Think back for a moment to the time you started puberty. Remember? What a weird time, huh?

Boys have a fairly easy trip through puberty — they mostly just get bigger and hairier. The girls have a tougher time, coasting along and then “bam,” they hit their first period, something I never experienced, but I’ve heard all the horror stories.

Female readers: for a moment, imagine going through that experience without say your mom, aunt, grandmother or big sister. No doubt they guided you through that delicate process and told you at least some of what you’d need to know — the rest would come later.

Being trans is an interesting experience because I had to figure out much of the day-to-day womanhood stuff through, without support from experienced female family members. My mom and grandmothers had passed by the time I started my transition, and even though I had close female peers my age, at the time asking them for advice and support seemed too weird. Add to that the fact that, probably not unlike a pubescent girl, I was very self conscious during the early stages of my transition.

I found women’s clothing sizes confusing as heck for the neophyte. I learned right away that there are Junior’s, Women’s, and Misses sizes, in addition to Plus sizes. I was very confused by the odd number sizing in Juniors, and learned the hard way that if I take a 12-14 in Women’s, a 13 in Juniors ain’t gonna cut it. Then there are the lengths: Petite, Regular, Tall. And, as every woman who wears jeans knows, the pockets are a joke!

Bras are another enigma. I’ve got it down now and I have bras that work for me, although I’ve never been professionally fitted — an item on my “to do” list. The problem comes early in the male-to-female transition stage when a bra might be desired, but good luck find a size 40 training bra.

At this point, six years after starting my transition, living as a woman is more-or-less “old hat.” Plus, over that six years, I have assembled an army of supportive female friends who guide me through what I might need help with. It did take me some time before I felt comfortable asking for help — I am a person who likes to do it myself. However, my transition has taught me that there is nothing wrong with asking for help.

Factoid: As a transgender woman, I do not have periods. I don’t have all the internal hardware that cis-gendered women have, in fact, currently no transgender woman does. However, an incident recently reminded me of the time immediately following gender confirmation surgery when I needed to buy feminine hygiene pads, because, well, I needed them.

Now, I had bought feminine hygiene products before, generally with strict directions from my wife of what was needed, package size, and in which preferred brand. I don’t remember the details, but I recall it being straightforward — I walked into the Health and Beauty section, picked up what I was instructed to get, and headed to the checkout. Simple.

Going to Walmart following my surgery was a daunting thing. This was the first time I ever had to buy feminine hygiene products for me. Like any other woman, I needed something for protection and to avoid embarrassment, but when I stared at the wall of pads and saw heavy days, light days, regular, sport, pads with wings, sunny day pads, rainy day pads, military issue pads, pumpkin spice pads, chai tea pads, but I didn’t see any “I’m a trans woman and just had bottom surgery” pads. I also didn’t know how large a package to buy. Would a dozen do? 24? 36? I really had no idea how long I’d need them to get through.

After several trips to the store and multiple purchases, through a scientifically based totally trial-and-error method, I found what worked. Thank, God!

I am glad that period (really, no pun intended) is over but I still have a stash of various pads left some three years later. Well, as I learned in Boy Scouts, “Be Prepared.”

Mariel E. Addis lives in Florence.