# Euphemisms for menstruation? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [February 7, 2009, 4:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/euphemisms-for-menstruation/484786 "2009-02-07T04:28:40Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Marlitharn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/779978/32.png) [@Marlitharn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marlitharn)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2009, 4:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/euphemisms-for-menstruation/484786/1 "2009-02-07T04:28:40Z")
So mini-Marli, against my express orders, is continuing to grow up and has now started her period. (She’s 10. Why a 10 year old feels the need for boobs and functioning ovaries is beyond me, but that’s another thread.) She’s taking it all in stride, like she does most everything, and seeing as how she’s a weird child (if you ask her why she’s weird she’ll tell you it’s in her DNA) I’d like to make her a “Welcome to Womanhood!” card, including every term for thattimeofthemonth that I can come up with. So far I’ve got: The Curse Visit from Aunt Flo Surfing the crimson wave The infantry has landed On the rag Monthly visitor My ass is falling off (that one may be specific to me, since that what mine always feel like) Any others? Also, why the _hell_ is this child growing up so fast? ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2009, 4:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/euphemisms-for-menstruation/484786/2 "2009-02-07T04:33:41Z")
Flying Baker EDIT: [‘Baker’ or ‘Bravo’ flag](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/aa/Bravo_flag.svg/100px-Bravo_flag.svg.png) ---
**Author:** ![Speaker\_for\_the\_Dead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c77e96/32.png) [@Speaker\_for\_the\_Dead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Speaker_for_the_Dead)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2009, 4:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/euphemisms-for-menstruation/484786/3 "2009-02-07T04:34:59Z")
Here’s one from my Pathology professor: “crying the bloody tears of unrequited love.” ---
**Author:** ![Santo\_Rugger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e95f7d/32.png) [@Santo\_Rugger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Santo_Rugger)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2009, 4:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/euphemisms-for-menstruation/484786/4 "2009-02-07T04:45:15Z")
Riding the cotton pony. If anybody wants me to share one of my favorite drinking songs, I will, but I’m not quite sure it’s what the OP was looking for. ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2009, 5:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/euphemisms-for-menstruation/484786/5 "2009-02-07T05:07:45Z")
[person] has fallen to the communists ---
**Author:** ![AngelSoft](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/angelsoft/32/440_2.png) [@AngelSoft](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AngelSoft)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2009, 5:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/euphemisms-for-menstruation/484786/6 "2009-02-07T05:13:31Z")
My friends and I used to refer to it as “bleeding dead babies” but I don’t think that’s age appropriate. And for the record, I started my period at 9 years old. It SUCKED. Hopefully she’ll have a better time of it. ---
**Author:** ![Savannah](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b3f665/32.png) [@Savannah](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Savannah)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2009, 5:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/euphemisms-for-menstruation/484786/7 "2009-02-07T05:18:53Z")
My mother always referred to menstrual supplies as “ammunition”. As in, “I’m going to the grocery store. Do you need any… _ammunition_?” I was ten, too. (Okay, it was the day before my 11th birthday, but it sure seemed young at the time to get my period.) So. Period. Dot. You can call them “dotty days”? That’s lame, but it’s all I can come up that’s not, well, gross. ---
**Author:** ![Zoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/a4c791/32.png) [@Zoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zoe)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2009, 6:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/euphemisms-for-menstruation/484786/8 "2009-02-07T06:11:30Z")
Curse? You call it a curse? The blessing ---
**Author:** ![GrizzRich](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/7ba0ec/32.png) [@GrizzRich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GrizzRich)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2009, 6:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/euphemisms-for-menstruation/484786/9 "2009-02-07T06:36:17Z")
“Tuesday” While my wife was on the pill, her period would begin on a Tuesday, at the end of her cycle. ---
**Author:** ![SeaDragonTattoo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/df705f/32.png) [@SeaDragonTattoo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SeaDragonTattoo)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2009, 6:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/euphemisms-for-menstruation/484786/10 "2009-02-07T06:41:14Z")
Aunt Ruby’s in town The reason I cried at a stupid commercial last night Why Dad has a big zit on his forehead (in a house with 3 females who all synced up, HE was the one who broke out!) Not what you’re looking for, but in high school we called girls who had sex while on their periods “jelly rolls.” ---
**Author:** ![BrassyPhrase](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ea666f/32.png) [@BrassyPhrase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrassyPhrase)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2009, 6:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/euphemisms-for-menstruation/484786/11 "2009-02-07T06:55:52Z")
My mom only said this to me when I was older and she was edging into the change: “That’s the blood baby kicking” \ \ I easily horrify every woman I say that to…] But–they get it. I was not sexually active when she started saying that to me and it was just really awful periods. I use it as a shorthand. ---
