Page 12 | Genuine question - can trans women experience cramps during their ‘time of the month’?

Picklemeyellow · 2023-12-29T10:42:00+00:00

This is a genuine question as I am baffled. I looking on Tik Tok last night (don’t judge me, I’m addicted lol)and I notice on my For You section there is often a trans women doing live Q&A’s. I stopped and watched for a while, out of curiosity tbh as DH has a couple of transgender people in his family and I do try to remain as ‘on the fence’ as possible with this subject. However, this person on TT said something which does not make much sense to me. They were saying they take HRT and this gives them ‘a time of the month’ when they experience a very emotional dip and have crying spells and feel low etc. I suppose that may make some sense due to the hormones they take but then they went on to say they also experience cramping during this time and started rubbing their lower tummy in the area where a woman’s uterus is located. It was difficult to establish why this happens because anyone actually questioning this gets blocked and only those agreeing with them get to stay to ask questions! I appreciate they probably receive some very negative replies but blocking doesn’t answer the questions to people who really would like to know. I genuinely can not understand where the cramps would originate in a person without female anatomy? As someone who has been under the gynae department for 20+ years, has had to live their live around horrendous periods, has had endless hysteroscopies and uterine polyp removals, ovulation so painful I couldn’t sit properly, a failed uterine ablation, going through an awful perimenopause and now, at 50 only just discovering this is probably all due to the fact I actually have endometriosis and adenomyosis and have been gas lit for all this time having being told that some women just have awful periods etc, I more than understand where my cramps and pain come from. From my shit malfunctioning uterus and hormones which have never been my friend. But where would a trans woman’s ‘time of the month’ cramps come from? What part of their body cramps due to the addition of female hormones? I’ve tried googling this but there’s very little. Can the hormones cramp the muscles or bowel in this area or something similar?

user1471538283 · 29/12/2023 17:17

Dear god we can't even have period pain now!

I'm on HRT now after 40 sodding years of periods and my moods are completely stable so I also don't get why HRT is causing mood swings.

It really annoys me all this appropriating.

SirChenjins · 29/12/2023 17:18

@Sladurche the term is disorder of sex (or sexual) development or DSD, rather than intersex.

Caster Samenya is biologically male.

NoBinturongsHereMate · 29/12/2023 18:17

Sladurche · 29/12/2023 16:49

I firmly believe that people who believe they are trans do so because they genuinely feel more at home behaving and looking the way that society deems "masculine" or "feminine". Gender is a load of old bollocks because it's a social construct- it's made up. No-one's sex should be associated with defined behaviour or appearance- a masculine or feminine stereotype. You don't wear skirts and act submissive because you're a girl biologically; you've been socially conditioned to look and act that way and you have always felt comfortable doing so. Men don't act dominant, repress their feelings and wear their hair short because of their biology; they've been socially conditioned to look and act that way and feel comfortable doing that. They've been told, from a baby that that's what it means to be the sex they are. But it isn't real. "gender" is something that changes and can be completely different in one culture to another.

The real problem is conflating sex with "gender"- being brought up from a baby with a defined "gender" - being told they have to look/dress/behave a certain way because of their biology. If any child decides that they don't like that "gender" - "actually I have a willy, but like playing dolls with the girls, wearing dresses and having my hair long" all hell breaks loose. They are punished, told they are wrong, teased and rejected. And there is the problem- adults' anger, inflexibility and extreme reaction and non-acceptance. I'm pretty sure the "trans" identity has been created as a backlash in order for the vulnerable majority to try and find a way to be accepted for who they want to be.

A small minority of male sex fetishists and perverts have latched on to this as a way of being able to abuse.

I liked climbing trees, doing bike stunts and playing football with the boys as a child. I hated dresses and long hair. I liked wearing dungarees. Never acted "ladylike". Was always covered in mud and wanted to be Spiderman or a car mechanic when I grew up. I wanted a Fisher Price car garage or a Skalextric for Christmas. Never got one. Was not allowed. Because I was a girl. I got bought Barbies and Tiny Tears and dresses. I was called a "tomboy". These days I might have been diagnosed as transmale. The problem with that is that I'm a straight, cis woman; albeit one who hates pink and like a pint of Guinness.

