Mens trousers, a question.

[Bikeybikeface]

Ok, I’m female and I measure my waist around the middle just above my belly button.

My husband says men measure it much lower, half way between belly button and penis.
Obviously I Google and he’s wrong so we measured his actual waist and he’s 6 inches bigger than he thought. So, why do his trousers fit him??
Trousers are 34 and fit low, if he pulled them up to where his actual waist is, it looks ridiculous!!!
How is it that his waist is 40 but the jeans are measured as 34 inch waist yet they a) fit around his abdomen and b) don’t come up high enough to get to his waist.

He is sulking now btw, I think I’ve burst his 34” waist bubble.

Most mens modern trousers are designed to be worn on the hips under the stomach rather than the waist.

If he wore a historical style high waist trouser he'd be a 40.

It sounds like he's been measuring his hips? If his 34" trousers fit there, then that is the part of him that is 34".

My waist is definitely above my belly button, considerably so. This is my narrowest bit, and doesn't change, regardless of where fashion has decided where trousers will rise to.

I imagine there are similar trends in mens trousers.

So really speaking, mens trousers/jeans measurements go by hips not waist? But they still call it waist?

If you notice men you'll see lots have their belly hanging over the top of their trousers.
DH tends to be like you suggest with the waist fairly high (he seems to think they'll fall down if they're lower) then again he is an old man.

One of our male friends says he has a 34 waist but actually his trouser waist is nowhere near his actual waist.

I wear men's jeans (am female). While I would agree that the trousers don't go anywhere near the waist (which I think is true of women's trousers too, at least of the ones I have - I don't wear low-rise or high-rise), the measurement I think is still the waist. If I measure myself, I am 27.something in the waist and 37.something in the hips (in inches), but I generally wear 28 width jeans (so the measurement comes from the waist measurement). 38w jeans would be enormous on me - I have some 30" shorts (nothing smaller available) and I couldn't wear them without a belt.

Not really, they're just pretending that they fit properly.

Theres a man in work who says he wears a 38 inch waist and I thought he was lying as he has a very big belly. I guess he’s not lying then but rather it’s 38 hip size and they sit under his belly waist.

I actually measure the waist in what sounds a completely different place to you or your husband - I'd say about 5 or 6 cm above my belly button, just after the ribs end and in a spot just before the body starts to curve out to the hips.

@Precipice sorry yes, that’s about where I do it. My “just above” belly button is a couple of inches above.

I find this 'waist measurement' thing quite bewildering.

I wanted to order some trousers that were S,M,L so I looked up waist measurements and according to those I'm XXL - waist measures 37in - but I'm perfectly comfortable in size 14 (supposed to be waist several inches smaller).

I ordered size L and they're slightly on the generous side. I despair!

The correct way to measure your waist is pretty much as you say. The measurement for trousers is typically quite a bit smaller.
I work in healthcare and run group sessions where I have to measure men's waists. It's not unusual for a man with a bit of a belly to wear say 38inch trousers but their actual waist measurement is nearer 46.