**Author:** ![Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hilarity_n.suze/32/6223_2.png) [@Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hilarity_N.Suze)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2009, 7:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/euphemisms-for-menstruation/484786/12 "2009-02-07T07:09:29Z")
“Falling off the roof,” although I think this one may be a veiled referenced to “thank goodness, not pregnant this month!” Also, “fell off,” with or without the roof ref. Also, I heard this in high school but not since, girls would say they were “M.” Usage: “I don’t like the idea of swimming when I’m M.” ---
**Author:** ![Abby\_Emma\_Sasha](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e68b1a/32.png) [@Abby\_Emma\_Sasha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Abby_Emma_Sasha)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2009, 7:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/euphemisms-for-menstruation/484786/13 "2009-02-07T07:50:51Z")
I’ve got the FTS(fixin to start). I can’t think of any more euphemisms for menstruation but I have one for sanitary pads. I started my period when I was ten and a half and the only pads on the market were Kotex(with the awful belt). One day, in mixed company I told my mother matter of factly that I needed another Kotex. “Shhh”, she hissed at me and directed me to the bathroom. “We don’t say that word around men”. Yeah, color me confused, Mom. She decided we would call them K’s. So this has been a running joke between the hubby and me for some time. If I’m low and he’s going out I’ll tell him to get some K’s. I’m not shy about using the words “sanitary napkins” around men anymore, but Mom sure put some funny ideas in my head. ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2009, 10:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/euphemisms-for-menstruation/484786/14 "2009-02-07T10:09:02Z")
> [@AngelSoft](#): > > My friends and I used to refer to it as “bleeding dead babies” but I don’t think that’s age appropriate. And for the record, I started my period at 9 years old. It SUCKED. Hopefully she’ll have a better time of it. I too was 9. I was kind of smug about it, to be honest. I’d read\* Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret\* after all. I didn’t start having really severe PMS for another five years. No thread on menstruation would be complete without the obligatory [Onion](http://www.theonion.com/content/node/36834) link. ---
**Author:** ![MerryMagdalen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c2a13f/32.png) [@MerryMagdalen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MerryMagdalen)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2009, 10:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/euphemisms-for-menstruation/484786/15 "2009-02-07T10:14:11Z")
This is not original to me, and in fact I probably read it here, but: Working overtime at the Japanese flag factory (I’m sorry, whoever I stole that from.) ---
**Author:** ![Chimi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/73ab20/32.png) [@Chimi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimi)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2009, 10:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/euphemisms-for-menstruation/484786/16 "2009-02-07T10:29:07Z")
I think it might be from here, but “Skipping through a field of wildflowers in soft focus.” Looks like that Onion article has similar, but for beach… ---
**Author:** ![Scougs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scougs/32/3158_2.png) [@Scougs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scougs)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2009, 10:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/euphemisms-for-menstruation/484786/17 "2009-02-07T10:38:09Z")
Probably way too Scotland specific, but still my favourite… “Aberdeen are playing at home”. Aberdeen FC play in red and white, for those that are wondering. ---
**Author:** ![Marlitharn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/779978/32.png) [@Marlitharn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marlitharn)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2009, 11:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/euphemisms-for-menstruation/484786/18 "2009-02-07T11:48:42Z")
Heh. My mom moved out when I was 13 and Dad had to start doing the shopping. He told me if I needed any “female items” (mumbling it) to write it on the grocery list. My older sister and I took sadistic pleasure in yelling at each other across the house, “HEY, SIS, CAN YOU THROW ME A TAMPON?” I am inordinately fond of “skipping through a field of wildflowers in soft focus”; but I wonder if the child would get it; they don’t make cheesy maxipad commercials like that anymore. More’s the pity. I just thought of another one! “Able to square dance” - there’s an old public health film from the 50s about menstruation, where the scary girl’s gym teacher makes a point of advising her pre-pubescent charges that even when they’re ragging, they can still square dance. Because that’s exactly what every young lady wants to do when she’s bloated and crampy. ---
**Author:** ![Abby\_Emma\_Sasha](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e68b1a/32.png) [@Abby\_Emma\_Sasha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Abby_Emma_Sasha)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2009, 11:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/euphemisms-for-menstruation/484786/19 "2009-02-07T11:55:39Z")
I don’t want to derail **Marli’s** thread here but I am astounded at how many of you started at ten years old or less. I thought I was some kind of odd bird here, and frankly, I liked it. I am disheartened that so many of you are early bloomers. I have always heard that the earlier you start the earlier you hit menopause. Well, I’m still waiting. I’m waiting, and waiting. ---
**Author:** ![Abby\_Emma\_Sasha](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e68b1a/32.png) [@Abby\_Emma\_Sasha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Abby_Emma_Sasha)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2009, 11:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/euphemisms-for-menstruation/484786/20 "2009-02-07T11:59:18Z")
Oh fuck, I forgot the most important thing… Marli Jr. You use whatever you is most comfortale for you. Don’t care what your mom says, don’t care what your best friend says, you do what is right for you. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/euphemisms-for-menstruation/484786.md?page=2)