Periods at School: Your Kit, Leaks, PE and Cramps

You can handle a period at school with two things: a small kit that lives in your bag, and an adult at school you know you can go to. If your period starts or leaks in class, ask to leave, sort yourself out in the bathroom, and get what you need from the school nurse, the office or a teacher you trust. None of this is new to them.

Pack a period kit

Use a small pouch or pencil case, so it looks like anything else in your bag. Put in:

• two or three pads
• a clean pair of underwear
• a small plastic bag for anything stained
• tissues or wipes
• dark leggings or shorts, if there is room

Carry it every day, not only when you expect your period. In the first years, cycles can vary from one to the next, so a period can turn up sooner than you thought. If yours has not started yet, the same kit turns a first period at school into a five-minute problem.

Change your pad without fuss

Change your pad every 4 to 6 hours, sooner on heavy days. That is about comfort and keeping clean, not a safety deadline, so changing earlier is never wrong. On most school days it means one change, at break or lunch.

• Carry the pad in a pocket, a sleeve or the pouch, or just in your hand: a pad is not a secret.
• Open the wrapper slowly if the noise bothers you. It sounds louder to you than to anyone outside the stall.
• Roll the used pad up, wrap it in the new pad's wrapper or in toilet paper, and put it in the bin. Never flush a pad.
• No bin in the stall? Use the one by the sinks, or keep it wrapped in your kit's plastic bag until you find one.

Other girls have asked plenty of questions about school bathrooms too.

Some things are not a normal change. Needing a new pad every 1 to 2 hours, bleeding through to your clothes or bedding, clots bigger than about 2.5 cm, a period that lasts more than 7 days, or often feeling tired or short of breath are signs of heavy periods. Tell a parent or another adult you trust about any of them, even if your periods have been like that from the very first one.

If your period starts or leaks in class

1. Ask to leave. "Can I go to the bathroom?" is enough. If the teacher says to wait, go up to the desk and say quietly, "It's a period thing, I need to go now."
2. Patch it. No pad? Fold a thick wad of toilet paper into your underwear.
3. Get a pad. Go to the nurse, the office or a teacher you trust: "I've just got my period and I don't have anything. Do you have a pad?" Many schools keep spares for exactly this.
4. Cover a stain. Tie a sweater or jacket around your waist, or change into the leggings from your kit. The office may have spare clothes, or can call a parent or another adult to bring some.

A first period can start as a small reddish-brown stain on your underwear rather than a sudden gush, so you often have time to sort it out. It can also be red and heavier, and that is not wrong either; the heavy-period signs above still apply. Rinse stains in cold water, because hot water sets blood.

A leak is a stain, not a disaster, and it does not mean you did anything wrong. If someone notices, "Yeah, my period, I'm sorting it" is a whole answer.

PE and sports on your period

Having a period does not by itself stop you doing PE or gym class, and light movement such as stretching or walking can even help with cramps.

• Change your pad just before the lesson, and wear dark shorts or leggings.
• In the changing room, change in a stall, or pull your shorts on under your skirt first.
• Pads do not work in water, but you never need a tampon to swim: reusable period swimwear lets you swim without putting anything inside you.

To sit out, a quiet word is enough: "I'm on my period and my cramps are bad today." There is more in sports and your period.

Cramps at school

• Ask to go to the nurse or the sick room and lie down for a bit, with a heat pack if they have one. In a review of small trials, a heating pad worked at least as well as pain medicine, although the researchers say there were few studies, with few people in them.
• At break, walk around instead of sitting hunched up.
• An adult decides on any medicine and how much, and schools usually have rules about it, so sort that out at home. Pain relief works best when it is started one to two days before bleeding begins and kept up through the first two to three days.

Cramps are a real reason people miss school: one third to one half of those with period pain miss school or work at least once per cycle. Common does not mean you have to put up with it. Pain that is severe, or that keeps you from school or your normal day, is a reason to tell a parent or another adult you trust and see a doctor, not a sign you are being dramatic.

Keep a record

A doctor who specialises in teenage periods recommends writing down your bleeding days from your very first period. Cycles that keep running longer than 45 days, or 3 months or more with no period, are worth telling an adult about, and a record shows that straight away. A notebook works, and so does the Soso app.