed like I was the first person in the world, however, and I didn’t want to be so grown up.
In my fifth grade classroom there happened to be a restroom directly attached to the room. I knew that when I changed my ‘pad’, everyone would know someone was on her period.
It soon became incredibly painful when I would menstruate, so bad that I would have to miss at least two days of school each month. I could barely walk my cramps were so terrible and my lower back felt like it was being cut in half by a huge chainsaw. Gruesome, I know. I remember sneezing once during my bad cramps and practically falling on the ground from the pain.
My dad is a doctor, so I was immediately sent to see a gynecologist, who determined the best thing would be to put me on birth control to help control the cramps and regulate my periods. As you can imagine my body went crazy with all the hormonal changes and my breasts began to swell. I hid them the best I could with baggy sweatshirts and binding bras. There was nothing I could do about it because I no longer had the terrible cramps from before and I was able to attend school throughout my entire period. Over the next few years, although other girls began to mature, my body became much more developed than others’. Because the society sexualizes the breasts on a woman’s body, yet my young brain didn’t understand sexuality, I was left in limbo; wondering why I looked so different. I did not want to be a sexual being at this age, nor could I understand what that even denoted. However, at least I was in no danger to get pregnant ☺.
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