Lorraine Keane: Periods felt like something you shouldn't talk about for my generation. I don't want my girls to feel that

Lorraine Keane: It’s really important that we talk about [periods] so that it’s not something that women have to hide

When I got my first period, my mum celebrated. She said, ‘you’ve got a healthy body, it might not feel like this at the moment, but you’ll understand when you’re a little bit older.’ My granny didn’t talk about periods and that made [my mum] feel like it was a dirty little secret, something to be embarrassed or ashamed of.

My mum made such a big deal about it being a good thing that she even told my dad, which I was horrified about. Even though my mum approached it in that manner, it still felt like something, for my generation, that you shouldn’t talk about.

When you said you had a pain in your tummy, the nuns in my school banished you to the kitchen, which was the smelliest, darkest old room in the basement of a very old building. You were given a couple of tablets and you stayed there until the pain subsided. It was just something that wasn’t spoken about. And that was something that I didn’t want my girls to have to feel.

It’s really, really important that we talk about it so that it’s not something that women have to hide. It’s bad enough having to go through all of this, but then to be made feel ashamed, embarrassed, dirty... it’s just so wrong. The only way we can change it is by having the conversation openly.

• Broadcaster and journalist Lorraine Keane is one of eight women who shared her period story as part of our series on Period Shame. Read the full piece here.