Women Are Sharing The Most Ridiculous Things About Periods And Sex That They Learned Due To Poor Sex-Ed
We’ve all experienced a sex education class at school. It probably came with the whole teen angst package—rolling eyes, blushing, and quiet cringes. Silence pierced the classroom when the teacher asked if anyone had questions. Around this time, many of us realized that periods are real, and there’s no black magic. Life went on and it was ready to give us yet another pubescent surprise.
It turns out this wasn’t the case for Julie Mannell, a young woman who grew up in Ontario Catholic School in the 90s. “I thought women had their periods forever.” So, when her period stopped for a brief moment, it all came down on her. Julie was convinced she got pregnant after petting a neighbor’s dog. Tune in for the hard-to-believe story below and share your opinions about the subject matter in the comments.
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Julie Mannell, an author of fiction, turned to Twitter to share the episode from her pubescent years
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Women got on board to share the period myths they used to believe
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Julie was not the only ‘success story’ from Catholic school sex education classes
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My conclusion after reading all these: wow, I certainly grew up in a rational open minded society. I grew up with 3 sisters and nothing was a mystical secret regarding female's health. My mother wasn't shy about it either, and at school, we learned about it during biology classes as the most normal thing. So, I never understood the ignorance any time I'd encounter it in a, for example, magazine for teens, in the letters from the audience section. I thought those were some kind of jokes, I never believed someone would really think such nonsense. Now I know I was a lucky one.
When I grew up in the 1970s in Austria we learned about it in school and a lot from a widely distributed German magazine for teenagers (I think it was a weekly magazine). Twelve-year-old I knew pretty much all technical details and the boys and girls I went to school with were on my level, even though different parents used very different ways to approach this topic and some parents didn't approach it at all. Stories like the above were simply unthinkable.
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All of this is so dystopian to me. We learned all about the reproductive system, sex and everything related during biology class. By that time I and most of my classmates knew the basics of it, usually learned from our parents. I don't remember the conversation, but I do remember it was my dad who told me about periods instead of my mom. The two of us were watching a historical drama, I asked a dumb question and my dad was like "well, actually....". I was about 10 maybe. But no one really spoke about such things to my little brother, so when I got my period the same night he privately asked me, absolutely terrified, if he was going to bleed too. The poor thing, I laughed so much.
I would laugh, if I weren't so angry at a society that mis-educates (I don't care if it's not a word, it should be) and alienate our own bodies from us. People die from such ignorance. When I had my first period, I knew what it was, I knew what to so - kind of, turns out there are pads and panty liners,- when my parents came in the evening, I just told them I had my period. No drama, no panic.
When my grandma was about 10 or 12 (born in 1904), she remembered all the girls in her neighborhood gathered together to see a stillborn baby born to a girl who hasn't married. They were told this is what happens when you have a baby and no husband.
I completely agree that girls needed to educated about their bodies, including all the sexual bits. But girls and boys both should be educated not only about their bodies, but about those of the other gender and the fact that not everybody fits into those two categories. Perhaps if all this were taught openly people wouldn't be so nuts about it.
A big shout out to "Jennifer" above who showed that the conservative stereotype that teaching Sex-Ed only encourages kids to have sex is NOT true. Thank you!!!
I went to Catholic school. The nuns were quite forthright, and what they didn't cover in detail, my mother *did*. Frankly, I think calm, detailed education about reproductive systems and reproduction and diseases, etc., is necessary by age 12 or 13 at latest. I say this b/c I was 10 when Mom sat me down, and did so b/c the pamphlet my older sister got was so vague and so full of euphemisms that my sister (who already had her period) had no idea that it was meant to discuss her period!
My takeaway from this is that there were a lot of parents not preparing their children for puberty. They totally dropped the ball. Thank God for my honest mom. She gave me "the talk" when I was 8. When I had sex ed in 6th grade it was old news.
