Table 3 Description of Themes 3–5

Prioritising productivity over pain

“If I were to try to go to … a professor and talk about why I couldn’t come in or why I hadn’t gotten something done, I would claim some other form of sickness that is more universally valid.” (P7)

“I wouldn’t want to be perceived as weaker than other members of the class.” (P20)

We’re missing an option between ‘normalise’ and ‘medicalise’

“I do wish that they would have spoken to me about the effect it would have on my menstrual cycle because I feel like I don't really know … if it's normal or if it's not normal.” (P15)

Cycle of censorship and concealment

“When you're, like, 11 and you get that … sex talk in one room and the boys are in another and they talk to the girls about periods, when they teach the boys about like wet dreams and, like, erections… I feel like we should all have to learn about all those.” (P4)

“There was very little… information about periods themselves or how to deal with them. It was just… ‘sometimes you bleed, sometimes you don't, and then you use period products to clean that up,’ … very much a kind of dirty, taboo topic rather than something we should be open about, especially in an all-girls school.” (P21)