Because of the aforementioned minority of abusers mentioned earlier; instead of looking at our own cruel behaviour towards people who don't want to look and act a pre-defined way; we are getting reactive and angry; reinforcing those strict gender stereotypes with our kids constantly and blaming those who feel that way for it. We want biological sex to be defined and encoded in law. We want to restrict people's rights because of it. This not only affects "trans" people, but also those 1.7% of the population who are biologically intersex.

Men are the main perpetrators of violence - whether that is towards men or women. That's not biology that's caused that- that's gender stereotypes. Sports are gendered- even chess and shooting. That's gender stereotypes. Patriarchy and misogyny is the product of strict gendered society and upbringing.

There are some things that need to be based on biology- illness, medical treatment and research, safety features based on physiological attributes, and to a certain extent- sports that rely on physical strength and endurance (although there should be some way of putting those sports into "classes" based on physical attributes in order to not exclude those who are biologically intersex, or people like Castor Semenya who is biologically cis female with abnormal testosterone).

Refuges should be sex-based. Prisons should be sex-based. Bathrooms, baby and child rooms and changing rooms should be gender-neutral single, lockable cubicles. Schools should be teaching that children are children and not teaching "gender" or social stereotypes.

Otherwise, I believe the trans ideology will become the only "safe" or "accepted" way that people can be who they feel they are and it will only become bigger, more extreme and more vocal; leading to more stupid things like what OP saw on TikTok being posted. Yes, female hormones do have side effects on men- including on their moods, breasts and on their bowels which can come and go. No, it cannot make you experience periods.

That started well.

Gender is not sex. It's a product of time and culture, not innate. It's a ridiculous patriarchal construct and forcing people into boxes based on superficial personality differences is oppressive, regressive bollocks. Yes! (Of course, claiming to be in the other box based on those same superficialities is equally regressive, and acts to reinforce the boxes.)

Para 5 - who is this 'we'? It's certainly not gender-critical feminists, who still want to smash the boxes, as our feminist foremothers did.

Sex-based rights are indeed based on sex. And for good reason. Enforcing them is not resteicting people's rights because of their gender, it's protecting them when they have a need because of their sex. They don't just affect trans people, or trans and 'intersex' people. They affect (and protect) everyone - because we all have a sex.

'Intersex' is misleading, and generally considered offensive. It was replaced 20 years ago by 'differences of sex development'.

Everyone with a DSD still has a sex. They are not somewhere inbetween. Indeed, the vast majority of DSDs are sex linked - only people of 1 sex can get that spexific type of DSD.

The proportion of people with a DSD is not 1.7%. The study that gave that figure has been repeatedly debunked, and included all sorts of illnesses related to the reproductive system or sex characteristics that nobody would consider to be DSDs (things like PCOS or endometriosis are not DSDs) as well as very minor malformations of the genitalia. It would be like claiming x% of people are not bipedal and counting those born with an extra toe.

People with DSDs and the organisations that represent them have repeatedly asked to kept out of the trans debate because there is no link between the 2 (the Tavistock originally screened everyone presenting to the gender clinic for DSDs; they stopped because there was no link).

Sports are not gendered, they're divided by sex (or were until they recently tied themseleves into ridiculous knots because they had forgotten why they are divided that way). This is almost always because men and women have different biological limits.

In a very small number of cases (including chess) women are not at a physical disadvantage but do face higher social barriers - this is a result of gender, but the solution is not to divide competitions by gender instead of sex - it is to eliminate those barriers. And then have mixed sex competition (but it does have to be done in that order).

Semenya does have a DSD. One, as PPs have explained, that only affects men. And should therefore not be included in women's sports.

Dividing most sports by sex-blind physical categories is simply not possible. There are too many variables. It's not just height and weight, but lung capacity, proportion of fast-twitch muscle fibres, grip strength, skull thickness, bone density, Q angles ... and endless other things that still differ even in men and.women matched for overall size. You'd end up with categories of 1 person each.

Refuges/prisons divided by sex, children are children, men don't have periods. Yes - we're back in agreement there.

