By: Natasha Archary
Having your first period can be a confusing and overwhelming time for a young girl.
The period conversation is therefore an important discussion that parents should have with their daughters from a young age.
Girls should have reliable information about periods so the younger generation can break the taboos that is associated with periods. It’s strange that something so normal and healthy has been made to be this frowned upon topic that is so often linked to societal stigma.
Having the period conversation with your daughter
While periods were said to be something that occured at the onset of puberty, girls can begin their menstruation much earlier between the ages of 8 and 9-years.
When girls are older, it may be easier for them to understand what the changes that a period brings means. For younger girls, having their first period can be a scary time, and 71% of young girls have no idea why they start bleeding.
The last thing you want as a parent is for your daughter to be unprepared when she gets her first period.
It’s important that girls have factual information from someone they trust to prepare them for this phase in life.
The period conversation used to be something reserved for a mother to have with her daughter, but this is one of the things that need to change if we are to break the stigma attached to monthly cycles.
Why can’t a father have this conversation with his daughter?
Break the stigma
The common misconception is that, the minute a girl “comes off age” or has her first period, she’s going to want to engage in sex.
School sex education classes do not help to dispel this notion, as the message children are given is generally that a girl will fall pregnant once she has her period, if she has sex.
Instead of equipping the youth with all the facts about safe sex, what the female reproductive cycle entails, when during the cycle a young woman is most fertile, kids are injected with fear.
What’s more is that this conversation should not be just a once off chat and it should be a series of discussions a parent has with their daughter often.
Engage with your daughter about everything from the changes to her body, the mood swings, cramps, normal vaginal discharge to the sanitary products that are available.
How to have the period conversation with your daughter
- Start with why girls have their periods and allow your daughter the room to ask you any questions she may have.
A period happens because of changes in hormones in the body. Hormones are chemical messengers. The ovaries release the hormones estrogen and progesterone . These hormones cause the lining of the uterus (or womb) to build up. The built-up lining is ready for a fertilized egg to attach and start developing. If there is no fertilized egg, the lining breaks down and bleeds. Then the same process happens all over again. It usually takes about a month for the lining to build up, then break down. That is why most girls and women get their periods around once a month.
- Touch on when most girls have their period but inform her that every girl is different and develops differently.
- Talk about some of the changes that her body will go through ie. sore breasts, vaginal discharge, mood swings, cramps.
- What can she expect during her period
- How long a period generally lasts
- Irregular and normal periods
- Do you use tampons, pads or period panties?
Find more information about menstruation and how to have the talk with your daughter here: Periods – What you need to know
