If you've ever been period shamed, you'll want to watch this video

September 15, 2017 5:04 PM

You're not alone. Period shaming is something that often seems ingrained in our culture.

Have you ever felt embarrassed or ashamed about the simple (and largely unavoidable) fact that you get a period?

Case in point: Women's Health's site director Robin Hilmantel clearly remembers learning about periods in her first sex-ed class. "We watched this video: a girl, she’s on the school's steps and trips. Tampons fly out of her bag and her crush picks them up, and it was framed in the video as this very embarrassing moment," Hilmantel says. "So I think from a very early age, women and girls are taught that periods are something that’s embarrassing."

We asked women in New York City's Grand Central Station to share their experiences with period shaming—from the snide comments we've all heard before ("Is it that time of the month?") to the truly cringe-worthy stories that made them cry. Check out their full stories in the video above.