MistyWitch · 29/12/2023 18:37

Uhm, NO.

No uterus to contract to dispel lining = no cramping.

Also no "cycle" or "hormone dips" as they take a regular, consistent amount of wrong sex hormones. No high low level days.

Like most men they probably just need to fart.

DingleDangleDogAndBone · 29/12/2023 18:46

Absolute bollocks.
Dave the trucker from hull who likes to put on a dress and call himself Mandy on Sundays is no more likely to have any kind of gynae stuff than I am to grow a dick!
Sick of all this fucking hand wringing over them.
They're not women, they'll never be women so stop acting like they're women.
When it comes to sports, all those born females in the team should simply stop playing until those men are banned from playing and competing in women's, born women's, sports.

AlisonDonut · 29/12/2023 18:58

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Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g · 29/12/2023 19:08

Waitingfordoggo · 29/12/2023 13:55

Tired of seeing period cramps represented as something we indulge ourselves in like its an excuse to sit curled up in jammies, crying about boys with a hot water bottle and bar of chocolate.

Yes. This is exactly the trope that these men latch on to. I’ve seen it on many a TW’s TikTok. They want to snuggle under a blanket and cry at romcoms while someone brings them chocolate- they think this is what periods are about because they’ve seen it on telly. They like this idea of being a helpless victim who needs cosseting. It goes hand in hand with the female = submissive idea they enjoy and thus is probably also linked to the not uncommon fetish for sissy porn. This is what they actually ‘identify’ with- not womanhood. You soon realise when you listen to these people that they see women as two-dimensional characters made up of stereotypes, and have no real idea what our lives are like.

Edited

Agreed.

Years ago on Twitter I saw someone, probably a transwoman, but possibly an activist who didn't herself/himself identify as trans, loftily waving away the idea that shedding blood is an essential component of having a period. Incidental, apparently. As a woman who had endometriosis and only finally had relief from it when I was through the menopause, this made my blood boil. Dealing with the blood and associated physical issues is the main event! Even if I'd never experienced any pain, flooding, periods starting unexpectedly or lasting for nearly a fortnight and so on would all have been a nightmare.

DeeLusional · 29/12/2023 19:14

No, men in frocks don't get menstrual cramps.

Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g · 29/12/2023 19:20

Also: it isn't KIND to train your children of either sex to ignore their instincts and switch off their critical faculties. It's actually very UNKIND.

As for conflating this with being same-sex attracted, come on. Lesbians, gay men and bisexual people just ask to be treated the same as everyone else. Nobody has to pretend they're something they're not and re-train themselves to use common English words with different meanings.

Which leads me on to - what are the limits of self-ID? I am a white British/Scottish woman in my early 60s. I am shortsighted and not all that fit, but basically able-bodied. If I decided to identify as a 30-year-old or as a child, would that be OK? If I identified as belonging to a minority ethnic group or as having a disability I manifestly don't have, is that OK? If on the strength of one of those last two things, I got a good job representing people from that ethnic group or living with that disability, would that be OK? I'd say I really, really empathise with what they've gone through and I've read up all about it and it's just an accident of birth that up to now I haven't had the body to match how I feel in my head.

And before people say 'It's different! Nobody's doing any of that!', oh yes they are.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rachel_Dolezal

https://www.mercatornet.com/six-year-old-transgender-stefonknee-wolscht-where-is-he-now

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-46425774

https://nypost.com/2023/04/29/transabled-people-choosing-to-identify-as-handicapped/

Rachel Dolezal - Wikipedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rachel_Dolezal

SquirrelSoShiny · 29/12/2023 20:23

Waitingfordoggo · 29/12/2023 13:55

Tired of seeing period cramps represented as something we indulge ourselves in like its an excuse to sit curled up in jammies, crying about boys with a hot water bottle and bar of chocolate.

Yes. This is exactly the trope that these men latch on to. I’ve seen it on many a TW’s TikTok. They want to snuggle under a blanket and cry at romcoms while someone brings them chocolate- they think this is what periods are about because they’ve seen it on telly. They like this idea of being a helpless victim who needs cosseting. It goes hand in hand with the female = submissive idea they enjoy and thus is probably also linked to the not uncommon fetish for sissy porn. This is what they actually ‘identify’ with- not womanhood. You soon realise when you listen to these people that they see women as two-dimensional characters made up of stereotypes, and have no real idea what our lives are like.

