'AITA for not telling my coworker she had a stain before her presentation?'

"AITA for not telling my coworker she had a stain before her presentation?"

I’m a man and this coworker and I usually get along very well as we are both late 20s. Yesterday she asked if she could run through a mock presentation with me in one of the small meeting rooms. Immediately after that she had to give the real presentation to a few teams in a conference room.

When she stood up from the chair to start the mock presentation, I noticed a menstrual stain on the back of her purple skirt. It was noticeable but not shocking or anything. The chair she’d been sitting on had a dark green cushion, so the stain on her skirt stood out more.

I didn’t laugh, but I’ll admit I found it slightly awkward and unintentionally kept smiling during her practice presentation. She paused twice to ask if something was wrong, and I told her everything was fine.

My reasoning at the time was that, as a man, it didn’t feel like my place to bring up something so personal. Our company is quite strict about boundaries and comments on private matters, and I genuinely didn’t want to risk saying something inappropriate.

I also have a girlfriend and sometimes worry too much about how things might be perceived. So I kept quiet, assuming someone else would tell her or she’d notice. She went straight to the real presentation afterwards.

Two women there got up, whispered to her, and the meeting was delayed for a couple of minutes while she cleaned up. She came back, seemed composed, and delivered a good presentation.

Afterwards, though, she confronted me and said I should have told her. She said it was embarrassing to find out that way and that she considers me a friend. I said no one made a fuss about it, she seemed fine, and people knew anyway because she had to clean the room afterwards.

Now I’m wondering if I genuinely made the wrong call. I thought I was respecting boundaries and obviously I know someone should tell her, I just assumed as she got out another woman would before she went to the conference room.

At the same time while idk how this works I've never seen it happen to grown adults and only seen and heard of it happen to teens in public so maybe she could have prepared better in the first place? AITA?

Here's what people had to say to OP:

theoreticalsandmore said:

YTA. It's personal, yes. However, its not inappropriate to politely tell her she has a stain

MochaMellie said:

YTA. Periods are natural, and not a bad word you can't say. I'd also never assume my partner was cheating or being weird to another woman for this. Helping someone out and politely letting them know they're about to embarrass themselves before they do is a common courtesy.

Treethorn_Yelm said:

YTA, as you know. But besides that, why were you cracking up about the stain during her mock presentation? What's so irresistibly funny about a period stain?

ChihiroHaru said:

Wow. YTA. Full stop. Do you not know any women? Do you not have friends? Weird.

alphabetacheetah said:

YTA, not hard or inappropriate to say she has something on her skirt. You left her open to be embarrassed in front of everyone.