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Please tell me these horror stories are not true! My grandma once told me how she had her first period,. She she had no idea what's going on, because she never heard of period, and her mother only told her: It's in the wardrobe. "It" were menstrual pads. But it happened back in the 1950's! I grew up in 1990s and early 2000s, and I knew how periods work long before I got my first. So it was no surprise, no panicking. But I never went to the catholic school...
My sister and I have been blessed to have very progressive and open minded parents. They told us all we needed to know about sex education. I was the first girl in my 4th grade class to get my period and several of the girls looked at me like I was crazy. Then all the girls had to watch that video about menstruation and body changes and after that all the girls apologized to me because they realized that what was happening to me was natural and would happen to them too. I think that schools should teach sex education, but the most important lessons need to come from parents. I understand that it is embarrassing, but it's important that kids learn these things from the people they trust the most.
As a kid, I remember thinking that, since I be a girl, I'd just randomly get pregnant. Freaked out for so long because my parents also said that it was a huge sin to get a child before you're married. This conundrum terrified me.
Sex ed never discusses vaginal discharge? We all had an appointment with the schoolnurse each year around the age of 11/12/13. They told us as much as they could and gave us pamphlets about everything: how some white vaginal discharge was completely normal around that age, how it was normal nog to have a regular scheduled period around that age, etc. Not bad at all I suppose. :) Catholic schools seem... aweful!
There is a distinct correlation (dare I say, 'causation'?) between places that do not provide sex education and unplanned/unwanted teen pregnancies. These are, unsurprisingly, the same places that have the strictest anti-choice/anti-abortion laws. Also, the same places where half the population (the ones that can't get pregnant) makes laws for the other half.
This all strikes me as odd. I went to elementary school in the '70s (public school) in Alberta and we started sex ed in Grade 4. Nurses were sent to the schools and they left NOTHING a mystery. We got everything from the biology of reproduction to disease prevention, various forms of birth control information, and advice on relationships. We were never lied to and they answered every single question completely and bluntly. I'm glad I went to school there.
Holy moly that sounds like stories from the 50s but it shocks me to hear that some of them are from the 90s. My mom wasn't too keen on explaining things either but at least we had a proper sex education at school and lots of teen magazines where you could read and ask anything. I'm glad I live in a society where it's even normal to go naked at the beach and sauna.
I was a “victim” of early sex ed, back in the early 1970s. The teachers were kind of squeamish talking about it, so pretty much skirted around the details—-to the point where 11 year old me was left wondering how sperm made it through pajamas as a man and woman just lay down next to each other to make a baby. And my first period totally blindsided me, since all we got was “the movie”, where they separated the girls and boys and showed them gender-based movies about our changing bodies (and, of course, we all tried to sneak into the others’ movies, until the powers that be got smart and scheduled them for the same time—-girls in the auditorium and boys in the cafeteria, closely watched).
this happened to me a while ago- I´m 13 now, and got a phone. so now i can search things up, or else i would be ignorant asf. i asked my mum abt it and she didn´t tell me. Screenshot...40-png.jpg 
Mom gave me the talk when I was 11, and made me carry a pad and underwear around in case i started at school. Sure enough, i did, and was prepared. She said we could talk about other things (sex itself) when I was older. In my freshman health class, the teacher only covered drugs and things like that, fully skirting past reproductive stuff. Of course, we learned about the reproductive system in science, but only the system itself. As in, how the cells themselves reproduced, not us. Sex ed? Here? My saving grace is my mom, and admittedly, the internet.
Weird catholic schools you went to. In 1968, grade 5, we learned all about our bodies and periods. And in a catholic school. I blame our mothers for ignorance
Quote, "a new individual is formed when detached parts of both parents unite." Which parts? As teenagers we thought that was why the queen always wore gloves. How times have changed.
For better or worse, my son knows all about periods, because he will not give me a moment alone, ever. However, I was extremely impressed with him the other day. We got a dog and I've never had one that went into heat. She did, and was spotting. His dad asked him to get a paper towel, fully intending to clean it up himself; but my son did, without batting an eye, being grossed out, or even being asked.
