The Blood Series 5

Yecenu Sasetu is a journalist so she understands the impact a story like her’s will have.

Giggling as we begin the recording Yecenu excitedly recalls the events of that day…

“So I wake up, getting ready for the family devotion. In my night gown at the time, I ran down stairs and walked passed my mother to prepare my stuff for school before it was devotion time. Oblivious of the stain on my nightie she grabs my hand exclaiming…”come come come”. She drags me back into the kitchen before my brothers got a glimpse of what was happening and gives me the quickest crash course on menstruation I have heard. It went something like, “now you have started, if you allow any man to touch you, you will get pregnant.” For an 11 year old, I had no idea what this meant but nodded anyway.

“ I already knew what menstruation was but didn’t have in-depth knowledge, I had noticed my older cousin and I kind of knew…so when mummy asked to see what had stained my dress I knew I had to have been stained.

That first year was a learning curve because prior to this we never had formal discussions about a period, I would see my cousin using a sanitary pad and she’d just explain why she needed to use one. My memory from seeing her put on a pad helped me the first time. Mummy later taught me how to wear a sanitary pad and I survived the first period.

The next period was about three months later and this time I knew what to do, knew where the sanitary pad was and so it almost went unnoticed…

Yecenu’s journey like for most of us had embarrassing experiences, twists and turns…

“This faithful Sunday, I was visiting a cousin and I knew from church I needed to replace the sanitary pad but the toilet didn’t present a pleasant environment; I quickly rushed to the bathroom in my cousin’s house and wore the half of the pad I had with me… (SO long story about the half pad, my mom used to cut the pads in two mainly because they were large in the 90’s and she was also trying to save a buck)…. back to my story; unknown to me, the glue on the half pad I changed to had worn off, I headed out for a game of football and in the heat of running around the pad dropped on the field…there I was not even knowing it fell out. The rush of embarrassment filled me because a group of young men were staring at me with a look that suggested their surprise all I could think of was bury this thing so, I tried covering it with dirt and the staring didn’t stop at this point I wanted the pad to melt into the ground (you guessed; it didn’t melt), I quickly abandoned the pad, the game, everything and ran into the house…

My first year of menstruation was tough, the inexperience, lack of proper education, lack of guidance didn’t help, I didn’t know how to maintain myself. It was tougher because I was also just developing breasts (now wearing a bra) and the shame, the pain and teasing that came with it all was too much for a girl in primary school to bare.  My mother having had 4 boys before me didn’t know how to handle her little girl in puberty so that crash talk in the kitchen was all I got, probably with a little more help, my first year menstruating wouldn’t have been so hellish... 

Young girls need to be properly informed about what their body is going through, that information mothers shy away from is what has landed may young girls in uncomfortable or life altering situations.

Today, Yecenu spends her time as an award winning health Journalist bringing hygiene education to young girls, giving them sanitary items as well as addressing issues around maternal and child health. You can catch her weekly on “the Clinic every Saturday, 10 AM on 99.9 Kiss FM Abuja.