Periods From A Man's Perspective: It's Time To Stop The Arguments

[Anonymous]

I recently had a discussion with a female colleague of mine about the things that men and women go through. One of the things that always crops up in these conversations... are periods. This then led on to how us as men would deal with them if we had to and women's opinions on our perceptions.

Now I am not exactly the strongest person in the world and happily admitted that I would probably keel over and die. However is this really a debate worth having? For me, it boils down to one plain and simple fact: WE CAN'T HELP THE WAY WE ARE!

Men can't help being men and women can't help being women. The putdowns that some women dish out can seem unfair at times. Yes you go through intense pain every month but what do you want us to do? Apologize for being born with a penis? Grow a uterus? The fact is that we cannot change our core internal structure and the way we were made. Yes, us men may have gotten off lightly but we certainly didn't choose to.

(However if a guy is being a genuine d*ck about it then yes, call him out on it.)

I am in no doubt that women go through far more pain than we will ever experience. The pain of consistent bleeding and giving birth to another human being are scenarios far beyond my imagination. But for those women who like to use this as weight in an argument, just remember that men cannot help the way that they are made, not all males are unappreciative of what you go through and just because you suffer more, it doesn't give you the right to demean others.

(Sorry this take is short but I hope you took something from it)

[Anonymous]

Good myTake. I especially like the last part. "Just because you suffer more, it doesn't give you the right to demean others."

I would like to add to that, as that goes with the core of my ethical philosophy (largely influenced by Christianity/Catholicism). There is real suffering in the world. I know I suffer. I know you suffer. We all suffer from the faulty, sinful decisions that we make. Just because we suffer doesn't mean we have the license to add more suffering into the world to get even or something else, because that will just make the world an even worse place than it is. Rather, I believe that we just need to have hope, faith, and charity, and the greatest of these three is charity. We should be stoic, taking in the suffering, forgiving other people, and turning the other cheek. Stoicism, compassion, and forgiveness sum up my ethics.

[AleDeEurope]

True. It's not our decision whether we come out male or female, so we can't do anything about it, and we definitely won't apologize for something we have no control over.
The only thing a man can do is acknowledge the pain a woman goes through during her period, and help her deal with it however we can.

[Anonymous]

To be clear, my issue with men on this subject have NEVER been that you don't have a period or don't give birth to children. What I have taken issues with is for someone who has never experienced these things making jokes at women's expense about something we cannot control, aka, having a period, telling me how I should feel during them or about them, and telling me how they would deal with it, knowing full well that will never happen so that's the most useless argument ever. I mean would it make sense for me to say oh, stop being a baby about being kicked hard in the balls, it doesn't hurt that bad. How the hell would I know. I don't have balls, hello! And men don't have periods or give birth. This is something I might have to deal with for some 40 years or so to put that into perspective, so yeah, the d*ckhead attitudes about it, are the problem, not the fact that you just don't have a period or can't give birth.

[Poppykate]

Most guys I have been with are usually pretty sympathetic, and usually bring me things when needed like pain killers, hot water bottles etc. I normally joke around about the inconvenience of having my period and that it should be his turn. Which he usually happily aggrees. We have a good laugh. Men have to deal with things, women have to deal with other things. That's life!. ( personally, if I was a guy, I don't think I could go through life, constantly adjusting my balls all the time. It would start to piss me off)

[guynextodoor]

that was respectful, but i don't think i ever had to adjust my balls..

[ThisDudeHere]

The question of "how would men deal with periods" is mute. A "man with a period" is an oxymoron. You can't be a man and have a period. If you're human and you experience periods once a month, you're female. If you don't, you're male (or you have some condition or whateverthefuck).

It is like asking how would a fighter jet fare in an air battle if it had no guns. It wouldn't be a fighter jet in that case...

So there's no point in asking how men would deal with periods since if we had the chance to experience them, we wouldn't be men anymore.

[Anonymous]

I don't blame, or know any girl, who blames men for having her period. This opinion just seems like a big "duh" to me. Of course we don't blame men for being born men. We just hate our periods and some men try to tell us to suck it up or deal with it and he has no right or understanding (because he was born a dude) to tell women how to deal with it. He wouldn't understand. I don't expect him to, and I don't understand of how bringing that up would demean a man?

[myTake Owner]

Yes, I get your argument about men telling women to get on with it when we have no idea what it's like. When it comes to demeaning, there are a small minority of women who will make men feel shit about themselves because they don't go through "real" pain, that's all I meant by it.

