Let it Flow #2 by Menstrual Designer Jen Lewis. Photographer: Rob Lewis

All though the month of September we are exploring menarche at re: Cycling. Check out the kick-off post with a YouTube link to the 1989 episode of Roseanne in which mom Roseanne gives daughter Darlene first period advice that is still relevant today.

Last December The Guardian published a compendium of first period stories from readers. Sue Spillman ordered trial tampons from a magazine ad thinking it would be “easy and discreet.” Let’s just say that when the package arrived the cops got involved.

A few of the 10 First Period Horror Stories posted on Cosmopolitan suggests mothers could do a better job of preparing their daughters for menarche. Maybe I was lucky but my mother, a public health nurse, made sure I had the supplies I needed before I got my first period.

At Vice this past January, anonymous female comedians contributed their best (and worst) period stories. Most of them seem to be related to first periods. Here’s a short one that couldn’t have happened in my day:

Stephanie: My period started for the first time when I was 13 and happened to be at home. My mom was also home, but I was too embarrassed to go tell her, so I emailed her.

Several of these stories make me think we could do a much better job to prepare the girls in our lives for the experience of menarche, and provide them with more helpful guidance on how to manage the challenges that come with the onset of menstruation. I wrote about this in a 2013 blog post called How do girls learn about periods?

Gina Boothroyd shares a much different perspective in her poignant July 2015 piece for The Guardian: My autistic daughter coped with getting her first period much better than I did. Although her 11-year-old was “pleased and proud to get her period,” Boothroyd worries about what comes after menarche that her daughter may miss out on.

Laura Wershler is a veteran sexual and reproductive health advocate and writer, SMCR member, and editor-in-chief of re: Cycling.