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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To think periods are a terrible design flaw in the human race

207 replies

CrumpledCrumpet · 17/12/2021 14:28

Humans are quite remarkably cleverly designed creatures. Binocular vision, opposable thumbs, walking upright - we’ve got it all going on. But honestly, who came up with periods?

AIBU to think this is a massive design fault and someone needs to go back to the drawing board and come up with something better?

OP posts:
Mix56 · 17/12/2021 20:34

Mufasa, really, do you really think most women could say NO in former generations ?

parsleydog · 17/12/2021 20:37

Agree. I also think one's uterus should be on the shoulder blades. Like a backpack.

Mufasa1118 · 17/12/2021 20:38

@NeverDropYourMooncup what are you laughing at? Care to elaborate?
.

Warblerinwinter · 17/12/2021 20:41

@Feetupteashot

Better than laying an egg tho
I’m not convinced by that argument 🤔😯😏
Mufasa1118 · 17/12/2021 20:41

@NeverDropYourMooncup the overwhelmingly popular opinion of periods is that they are awful.

If any woman ever says that she enjoys her period, she usually gets mocked.

Isn't that so strange.? Why is it like that?

I really enjoy my period. I really enjoy the cyclical nature and that it shows the am in good health. I am very grateful that it shows that I have enough to eat. I know other women that really enjoy menstruation too. It is a beautiful natural process.

2oldfordrama · 17/12/2021 20:42

They serve a function so they’re not a design flaw, they’re an inconvenience. I’m guessing early hominids would have given signals of not having been impregnated yet with their period, much like animals in heat give off their signals. It reminds us that for all we have the capability of making informed choices about behaviours etc we are still at the heart of it just another animal.

Iggly · 17/12/2021 20:43

It’s because society is not designed for us as humans.

Mufasa1118 · 17/12/2021 20:45

I actually like the feeling too. Last time I had a period I stopped, sat down and really felt what was happening in my womb. I could feel my womb contracting. It felt miraculous to me. It is a part of the circle of life. It is part of our femininity.

We have been told by male - driven media that periods are bad dirty and inconvenient. If you actually sit down and connect with your own body you will see that it is an important and incredible time

Tal45 · 17/12/2021 20:46

Yep I hate periods they are shit. I never know when mine is going to turn up, sleep really badly around my period, have bad stomach cramps, get spots and my moods are all over the place. I'm 46 and looking forward to the menopause just to get rid of the bloody things. They don't feel feminine, they just feel messy and gross to me.

Why can't we have a sign of good health that isn't shit, like glowing skin or something. We really don't need periods to tell us we're healthy, men manage perfectly well without them to tell them they're healthy.

TabithaTiger · 17/12/2021 20:47

[quote Mufasa1118]@NeverDropYourMooncup the overwhelmingly popular opinion of periods is that they are awful.

If any woman ever says that she enjoys her period, she usually gets mocked.

Isn't that so strange.? Why is it like that?

I really enjoy my period. I really enjoy the cyclical nature and that it shows the am in good health. I am very grateful that it shows that I have enough to eat. I know other women that really enjoy menstruation too. It is a beautiful natural process.[/quote]
I feel the same, although I know that I'm lucky in the mine are not painful or too heavy. I may feel different if they were.

I like to know my body is working as it should be. I feel much happier now I have natural periods. I had the coil for a few years and it felt really unnatural not to bleed.

getsomehelp · 17/12/2021 20:47

Mufasa, Not in my world. ever

Tal45 · 17/12/2021 20:50

[quote Mufasa1118]@NeverDropYourMooncup the overwhelmingly popular opinion of periods is that they are awful.

If any woman ever says that she enjoys her period, she usually gets mocked.

Isn't that so strange.? Why is it like that?

I really enjoy my period. I really enjoy the cyclical nature and that it shows the am in good health. I am very grateful that it shows that I have enough to eat. I know other women that really enjoy menstruation too. It is a beautiful natural process.[/quote]
I don't need a period to tell me if I'm getting enough to eat or not. My stomach tells me that. I guess people generally don't understand your point of view because it is so far away from their own experience, I don't know anyone who enjoys their period.

Fomofo · 17/12/2021 20:50

It feels unnatural not to bleed, so prepuberty, pregnancy and post menopause are not natural

Warblerinwinter · 17/12/2021 20:53

[quote Cattenberg]Enjoy this horrifying article!

www.tickld.com/wow/1912350/wefthe-real-reason-women-have-periods/[/quote]
Gosh, that was interesting

Mufasa1118 · 17/12/2021 20:55

@Fomofo I'm sure she meant it felt unnatural not to bleed as an adult woman, so you can strike prepuberty off that list.

You know that you can technically stop menstruation if you really hate it that much. You can take the pill back to back, or there are other things you can do too.

You don't HAVE to menstruate. You have a choice to stop it if you want.

