Aunt Flo can be unrelenting, and we’ve all had our fair share of #periodfails. Our lives could be chronicled in a string of them, but we’ll spare you the bloody details of each unfortunate incident (think walking the high school halls with a sweatshirt tied ever-so-discreetly around your waist).
But you can turn your #periodfail into a prize (plus avoid another #fail in the future) with our contest – tell us your #periodfail story for the chance to win a Lunette cup prize. Lunette is the safe, reusable and eco-logical alternative to pads and tampons. (We’ll be picking 3 of our favorite stories and will notify winners via email.)
We’ll get you started with this story from inside BUST HQ:
I’ll set the scene: high school, late-2000s. Juicy Couture was still a thing. My then-boyfriend and I were hanging out after school, listening to the mix CD he had just made. How ~*romantic*~ right? I’m sure he also found the puddle of blood seeping into his sheets equally as enchanting…
Here Are Some of the Best #periodfail Tales:
But because of the torrent of womanhood coarsing from my uterus I bled through the wads of toilet paper I had stuffed in my underwear AND the tampon the girl I was shadowing gave me, and I almost bled through the jacket.
Needless to say I did not end up going to that school for my high school career.” –R K, Philadelphia
As I walked to the computer warehouse to obtain a tablet for a customer, I felt the familiar warm, seeping sensation below. “Oh no,” I whispered. I looked down to see Aunt Flo was particularly unforgiving this month. My pants were saturated red from FRONT to BACK. There was no way I could leave the warehouse without attracting attention to the bloody scene below.
“Ms. Sharon, you’re needed in the computer warehouse immediately,” I shakily stated into my headset. Expecting some sort of electronics disaster, Sharon, the only other woman in the store, rushed to the scene. “I got my period,” I said meekly, indicating the horrible mess all over the front and back of my pants. Her eyes widened. “We need to get you out of here,” she whispered.
We were able to find some binders laying around in the warehouse and I held one in front of me while she walked behind me holding a binder at my behind. I’m sure it looked bizarre because it certainly felt bizarre, walking through the giant store, clutching your thighs together and a binder in front while a sympathetic middle-aged woman you rarely interacted with covered your backside.
Fortunately, I had a spare set of clothing in the break room because I needed to go directly to school from work. I managed to change my clothes and rushed to the store across the street in order to purchase some feminine products and a new pair of khakis to finish my shift.
I cleaned myself up and had a fresh pair of pants on within 20 minutes and returned to work in order to finish my shift. My manager looked at me with confusion. “I thought Sharon said you had a family emergency?” He asked. “Ugh… well I did have an emergency…” I stated, shuffling awkwardly in my new khakis. He looked down and saw I clearly had a different pair of pants on than 20 minutes prior. I think I may have given myself away. ” –SEL, Starkville, MS
As I sat at the top of his carpeted stairs, I thought it was time to check myself in the bathroom, but when I looked where I’d been sitting, I’d stained his beige carpet so red that I froze in place. I whispered to my mom what happened and she got me out of there as fast as she could, but there was no hiding that big, red stain, and no saving me from the humiliation. I never wore a pad again. ” –K.G., COLUMBUS
I didn’t get to go home until the next class period, too.” –EG, huntington, west virginia
The first time I met my ex husband’s parents (at this point, my future in-laws), it was dinner with his entire family. I mean, all of them. After dinner, we all went in the living room to relax and chat.
That’s the moment my period decided to show up. All over their LIGHT GREY couch. Of course, I didn’t know it had happened until it was time to leave. I was so embarrassed that I left quickly before anyone could notice.
A week later we went back to visit his parents again, and the couch had no cushions on it. They had sent it to be reupholstered. It was never mentioned, ever.
” –CM, Waco, TX
While at the beach, my friends were all jumping in the water, but I was a bit nervous (again, NYC, not used to swimming). After a few hours, I realized I really needed to change my tampon. I tell a friend that I need to find a bathroom and she says “just pee in the ocean.” Of course, it isn’t that easy cause I need to do more. I head to the boardwalk and start walking… and walking… and walking… 20 minutes later, I finally find a port-a-potty and by this time, I’ve bleed through my tampon and down my legs to about knee height. I change my tampon, and try to wipe off the blood, but of course some it has dried. Again, in a port-a-potty so there is no running water. Totally embarrassed, I run out of the port-a-potty straight into the ocean.
When I finally made it back to my friends, one asked why I was soaking wet if I had just been going to the bathroom.
” –RC, Bronx, NY
Slowly, that niggling doubt set in. How could I last the day without a pad? I’d never used a tampon before, didn’t have one on me, but perhaps I could ask a friend… Oh yeah, all the friends at the party were guys and very much period-less. There were parents, a couple of mums, but one of them I’d never spoken to before, and the other was my maths teacher, who I was too humiliated to approach (lesson learned: should have just asked). I decided to persevere with nothing on, stupidly.
Somehow, the day went swimmingly, so to speak. I checked periodically (no pun intended) for stains or trails in the water but none were to be seen. It was only once I exited the pool for that goodbye hug that I felt the dam walls break. I frantically wrapped my towel around my waist to hide the bloody carnage, and thought I had succeeded as I walked away to my dad’s car to be taken home. My final mistake came when I turned around to wave again, and noticed the trail of bloodied footprints I had left behind me.
On the plus side, at least my friend was on another continent for a year so I didn’t have to face him? We haven’t talked about it to this day. ” –ES, Sydney, NSW
I had purposely worn black leggings and a shirt that went over my bum incase this very situation happened, but those precautions didn’t help and I left a bloody stain on the airplane seat. After just running away and praying no one would notice, I quickly ran to the washroom after we got off the plane and changed my feminine protection. However I didn’t have a change of clothes so remained in my dampened bloody leggings.
It gets worse.
The opera singers brother-in-law was picking us up…in his BRAND NEW TESLA. How very cool, until I had to awkwardly sit on my hands and a sweater the entire ride so that I wouldn’t leave my stamp on the beige leather seats.
A tip: wear a diaper and bring spare pants.
” –AC, Nova Scotia, Canada