Question about trans women cycles

The original post is a perfectly reasonable question.

Colleague could have been using the word "cycles" to refer both to her own menstrual cycle, and to some sort of cyclical medical treatment her partner takes, which results in being "super emotional" at certain times.
And she said "more than once that their cycles had synched up" which suggests it happened by co-incidence, (on more than one occasion, but that on many occasions they were not synced) not that she's claiming their "cycles" naturally converge.

Perfectly reasonable to wonder whether transwomen might take a hormone treatment which varies over a time period such as a month.
(I think there is, or was, a contraceptive pill for women which had slightly different doses or proportions of hormones over the course. It was very important to start the pack with the correct pill, and made it more complicated to take two packs' worth of pills to delay a bleed- as I recall you had to waste some of the pills).

I would be telling my child to stop being so ridiculous, that they did not have a menstrual cycle and to stop being a dick to their partner who actually really did.

@Itismeghan

If I had a trans daughter, I still wouldn't pretend she had periods.

Have you reported the transphobic posts, mnhq will delete them. if you press the report button under the transphobic posts, mnhq will take a look and delete if necessary.

The amount of transphobia on here is appalling. How would you feel if your child was a trans woman and this was the way people spoke about her?

Yes I really love practicing it. I plan to teach my daughter when she is older how to track her fertility. Even if she chooses another birth control method later which is totally fine I think it’s good practice and has given me a much deeper sense of understanding and control of my body in ways I never thought possible!

I would be really happy to see natural family planning improve and see more accurate non-partisan research on it and more awareness raised about its existence because I think many women are getting sick of putting pills in their bodies and would like more natural alternatives.

The Billings Method is decades old. And uses the body and knowing your body’s cycles to addit with either fertility or contraception. What you describe sounds like it has been finally put into measurable numbers with modern technology to give more accuracy.

it is very interesting

I have wondered about this so thank you for the explanations.

I'm a woman who had a hysterectomy and ovaries out for medical reasons. I take a constant level of oestrogen through HRT. I no longer have a cycle, no PMS and no cramping.

Yes. There is vaginal bleeding and/or spotting that is not necessarily a period. If ovulation did not occur first then it is not medically considered a period. If you have no ovaries in the first place then you are medically and scientifically incorrect!

@Helleofabore I use taking charge of your fertility method. A lot of my friends use sensiplan which is very similar but just rounds decimal points differently I believe.

I know very little about the billing’s method myself so can’t chime in on that.

If your curious I recommend reading taking charge of your fertility by Toni Weschler.

Isn’t this based off the Billings method?

The thing that most winds me up about the so-called 'period cycles' that trans people claim to have is that bleeding is literally the only symptom that defines a period as a period.

If your GP asks 'what was the date of your last period?' they mean the date on which bleeding started, not the date on which you started having abdominal cramps or backache or mood swings or whatever. If you have all the other pre-menstrual/menstrual symptoms but don't bleed, then you are considered to have missed a period.

It's such nonsense - no bleeding = no period. By definition.

@BellaAmorosa If I’m being honest there have not been any horribly sophisticated studies on its accuracy both because the women that practice it for the purpose of birth control are a very small and niche group of people but also because of the nature of the method.

For example you can change your mind anytime you want. Different couples are comfortable with different levels of risk taking. For example my method recommends that for the best level of effectiveness to avoid sex altogether during the fertile period. But we do it anyways with condoms. But if the condom were to tear or fall off (which has happened to me before! 😨) then we would be very likely to have an unintended pregnancy.

That and the last “study” mixed different methods together (including the 1950’s rhythm method) and appeared to be politically motivated.

But it’s effectiveness seems to be somewhere between 92-98% effective depending on how well you follow the rules and any health conditions you might have. Certain illnesses that affect your hormones and cycles can make the method not appropriate for the use of avoiding pregnancy.

However we have been practicing for 7 years and I have not experienced an unplanned pregnancy. But I’m also using it because hormonal birth control makes me vomit for some reason. 😅 So it’s not something I would have sought out in normal circumstances.

No.

MeanCanadianLady has it absolutely right.

Pop over to the conception boards and see the discussions there about luteinising hormone, basal body temperature etc.

Taking a bit of oestrogen bears no resemblance to what happens when a woman goes through her monthly cycle.

And as PPs have pointed out, the whole 'periods in sync' thing has been totally debunked.

The idea that mtf transitioners have cycles that can sync is (a) bollocks and (b) a little bit offensive, when you consider the complexity of women's bodies.

“I would probably stick to being polite and professional with this colleague and leaving it at that.“

^This.
Before you get pulled into the “pregnancy test” and “pillow up the jumper” role play storylines.

I do believe some Endocrinologists have these males on a mix of estrogen and progesterone. Which they do fluctuate throughout the month.

Still not a period!!!!

This is getting absolutely ridiculous now. The worst part is that if you had said anything, you would have been accused of being a TERF or transphobic simply for pointing out basic scientific fact.

Just to clarify, the "fascinating" stuff was the description of the hormone cycle. My periods were by and large a breeze plus I never even considered hormonal birth control so I never looked into the detail of cycles.

I was just curious about the natural family planning as well.

@MeanCanadianLady
Thanks, that was fascinating! How effective is that method of birth control? (Apologies for the derail, @Borris )

Women cannot 'sync' their cycles. That was dismissed as a theory. IIRC it was based on a hilariously shoddy piece based on 12 nuns living together. Anyway... utter bollocks and one that drives me mad when people say it.

See also: people who say Gin makes them cry so they drink vodka. 🤦🏽‍♀️

😂😂

😂
So did I!

"She just says things like dating women is so much less complicated"

Oh dear. And now she finds herself with a male who identifies as a woman and claims to have a menstrual cycle despite that being impossible...

I would not engage as pp have said in anything further than light, polite civil work chat with colleague. I would be extremely worried about inadvertently saying something that the colleague or her partner would take umbridge too and this affecting my career.