本文探討戰後至二十一世紀初台灣女人初經經驗的變遷及其歷史脈絡，即初經來臨時的感受、態度、反應與相關行動，並以「從意外、驚嚇到等待」勾勒出半世紀以來的主要歷史變化，指出此歷程蘊含著知識與性別權力的轉變。本文使用的歷史材料，包括報章雜誌和醫療、護理、心理衛生教育相關文獻，22位女性的自述文字或已出版之口述史訪談紀錄，以及38位女性的口述史訪問內容。歷史中的各種條件，尤其是相關知識，是影響女性身體經驗的重要因素，例如，女孩們是否曾被預告初經的來臨、知識與教育及其內容、初次來經時身在何處，以及月經是否為談論的話題、是否與周遭親友談論月經、身旁相關人士提供的協助，如母親、姊妹、同儕、男性友人和父親等。本文特別關注知識的多重面貌，早期女孩雖未被預告月經，但許多人透過年長女性網絡間接學習，也接受各種非正式月經教育。1970年代之後，則逐漸以醫普衛生學校教育與衛生棉廣告為主。此外，月經議題也有公共化的趨勢，除了醫學衛生知識的普及與學校教育的建制化鼓勵人們公開討論之外，父親與男性友人也逐漸被納入月經事務中。

Drawing from oral history interviews, biographical accounts, and other sources of information on 60 women born between the 1920s and 1990s, this paper examines the changing history of young girls’ experiences of menarche in Taiwan since World War II. Young girls who experienced their menarche before the 1970s were often caught by surprise and filled with fear about what was going on with their bodies. In contrast, as a result of menstruation education beginning in the 1990s, later young girls were much more likely to possess knowledge of menstruation long before its arrival. This paper pays special attention to generational differences in girls’ level of knowledge about menstruation before it first occurred, where they were when they had their first period, if or when menstruation was a possible topic of conversation, and who was involved in caring for their menstruating bodies. From the 1970s, in addition to girls being educated in “correct” menstruation knowledge as a result of industrialization and nine-year compulsory education, girls increasingly experienced their menarche in a public setting, often with much embarrassment. Medical practitioners in Taiwan, including physicians, nurses, hygiene education professionals, and public health professionals, often working with sanitary napkin companies, began to advocate health education for school girls. Menstruation education—from institutional instruction to newspaper advice columns to popular health books—also profoundly changed the ways girls experienced their period, including the possibility of open conversation about the subject and involvement by males (e.g., fathers, brothers, and male peers). I argue that the ways in which different generations of women in Taiwan experienced their menarche were shaped by the politics of the communication of gendered knowledge within shifting structures of social relations.