...to be amazed by how little some women know about their bodies?

[Celebelly]

Just an idle thought while browsing Conceptions/Pregnancy forums. Every day there seems to be someone asking 'Could I be pregnant?' with seemingly no idea how their cycle works, when you can realistically get pregnant, etc etc. I really find it quite worrying that education is obviously failing women in this way and that all we seem to be taught is how to deal with periods and nothing else. I really find it astounding that so many women don't seem to understand how ovulation works and how conception takes place. It's not even for conception; it's really valuable for contraception too to understand how a menstrual cycle works. Some of the questions are really mind-boggling.

AIBU to wonder why so many women apparently don't know how their body works? And to wonder what can be done to fix it?

I know how my body works .. but my periods have been erratic for my entire periody life ... so genuinely have no idea where in my cycle I would be!

and I had comprehensive sex ed in years 5,6,7,9,10 & 11

Actually reading your updates about irregular cycles maybe I need to do some research

You might as well ask why some women don't know that the earth is round. Women are people. People are often ignorant. Some will better themselves given the opportunity but many choose not to. Their business as far as I am concerned.

We were told in school that any sex when you didn't have a period meant you could get pregnant. Over and over.

Why would we doubt that?!

And why are we allowed to lie to teenagers about it?

YANBU.

I posted on a thread yesterday where the person was asking if they could get pregnant the day before their period. Their period has actually shown up.

And what's more, they already had a child.

Boggling.

My mum is a nurse and she used to tell me that my discharge was a sign of not cleaning myself properly. I had the internet so I just checked and saw thag she was wrong. She had three children and had no idea that there was such a thing as normal discharge and it can be helpful to point to certain points in your cycle. I dread to think what she was telling her patients.

I have a (potentially really stupid) question on the topic of cycles... can anyone answer it for me?!

I have a period tracking app but am wondering if it's miscalculating my cycle length/period due dates, due to the info I am inputting...

My period is heavy for 3 days and then becomes light, but continues as a REALLY scanty period for a few days. I don't think it's an 'active' period at that stage- just the remaining evidence of it hanging around, if that makes sense?! But still, I enter my period end date as the last day I see these tiny remnants. Sometimes this makes my period 9 days long... but I only feel like the period is 'active' for 6 days usually...

If this makes ANY sense... am I doing the right thing or do you reckon I should input my end date as a couple days before?

AndIn, mine told me it was soap and that i wasn’t rinsing myself properly!

I am slightly surprised there's still so much ignorance. I was born in the 1950s, my mum (a paediatric nurse, in family planning by early 1960s) handed me a simple guide to reproduction as soon as I had mastered Janet and John. No details about fun, just the basic stuff about human mating and how babies were made, how long they took to hatch, and how they were delivered. She followed it with more detailed, but always age appropriate information, on contraception, childbirth, relationships, sexual health and abortion. Nothing on genital mutilation or abnormal stuff though.

I went into superdrug and the shop assistant female had no idea what thrush of bv was she looked way into her 20s

I'm amazed that people are amazed.

I don't give a shit how my cycle works and never needed to find out. So what?

As for health professionals - well of course you know, it's your job. I don't snark at people who don't do my job and therefore don't know the things about my job that I know. Because that's just a bit mean.

And yes, when I was at school you were given The Fear about getting pregnant. You practically just had to look at someone.

I had no idea that it was quite difficult in reality.

Bananafish
"The clinical definition of irregular periods is any cycle that's shorter than 21 days or longer than 36 days."

Eh that's intriguing. I have a 21 day cycle, but it's a perfectly regular, set your watch by it cycle (or at least it was last time I checked - mirena). Is that automatically irregular even if it's regular?

My GP told me she checks people know how to have sex after having a young couple who thought they were infertile.

Yep. Friend of mine is an ob/gyn and has been able to solve "infertility" with a discreet conversation and a diagram. I'm sure everybody cheered up no end after these appointments, apart from anything else!

I hoped maybe it was a one off.

good grief.

I have sex with many women and am always surprised at not only how little they know their bodies - but also how little they want to know. Female sexual organs are fairly complicated and also not fully understood so it’s worth educating yourself on how sexual responses actually work, how the body changes with arousal etc. Lots to know! And very fascinating.

I'm miffed how many women get pregnant so quickly after giving birth and claim they didn't realise they could.

I didn't claim it - I actually didn't know it I do now though and I've told all my DDs

My mother is like this.

A friend's OH had a vasectomy recently - I mentioned it to my mother- she is under the impression that vasectomy and castration are the same things.
When I was 15 I asked my mother what a smear test was- her explanation put me off for years and was something like this

^ Well the doctor gets something like an umbrella and puts it up your womb, opens it up and scrapes everything out*

Yikes!

I didn’t know how large an organ the clitoris is until last year as the internal part isn’t really discussed.

Elephant17 does your app have a 'spotting' option? I used to use that when my period was very light at the beginning or end and it doesn't show as your period proper IYSWIM.

Apart from all the above pp discussions about periods, which got a bit off topic but no less valid for that :

'Could I be pregnant?' posts.

I've had sex in January, and it's july/August I've not had a period for ages, my boobs are a bit tender.

No love, it's probably indigestion.

beyond if you're on hormonal contraception then cycle length is less relevant, as the artificial hormones can affect it

21 day cycles might be a concern if they were a natural cycle and you were TTC because that would suggest either a very early ovulation (and egg wouldn't have time to mature properly) or a very short luteal phase, which would suggest a hormone imbalance of some kind.

But maybe that's not the case for you and you've always had 21 day cycles and you conceived very easily. Every body is different!

YABU, on paper its easy to work out how to get/possibly be pregnant but its not gospel, you can Ovulate early/late, semen can live for days etc etc, I would rather women be supportive on those threads.

Because we have all been continually told if you ever at any point have unprotected sex you could get pregnant ....... always.... repeatedly by everyone everywhere. You only know how hard it is and about fertile times when you try to get pregnant. Go tell the health secretary to change the strap line .... oh no better not or we'd end up with SHITLOADS of unwanted pregnancies!!!