My knuckles were white as I gripped the hospital bed rail while tears ran down my face. My best friend and a nurse held my legs apart while another nurse packed gauze into my vagina to stop the bleeding. This wasn’t how I imagined remembering my first time having sex. People always say you’ll remember your first time because it’s awkward or emotional. I remember mine because it ended with a blood-stained bed, carpet, bathtub, and three hospital rooms.

I was in my late teens and dating a boy who had booked a hotel room. I hadn’t even expected to lose my virginity that day, so I was completely unprepared. Even before we reached the room, I felt anxious and nauseous. I didn’t know how to behave around him and felt awkward the entire time. When we started having sex, there was no foreplay and he barely touched me except for my chest. As soon as he penetrated me, I felt a sharp, piercing pain. Something didn’t feel right. Then the bleeding started.

At first we thought it might be my period, but the blood looked different—fresh and constant. Within minutes the room looked like a crime scene. Blood soaked the bed, ran down the frame, and stained the carpet. Panicked, I tried using sanitary pads to stop the bleeding. After soaking through six of them, I called a medical helpline and was told to go to a walk-in clinic. By that point I felt dizzy and had almost fainted. The clinic quickly sent me to A&E because they didn’t have the equipment to examine me properly. On the way there I nearly fainted again in the Uber. The driver had to pull over to give me water and snacks.

At the hospital, doctors examined me and discovered tears on both sides of my vaginal walls. They said it could have happened because the penetration was too rough or because I wasn’t aroused or ready. I had already been bleeding for more than three hours and had soaked through over ten pads. Nurses used gauze to pack the wounds and stop the bleeding. I stayed in the hospital for two nights. If the bleeding hadn’t stopped, I might have needed surgery. Thankfully it eventually did. The experience left me shaken, and I avoided sex for a year while I healed physically and emotionally. When I eventually had sex again, it felt completely different—uncomfortable at first, but not painful or frightening.

Looking back, the experience taught me how important comfort, communication, and arousal are during sex. First-time sex is not supposed to be extremely painful, and heavy bleeding is not normal. Unfortunately, many young people aren’t taught this. Sex education often focuses only on abstinence or preventing pregnancy and STIs, rather than explaining pleasure, consent, and understanding your body. If I had known more about my body and felt confident communicating what I needed, my first experience might have been very different. That’s why open conversations and better sex education are so important—so others don’t have to learn the hard way like I did.