I have been both schooled and homeschooled- it was my parents who wound up teaching me (as well as myself, when I decided to research it) these poor kids...!! I remember the awkward years
Some of these topics fall to the parents. I'd rather I be the one to talk to my kids than a school! I don't hide anything from my children. My 7-year-old knows what happens every month. She knows she will eventually have her period. We were talking about puberty just last night and how it can cause mood swings and all the other things that come with it. If you have kids, talk to them.
Also Ontario Catholic School Sex Ed...but in the 1980s which consisted of "birth control" being "KNEES TOGETHER PANTIES ON LADIES" and HIV (at the time called "Gay Cancer") was gods way of punishing "the gays" and people who used drugs.
spookitty i can relate to her i didn't know what discharge was and i told my mom and she said maybe i didn't clean well enough and it was pee or smth like that then i found out (the internet) like 3 years ago (i'm a younger teen) thank god for the internet i was low key sacred it was an infection
I knew about sex and pirion in first grade and I figured it out myself ( I was very nosey and ad a little access to google) my parents I had no idea I knew. I also found out bout "santa clause" and "easter bunny" ect. at age 9 again because I was nosey and I knew where o look. my parents couldn't keep anything from me.
My first SE class was in 5th grade and I was absolutely mortified when I found out how sex worked. I remember thinking - the p e n i s goes WHERE??!! On a seperate note, I had no idea about female fertile windows until I was in my late twenties trying to conceive. All I remember from sex ed in regards to pregnancy was "you can get pregnant anytime, even if you are on your period" which is a complete lie.
OMG! Sex-ed was worse in the '90 than in the '80! And it was even worse in the western provinces of Canada! My daughter just started to have periods and we (including her mom and step-mom) had already started to talk to her about it for some times.. She's covered on all fronts if she ever have questions and/or worries. This should never be shaming for girls and women.
This makes me sad. Sadly I still see and know many women and men in their mid twenties who don't know basic things about periods, sex an pregnancies. The generation of my parents were raised to believe it is a shameful topic that one has to postpone discussing as long as possible and if discussed used the most far-fetched words possible. Which in cases of curious kids like me led to discovering all the information from books and the Internet and also experimenting myself. I read in some book that "the man and the woman hug and kiss and his penis enters her" and I wondered how does it know when and where to enter :D Later I found adult movies and was still wondering why my body looks different down there than those of the ladies I saw. Because of early engagements in those kinds of things and not being well informed and explained to I was very disappointed and had to heal some emotional traumas later, but I guess it's still better than finding all about it when you're 35 for example :D
It makes me sad that those women went through situations like that... But I would blame parents here in majority first, because it looks like many of those women hadn't have had a decent relation mom-to-daugther, if they were scared to ask mom what's going on :/ I was lucky to have a great relation with both parents, knew all about period when it happened (I was 12) and dad gave me a red rose congratulatin me starting biological adolescence (it's a tradition around here). Was really nice for me then and first period was a really normal experience that I was ready for.
After reading this, I'm glad I grew up in a rational, science-minded household. It also helped that my mom was nurse, and didn't hide anything about reproduction. In fact, she bought the book 'Where Did I Come From?' to teach my sisters and I about sex. I'm also glad I went to a non-religious private school during my middle and high school years. We actually had a lady from Planned Parenthood come in and teach us about birth control. She not only blew up a condom to show how much it could stretch, but then rubbed vasoline on it to show us why you shouldn't use petroleum-based lubricant.
Really too bad. The girls were shown this movie in 5th and 6th grades, no parental permission involved. My much older brother (ew) told me more because he didn't think Mom would. I learned more from bunkmates at Girls Scout camp! https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=VwB1eBnSHRc
I thought that you only had one period, and then that was it. You were 'ready' to get pregnant.
