What she thought would be an awkward but ordinary first sexual experience ended with blood covering the bed, a frantic trip through several medical facilities, and two nights in hospital.
The young woman, who was in her late teens at the time, said she had been dating a boy who booked a hotel room for them. Although she had not planned to have sex that day, the situation progressed quickly.
She was already extremely nervous before they reached the room.
She felt nauseous, anxious, and unsure of how she was supposed to behave.
Looking back, she says one of the biggest problems was that she did not feel physically or emotionally prepared.
There was almost no foreplay, and when penetration began, she immediately felt a sharp, piercing pain.
Then came the blood.
At first, neither of them understood what was happening.
He asked whether she was on her period.
She was not.
Within moments, the bleeding became frighteningly heavy.
It soaked through the bedding, reached the mattress, ran down the side of the bed and onto the carpet.
She tried using sanitary pads to control it, but after going through several of them, it became clear that this was not ordinary spotting.
She called the UK’s 111 medical service and explained what had happened.
By that point, she was becoming dizzy and had nearly fainted.
She was first directed to a walk-in medical center, but staff there quickly realized she needed treatment that they could not provide.
She was told to go to A&E.
During the journey, she nearly fainted again.
By the time she reached hospital, about an hour and a half had passed since the bleeding began.
Doctors and nurses examined her and eventually identified the cause.
She had suffered tears in both vaginal walls.
Medical staff explained that the injuries could have resulted from penetration being too rough, or from her body not being sufficiently ready and aroused.
The bleeding continued for more than three hours.
She had soaked through more than 10 sanitary pads.
Doctors warned her that if the bleeding did not stop, surgery might be necessary.
Instead, medical staff decided to pack the area with gauze in an attempt to control the bleeding.
The procedure was extremely painful.
For the young woman, however, the physical injury was only part of what made the experience so overwhelming.
She was also terrified that her parents would discover why she was in hospital.
Growing up in a South Asian household, she said sex was treated as a deeply taboo subject.
Her mother had repeatedly warned her against having sex before marriage, telling her that boys might make promises simply to get what they wanted and then leave.
Now she was lying in a hospital bed, frightened, embarrassed and unable to tell her family what had happened.
Nurses continued checking her blood pressure, temperature and blood throughout the night.
She was also fitted with a catheter.
Eventually, the bleeding stopped the following day.
The gauze was removed later that night, another moment she remembers as intensely painful.
She was discharged the next day.
But physically leaving the hospital did not mean the experience was over.
For a long time, she kept everything secret.
She had told her parents she was staying with a friend and felt unable to explain where she had actually been.
Over time, however, she began speaking with friends and discovered that difficult first sexual experiences were far more common than she had realized.
Some described pain.
Others remembered feeling frightened, nervous or unprepared.
Those conversations made her question why young people are so often warned about pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections but are given much less information about arousal, comfort, communication and emotional readiness.
For her, those things turned out to be crucial.
She realized that anxiety can make the body tense.
Without sufficient arousal, the body may not be physically prepared.
And without trust and communication, a person may continue even when something feels wrong.
She says she had believed pain was simply something she was supposed to tolerate during her first time.
After what happened, she learned otherwise.
Not every woman bleeds the first time she has sex, and severe pain or heavy bleeding should not simply be accepted as normal.
The experience affected her deeply enough that she chose not to have sex again for an entire year.
She needed time for both her body and her confidence to recover.
When she eventually became sexually active again, the experience was completely different.
She felt safe.
She felt comfortable.
She was able to communicate.
Most importantly, she felt in control.
Today, she says she no longer associates sex with the fear and panic of that first night.
Instead, she sees her experience as a reason for more honest conversations about consent, preparation, pleasure and emotional readiness.
Her message to other young women is simple:
There is no deadline.
There is no requirement to continue if something hurts.
There is nothing wrong with waiting.
Your comfort matters.
Your boundaries matter.
And your body should never be treated as though pain is simply something you are expected to endure.
What began as a frightening hospital experience eventually became a lesson she wishes she had learned much earlier:
Good sex education should not only teach young people how to avoid danger. It should also teach them how to recognize when they feel safe, ready, respected and in control.