Edited

This is such an interesting post and I think you're bang on. The transwoman I know best was really very clearly running scared from typical 'male' roles like breadwinner / provider. He's a very obviously autistic male who had a difficult childhood, has few friends and a chequered job history. He is more interested in being a 'girl' than a woman. It's almost like he thinks he will get more nurturing by presenting in this way. Unfortunately it just makes him more likely to be rejected because to be honest he just comes across as creepy.

Whatsnewpussyhat · 29/12/2023 20:30

I’m fairly on the fence with trans, I have to be a dd identifies as non-binary, but this takes the piss. It sort of just ‘proves’ than men can’t be women - they can pretend all they like, but they’re not women who have to put up with the period shite for 40-odd years

So you know the men are pretending to be women but happily go along with the utter batshit that is 'non binary' because your DD wants to pretend they are not female?

Non binary is made up nonsense by girls who hate puberty or attention seeking narcs like sam smith who are so privileged that they need to quite literally make up their own oppression so they can claim to be badly done to when people won't validate their fantasy role play.

It is not kind to 'validate' illusion or delusion.

BMW6 · 29/12/2023 20:52

I'd happily wish every fucking agonising contraction I ever experienced on these wankers.
I've never given birth, but my sis who suffered same godawful periods as me did have 2 children, and said period pain was worse.

That'd show them the difference between fantasy and the reality of being female.

Irritating, know nothing fuckers.

echt · 29/12/2023 21:35

Not RTFT but the most charitable interpretation of any such claims by transwomen, i.e. men is that it is a species of couvade, though the experience of couvade is not claimed by men claiming to be women, but men being men,

that is, horning in yet again on women's experience

NoBinturongsHereMate · 29/12/2023 21:49

That is an exceptionally charitable explanation.

Italianita · 29/12/2023 22:47

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Rainbowshit · 29/12/2023 23:56

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Oh jeez don't give them ideas!!

supercalie · 30/12/2023 03:42

Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g · 29/12/2023 19:20

Also: it isn't KIND to train your children of either sex to ignore their instincts and switch off their critical faculties. It's actually very UNKIND.

As for conflating this with being same-sex attracted, come on. Lesbians, gay men and bisexual people just ask to be treated the same as everyone else. Nobody has to pretend they're something they're not and re-train themselves to use common English words with different meanings.

Which leads me on to - what are the limits of self-ID? I am a white British/Scottish woman in my early 60s. I am shortsighted and not all that fit, but basically able-bodied. If I decided to identify as a 30-year-old or as a child, would that be OK? If I identified as belonging to a minority ethnic group or as having a disability I manifestly don't have, is that OK? If on the strength of one of those last two things, I got a good job representing people from that ethnic group or living with that disability, would that be OK? I'd say I really, really empathise with what they've gone through and I've read up all about it and it's just an accident of birth that up to now I haven't had the body to match how I feel in my head.

And before people say 'It's different! Nobody's doing any of that!', oh yes they are.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rachel_Dolezal

https://www.mercatornet.com/six-year-old-transgender-stefonknee-wolscht-where-is-he-now

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-46425774

https://nypost.com/2023/04/29/transabled-people-choosing-to-identify-as-handicapped/

This.

Baldieheid · 30/12/2023 08:16

We need to stop teaching our daughters to "be kind". Be kind can fuck right off.

Be kind got a female in a female hospital ward raped by a male patient who claimed he was a woman.

Be kind put Adam Graham in a female prison after raping 2 women.

Be kind allowed Jordan whatzisface to strip naked and whack a piano keyboard with his flaccid little cock on live tv whilst singing about how he was a better woman than any of us.

JFC.

No, a male of any kind cannot, and will never, experience any sort of female reproductive pain or symptoms.

If anyone truly thinks that, then how the fuck do you manage to walk and talk at the same time?