I got my period when i was 11 and still don't know anything but no one will help me
I'm really sorry nobody around you is helping you. I recommend you just google what to do on your period, there's lots of helpful articles and videos
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Mom didn't give me the talk. Was late 70s. Got it on an off for a few months til she noticed a stain on my panties an asked about it. Then threw huge pads at me an told me to count 28 days and get ready every month. Sex Ed was in grade school and I was out sick the year the girls learned it. I had to sit in the next years class to learn it. With my sister. Still didn't know anything. Skipped 10 months once and thought I was pregnant without being w a boy. Crazy things we sorta figure it out as we get older. But I'll have the talk with anyone that asks (if I had parent permission) in my family. Still waiting to be asked.
My conclusion after reading all these: wow, I certainly grew up in a rational open minded society. I grew up with 3 sisters and nothing was a mystical secret regarding female's health. My mother wasn't shy about it either, and at school, we learned about it during biology classes as the most normal thing. So, I never understood the ignorance any time I'd encounter it in a, for example, magazine for teens, in the letters from the audience section. I thought those were some kind of jokes, I never believed someone would really think such nonsense. Now I know I was a lucky one.
When I grew up in the 1970s in Austria we learned about it in school and a lot from a widely distributed German magazine for teenagers (I think it was a weekly magazine). Twelve-year-old I knew pretty much all technical details and the boys and girls I went to school with were on my level, even though different parents used very different ways to approach this topic and some parents didn't approach it at all. Stories like the above were simply unthinkable.
Load More Replies... All of this is so dystopian to me. We learned all about the reproductive system, sex and everything related during biology class. By that time I and most of my classmates knew the basics of it, usually learned from our parents. I don't remember the conversation, but I do remember it was my dad who told me about periods instead of my mom. The two of us were watching a historical drama, I asked a dumb question and my dad was like "well, actually....". I was about 10 maybe. But no one really spoke about such things to my little brother, so when I got my period the same night he privately asked me, absolutely terrified, if he was going to bleed too. The poor thing, I laughed so much.
I would laugh, if I weren't so angry at a society that mis-educates (I don't care if it's not a word, it should be) and alienate our own bodies from us. People die from such ignorance. When I had my first period, I knew what it was, I knew what to so - kind of, turns out there are pads and panty liners,- when my parents came in the evening, I just told them I had my period. No drama, no panic.
When my grandma was about 10 or 12 (born in 1904), she remembered all the girls in her neighborhood gathered together to see a stillborn baby born to a girl who hasn't married. They were told this is what happens when you have a baby and no husband.
I completely agree that girls needed to educated about their bodies, including all the sexual bits. But girls and boys both should be educated not only about their bodies, but about those of the other gender and the fact that not everybody fits into those two categories. Perhaps if all this were taught openly people wouldn't be so nuts about it.
A big shout out to "Jennifer" above who showed that the conservative stereotype that teaching Sex-Ed only encourages kids to have sex is NOT true. Thank you!!!
I went to Catholic school. The nuns were quite forthright, and what they didn't cover in detail, my mother *did*. Frankly, I think calm, detailed education about reproductive systems and reproduction and diseases, etc., is necessary by age 12 or 13 at latest. I say this b/c I was 10 when Mom sat me down, and did so b/c the pamphlet my older sister got was so vague and so full of euphemisms that my sister (who already had her period) had no idea that it was meant to discuss her period!
My takeaway from this is that there were a lot of parents not preparing their children for puberty. They totally dropped the ball. Thank God for my honest mom. She gave me "the talk" when I was 8. When I had sex ed in 6th grade it was old news.
Load More Replies... Please tell me these horror stories are not true! My grandma once told me how she had her first period,. She she had no idea what's going on, because she never heard of period, and her mother only told her: It's in the wardrobe. "It" were menstrual pads. But it happened back in the 1950's! I grew up in 1990s and early 2000s, and I knew how periods work long before I got my first. So it was no surprise, no panicking. But I never went to the catholic school...
My sister and I have been blessed to have very progressive and open minded parents. They told us all we needed to know about sex education. I was the first girl in my 4th grade class to get my period and several of the girls looked at me like I was crazy. Then all the girls had to watch that video about menstruation and body changes and after that all the girls apologized to me because they realized that what was happening to me was natural and would happen to them too. I think that schools should teach sex education, but the most important lessons need to come from parents. I understand that it is embarrassing, but it's important that kids learn these things from the people they trust the most.
