Lena Dunham's First Tampon Came From Her Dad

Getting your first period is a jarring experience for many women, and for Lena Dunham it was no different.

In an Instagram post, the Girls creator, 31, recalled how she got her period when she was “14 and still totally boobless, sure that it would arrive when I was approximately 24.”

Dunham was hiking with her father on a summer night, when she felt something trickling down her leg.

“My first reaction was, naturally, that I had peed myself a whole bunch,” she wrote. “When I realized it was blood I shrieked wildly — my first suspicion is always fatal injury — as my father looked at me, misty-eyed. ‘This, this mountain, is where we were the moment you became a woman. In many cultures you’d have to start birthing children now.’ ”

FROM PEN: Alexa Ray Joel Helped Sister Sailor with Bullying After Struggling with Teen Shyness

But Dunham wasn’t in the mood to get sentimental, and demanded that they run home immediately.

“We booked it home — never moved that fast before or since — and he handed me a tampon that was older than I was (my mom was already menopausal at this point) and tried to explain it to me through a crack in the door,” she said. ” ‘Up and…back?’ I wept and shrieked and called all of my aunts AND my friend Harris’s mom on the cordless phone.”

Dunham shared her first period story as part of her partnership with LOLA, which offers home delivery of organic cotton tampons, pads and liners.

“They’re helping make the tampon dialogue more open than it was 16 years ago,” she posted. “I also love that @lola has our backs for all our firsts, whether it’s your period, childbirth or some grand formal occasion where you’re bleeding unjustly. Let’s do this right.”