DewHopper · 30/12/2023 10:03

Baldieheid · 30/12/2023 08:16

We need to stop teaching our daughters to "be kind". Be kind can fuck right off.

Be kind got a female in a female hospital ward raped by a male patient who claimed he was a woman.

Be kind put Adam Graham in a female prison after raping 2 women.

Be kind allowed Jordan whatzisface to strip naked and whack a piano keyboard with his flaccid little cock on live tv whilst singing about how he was a better woman than any of us.

JFC.

No, a male of any kind cannot, and will never, experience any sort of female reproductive pain or symptoms.

If anyone truly thinks that, then how the fuck do you manage to walk and talk at the same time?

THIS.

ILostMyself · 30/12/2023 10:42

Baldieheid · 30/12/2023 08:16

We need to stop teaching our daughters to "be kind". Be kind can fuck right off.

Be kind got a female in a female hospital ward raped by a male patient who claimed he was a woman.

Be kind put Adam Graham in a female prison after raping 2 women.

Be kind allowed Jordan whatzisface to strip naked and whack a piano keyboard with his flaccid little cock on live tv whilst singing about how he was a better woman than any of us.

JFC.

No, a male of any kind cannot, and will never, experience any sort of female reproductive pain or symptoms.

If anyone truly thinks that, then how the fuck do you manage to walk and talk at the same time?

👏👏👏

TripleDaisySummer · 30/12/2023 12:04

I've never given birth, but my sis who suffered same godawful periods as me did have 2 children, and said period pain was worse.

I've had three labours - only pain relief was gas and air in first pg - got to 10cm dilatated unaware I was in labour because everyone said Braxton hicks were like period pains and I'd say same period pain pre kids was worse.

I saw multiple GP over a decade all just shoved pill at me and dismissed my increase anxiety when on it as imagined - even just before TTC they shoved me on the pill to sort out ridiculous heavily bleeding and associated exhaustion. I got lucky pg and bf sorted out my system for a long time - but meri menopause is fucking it up again and now it have a hormonal IUD I don't want it there nothing else they can do. I probably could now due to age start a fight for HRT but think it will be a fight.

I hate the be kind shit - DD2 got taught by her primary school to ignore strangers making her feel uncomfortable or feel in danger - spent years trying to undo that shit. As a grown woman I listen to those feeling and either get out of have an exit strategy - teaching a preteen girl just starting to out with friends her own age or by herself to ignore those signals is criminally dangerous.

Northernsouloldies · 30/12/2023 12:21

NHS SCOTLAND.. some hospitals have free sanpro in the gents toilets wonder how much that brainwave cost and a non starter, men don't require sanpro.

Baldieheid · 30/12/2023 12:47

I'm a council tenant for my business and yes, in Scotland they put tampons and towels in the men's toilets as well as the women's. One tenant runs art classes, and one of her class studdnts is a teenage girl who believes she'd rather be a boy. We're not sure which toilet she uses but all the male tenants have expressed their discomfort about potentially having her walk in whilst they use the urinals. Hadn't yet happened, and she may well use the women's loos, but it's something they're concerned about. She's 14. They don't want her in there with them.

This is what "be kind" can lead to. It really does need to be parked up and left in the past, along with being a "good girl" and "calm down, dear".

MollsDolls · 30/12/2023 12:55

Tired of seeing period cramps represented as something we indulge ourselves in like its an excuse to sit curled up in jammies, crying about boys with a hot water bottle and bar of chocolate

Hollywood story there. If only as women we had the time for the above. I'd be so happy to hand over the baton if I could. Who in their right mind would want the pain, trauma and let's face it the damn right hassle periods bring. I'd like to see any man bleed daily for 14 weeks and are flooded from the walk from front door to the car, pass clots so big that you nearly pass out, have the javelin like pain shoot up your arse so bad that it winds you and then to alleviate but not cure the issues have your uterus wall scrapped and lasered or to bleed for 10 days on & 4 off for months on end til you are finally diagnosed as peri. If they want them they can fcuking have them imo.

raspberrycardigan · 30/12/2023 13:12

Will they so enthusiastically embrace menopause though?!

Genuine question - can trans women experience cramps during their ‘time of the month’?

Interested in this thread?