As a kid, I remember thinking that, since I be a girl, I'd just randomly get pregnant. Freaked out for so long because my parents also said that it was a huge sin to get a child before you're married. This conundrum terrified me.
Sex ed never discusses vaginal discharge? We all had an appointment with the schoolnurse each year around the age of 11/12/13. They told us as much as they could and gave us pamphlets about everything: how some white vaginal discharge was completely normal around that age, how it was normal nog to have a regular scheduled period around that age, etc. Not bad at all I suppose. :) Catholic schools seem... aweful!
There is a distinct correlation (dare I say, 'causation'?) between places that do not provide sex education and unplanned/unwanted teen pregnancies. These are, unsurprisingly, the same places that have the strictest anti-choice/anti-abortion laws. Also, the same places where half the population (the ones that can't get pregnant) makes laws for the other half.
This all strikes me as odd. I went to elementary school in the '70s (public school) in Alberta and we started sex ed in Grade 4. Nurses were sent to the schools and they left NOTHING a mystery. We got everything from the biology of reproduction to disease prevention, various forms of birth control information, and advice on relationships. We were never lied to and they answered every single question completely and bluntly. I'm glad I went to school there.
Holy moly that sounds like stories from the 50s but it shocks me to hear that some of them are from the 90s. My mom wasn't too keen on explaining things either but at least we had a proper sex education at school and lots of teen magazines where you could read and ask anything. I'm glad I live in a society where it's even normal to go naked at the beach and sauna.
I was a “victim” of early sex ed, back in the early 1970s. The teachers were kind of squeamish talking about it, so pretty much skirted around the details—-to the point where 11 year old me was left wondering how sperm made it through pajamas as a man and woman just lay down next to each other to make a baby. And my first period totally blindsided me, since all we got was “the movie”, where they separated the girls and boys and showed them gender-based movies about our changing bodies (and, of course, we all tried to sneak into the others’ movies, until the powers that be got smart and scheduled them for the same time—-girls in the auditorium and boys in the cafeteria, closely watched).
this happened to me a while ago- I´m 13 now, and got a phone. so now i can search things up, or else i would be ignorant asf. i asked my mum abt it and she didn´t tell me. Screenshot...40-png.jpg
Mom gave me the talk when I was 11, and made me carry a pad and underwear around in case i started at school. Sure enough, i did, and was prepared. She said we could talk about other things (sex itself) when I was older. In my freshman health class, the teacher only covered drugs and things like that, fully skirting past reproductive stuff. Of course, we learned about the reproductive system in science, but only the system itself. As in, how the cells themselves reproduced, not us. Sex ed? Here? My saving grace is my mom, and admittedly, the internet.
Weird catholic schools you went to. In 1968, grade 5, we learned all about our bodies and periods. And in a catholic school. I blame our mothers for ignorance
Quote, "a new individual is formed when detached parts of both parents unite." Which parts? As teenagers we thought that was why the queen always wore gloves. How times have changed.
For better or worse, my son knows all about periods, because he will not give me a moment alone, ever. However, I was extremely impressed with him the other day. We got a dog and I've never had one that went into heat. She did, and was spotting. His dad asked him to get a paper towel, fully intending to clean it up himself; but my son did, without batting an eye, being grossed out, or even being asked.
I have been both schooled and homeschooled- it was my parents who wound up teaching me (as well as myself, when I decided to research it) these poor kids...!! I remember the awkward years
Some of these topics fall to the parents. I'd rather I be the one to talk to my kids than a school! I don't hide anything from my children. My 7-year-old knows what happens every month. She knows she will eventually have her period. We were talking about puberty just last night and how it can cause mood swings and all the other things that come with it. If you have kids, talk to them.