Are you going to do something to stop your menstruation?

scottishnames · 17/12/2021 21:04

Ye gods, fomofo of course the menopause is natural. So, of course, are the years after it. They might not be productive of children, but they most certainly exist.
Of course details change from place to place and time to time, but in Europe, for many centuries, the menopause most denitely existed and was regarded as natural.

Mufasa1118 · 17/12/2021 21:06

Another really important thing that we all need to do to change our thinking on is this:

Current (male driven) society teaches us that menstrual blood is a waste product. And it teaches us to collect the blood in pads and tampons and throw it in the rubbish

Menstrual blood is not a waste product. It is a very, very powerful fluid.
To help us to connect more with our periods, it is good for us not to throw our blood in the trash, it is good to use menstrual blood for something.

More and more women now are collecting their blood in menstrual cups and giving it to plants, giving it back to nature..

Ancient tribes respected menstrual blood. It is only in our current society that we have forgotten how powerful and amazing it is.

Im just reading an article online - it says the ancient Lakota tribe believed menstrual blood to be so powerful that it could weaken the strength of warriors or interfere with a healer’s ability to heal. They would return their sacred blood to the Earth by putting their blood on their seeds.

I know more and more women lately who are putting their menstrual blood on plants, there are loads of women online doing this - if you look online.

BewareTheRedNosedDragon · 17/12/2021 21:06

@Atmywitsend29

If modern medicine left us to our own devices in regards to childbirth, how many of us would have died in childbirth still? I'd have died at 20 years old because my baby was large, overdue, and back to back and I had to have an emcs. My sister has had episiotomies with both of her babies and pre-emptive antibiotics. Probably would have died of sepsis way back when. And our inefficient pelvises would cease to exist in the gene pool Grin
Yes, both I and ds1 would have died: me of bloodloss, him of infection.

I would also have died along with my twin dc2+3 as they got stuck and needed a c-section. Non nonsense African nun/midwife got me over my reluctance to agree to the surgery by telling me about her sister back home who had been in the same situation without access to a hospital and had died along with her dc Sad

Only with dc4 would we both have survived, but obv we wouldn't have because I'd have been long gone and she'd never even have been conceived.

The main thing I always thing each month is that it would be soooo much more convenient to be able to control the flow so that you could just release it like a wee into the loo, but I suppose expecting evolution to predict the invention of the water closet is a step too far.

Fomofo · 17/12/2021 21:09

We leak some dark liquid out of one of our orifices and we are meant to feel joy at that because it's part of procreation? give it to the men

OnTheBoardwalk · 17/12/2021 21:11

I do think there's a lot more that could be done in this space to help us

I remember going to the Dr aged 16 with life impacting pain and bleeding. I was told by him having a baby would sort out my periods 😠

Years later I finally found a great Dr who referred me for tests and came up with a plan to help me. Recent times I’m now on mini pill and haven’t bled for years.

I do occasionally get a new dr/locum who thinks they’ve got a better solution (cash for coil scheme) I show them a pictures on my phone, bit gross but soon shuts them up

I

Mufasa1118 · 17/12/2021 21:13

@Fomofo so why don't you take the pill to stop your menstruation altogether? You can do that

I am curious

BewareTheRedNosedDragon · 17/12/2021 21:19

It is lovely that some women can appreciate and even enjoy their periods.

I don't like the inference that having the wrong attitude makes your period experience worse. Imo that is like those who had a nice easy natural birth spouting that everyone could do that if they just did x.y.z when the reality is they were lucky and not everyone can.

If you can enjoys yourself periods you are lucky.

If you can't that is also ok. No-one should be told it is their attitude that makes periods a negative experience for them.

BewareTheRedNosedDragon · 17/12/2021 21:20

Enjoy your - not enjoys yourself Confused

bibliomania · 17/12/2021 21:22

I'm grateful for the reference to the CBD tampons above - have ordered some for dd (I'm a mooncup fan myself).

AskingQuestionsAllTheTime · 17/12/2021 21:24

@1concernedmummy

It's only recently.in the last 100 years with the invention of contraception that women have started to have regular periods.

Prior to contraception, women would have been almost constantly pregnant or breastfeeding.so would have had very few periods across their life compared to modern women.

1concernedmummy It's only recently.in the last 100 years with the invention of contraception

Condoms made from animal membrane were found in a cesspit in the grounds of Dudley Castle, probably having been used by Cavaliers during the Civil War.

And before that, Egyptian women were using pessaries, which may actually have worked. This might explain why Cleopatra had no children by her husband-brothers.

You can bet that something existed if there are moves to pass laws against it; that's how we know when playing-cards became popular (and we can trace them across Europe from year to year by the legal rules against their use). There was an attempt to get a law enacted against condoms in 1708 in England, as well as a doctor publishing against them about ten years later on the grounds that they might prevent pregnancy but they were not fully effective against syphilis. By the 1770s condoms were for sale in barbers' shops, pubs and theatres. Casanova (died in 1774) used them, and used to test them for holes by inflating them before putting them on.