[Opinion Owner]

Hm I've never witnessed or heard that really... I think both obviously experience different and similar types of emotional and physical pain, but yeah period pain (the physical, emotional, and even social effects) is a whole different ball game than what you guys are used to or have ever experienced. I don't consider that "real" pain though, it's just a type of pain. One that men don't experience, and that's ok.

[Transigence]

You're wrong. The worst pain someone will ever go through is a toothache or having a limb torn off, and it happens to both sexes. And it's far worse than childbirth. I'm obviously not speaking from personal experience, but of research done (on pain thresholds by sex, using toothache as point of reference).

And for those of you who are about to downplay a toothache, shut up in advance. Just because you had a toothache and it wasn't that bad, doesn't mean toothaches aren't the worst pain in the world.

The right toothache can make you change Gods.

[mistixs]

Well women just want men to be sympathetic about women's plight, & also bringing us chocolate/midol/etc during our periods will earn you brownie points

[Toad-1]

Yes but arguing or putting men down for it is not tge way to do it

[Spirit_Is_Free]

Very good point - Thankfully I have never met any women who use those tactics in a discussion but unless you are having playful hypotheticals, I find straying away from reality in any discussion unhelpful - Your point is well made there are things about each of us that can't be changed so why wander down the road of ifs and buts about them. It is much more constructive to discuss things people can change if they want change etc.

[snowangle]

Thanks for your compassion :) Thankful to say I've never met a girl who put down men for not having periods (though I'm positive they exist). Like, what's the point of that? Haha.

Occasionally I will shove it to a guy who thinks that periods are "not that bad" haha.

[MaskedSanity]

You are lovely and your take, albeit short, is very well put.

[myTake Owner]

Thank you, i'm glad you liked it.

[Anonymous]

that is my exact reaction in my head when some girl throws that at a guy. I don't say anything, but in my head I'm thinking "what do you want them to do about it? sprout lady parts?" Yeah, having a period stinks, and I can't imagine how it feels to have a kid, but I'm sure guys have problems too

[lolatyou]

Her argument was pretty stupid honestly but I wasn't aware that this issue was some huge epidemic.

Most of the women I know only complain to each other about pms because women understand it better anyway. I would feel weird trying to get a man to relate to my pms issues.

[SecretScout]

I'm always amazed at where you find these women... I'm friends with women, we talk about female issues... I've never once had a friend or acquaintance have a dig at a guy directly or indirectly for not bleeding from his genitals four days out of thirty.

[9mfeo]

Here's what I don't get: why does it always come down to a suffering contest? Everyone has shit to deal with. Everyone has a hard time (except for racist corn cob gas bags, perhaps). Let's just let that understanding be the thing, no?

[KawaiiPie67]

IKR? It does seem like people will always compete about suffering and who has it worse.

[9mfeo]

@KawaiiPie67 I notice it a lot in the mental illness conversation. "Oh, you have depression? But you have a great life! I am literally the person that scrapes gum off the sidewalk for a living but *I'm* not complaining!"

Like, in what way is that statement helpful? Sure, someone certainly has it worse than someone else. That doesn't mean that you don't struggle.

[Bluemax]

Hallelujah!!!

This answer is so awesome, I'm speaking in tongues!!!

[lumos]

Right? How pathetic is it to want to win at having a shit life? If anything I'd rather want to win at having an awesome life...

[9mfeo]

@lumos exactly!

[juliaanita]

I so agree with you! We can't help the way we are, or how we were born. So instead, let's celebrate the differences and enjoy ourselves as well as the opposite sex.

[KawaiiPie67]

I actually don't get cramps with my period. Period pain varies from woman to woman fyi. I've had friends that had medical conditions that made their period pain at the levels you describe.

On avg I don't think girls get really severe pain that can't be handled by pain meds.

[SunsetRose]

Very good argument. Also, women shouldn't use their periods as an excuse to be raging monsters for a week.

[guynextodoor]

i am not that good in controlling laughing, so if a woman was to use such tactics on me, i would have had really come up as insensitive and screwed.

[Cookies_AndMilk]

Any woman who tries to use that as a put down towards men is weak.

[Anonymous]

People say she bleeds at this time each month, but is it really blood just because it's red? I heard that it is actually liquefied lining around the uterus... that doesn't sound like blood to me.

[jacquesvol]

I didn't know there were arguments about periods.

[guynextodoor]

i didn't know people joked about periods