Also Ontario Catholic School Sex Ed...but in the 1980s which consisted of "birth control" being "KNEES TOGETHER PANTIES ON LADIES" and HIV (at the time called "Gay Cancer") was gods way of punishing "the gays" and people who used drugs.
spookitty i can relate to her i didn't know what discharge was and i told my mom and she said maybe i didn't clean well enough and it was pee or smth like that then i found out (the internet) like 3 years ago (i'm a younger teen) thank god for the internet i was low key sacred it was an infection
I knew about sex and pirion in first grade and I figured it out myself ( I was very nosey and ad a little access to google) my parents I had no idea I knew. I also found out bout "santa clause" and "easter bunny" ect. at age 9 again because I was nosey and I knew where o look. my parents couldn't keep anything from me.
My first SE class was in 5th grade and I was absolutely mortified when I found out how sex worked. I remember thinking - the p e n i s goes WHERE??!! On a seperate note, I had no idea about female fertile windows until I was in my late twenties trying to conceive. All I remember from sex ed in regards to pregnancy was "you can get pregnant anytime, even if you are on your period" which is a complete lie.
OMG! Sex-ed was worse in the '90 than in the '80! And it was even worse in the western provinces of Canada! My daughter just started to have periods and we (including her mom and step-mom) had already started to talk to her about it for some times.. She's covered on all fronts if she ever have questions and/or worries. This should never be shaming for girls and women.
This makes me sad. Sadly I still see and know many women and men in their mid twenties who don't know basic things about periods, sex an pregnancies. The generation of my parents were raised to believe it is a shameful topic that one has to postpone discussing as long as possible and if discussed used the most far-fetched words possible. Which in cases of curious kids like me led to discovering all the information from books and the Internet and also experimenting myself. I read in some book that "the man and the woman hug and kiss and his penis enters her" and I wondered how does it know when and where to enter :D Later I found adult movies and was still wondering why my body looks different down there than those of the ladies I saw. Because of early engagements in those kinds of things and not being well informed and explained to I was very disappointed and had to heal some emotional traumas later, but I guess it's still better than finding all about it when you're 35 for example :D
It makes me sad that those women went through situations like that... But I would blame parents here in majority first, because it looks like many of those women hadn't have had a decent relation mom-to-daugther, if they were scared to ask mom what's going on :/ I was lucky to have a great relation with both parents, knew all about period when it happened (I was 12) and dad gave me a red rose congratulatin me starting biological adolescence (it's a tradition around here). Was really nice for me then and first period was a really normal experience that I was ready for.
After reading this, I'm glad I grew up in a rational, science-minded household. It also helped that my mom was nurse, and didn't hide anything about reproduction. In fact, she bought the book 'Where Did I Come From?' to teach my sisters and I about sex. I'm also glad I went to a non-religious private school during my middle and high school years. We actually had a lady from Planned Parenthood come in and teach us about birth control. She not only blew up a condom to show how much it could stretch, but then rubbed vasoline on it to show us why you shouldn't use petroleum-based lubricant.
Really too bad. The girls were shown this movie in 5th and 6th grades, no parental permission involved. My much older brother (ew) told me more because he didn't think Mom would. I learned more from bunkmates at Girls Scout camp! https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=VwB1eBnSHRc
I thought that you only had one period, and then that was it. You were 'ready' to get pregnant.
I got my period when i was 11 and still don't know anything but no one will help me
I'm really sorry nobody around you is helping you. I recommend you just google what to do on your period, there's lots of helpful articles and videos
Load More Replies... Mom didn't give me the talk. Was late 70s. Got it on an off for a few months til she noticed a stain on my panties an asked about it. Then threw huge pads at me an told me to count 28 days and get ready every month. Sex Ed was in grade school and I was out sick the year the girls learned it. I had to sit in the next years class to learn it. With my sister. Still didn't know anything. Skipped 10 months once and thought I was pregnant without being w a boy. Crazy things we sorta figure it out as we get older. But I'll have the talk with anyone that asks (if I had parent permission) in my family. Still waiting to be asked.
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