To be horrified to learn that there are men .. TMI warning

[Doingtheboxerbeat]

This is not a men bashing thread
There are actual adult men that are unaware that periods can't be controlled like other body fluids and that pads and tampons are there in case of leaks. That we can hold it in until we visit the toilet.

At first I thought bullshit, then I realised, actually how would they know unless someone specifically pointed out the difference. I can't remember ever being told this, because I started in primary school before I learned about it at school.

I discovered this from a Reddit post so probably bs that a single parent man who was probably quite poor and thought that his daughter was wasteful/ too lazy to just not wait to visit the toilet.

I have never in my life met any man that thought this, but then again, I have never asked, but then I think about how many millions of people are uneducated about things that don't really affect them.

This is batshit, right ?

Actually, that makes me a bit squeamish too.

I prefer to imagine that my insides are stuffed with cake.

Not surprising to me unfortunately.
I knew a man recently (my lodger) who thought that applicator tampons were just longer tampons for women with larger vaginas. I learned this because he mentioned a woman he used to live with (not a partner more a lodger situation) had bigger tampons than I did (he was at my house and had seen them in my bathroom, I keep a stash in a jar on the shelf in case anyone visits).

I said no Dave, she probably just used the applicator ones.

'No, no! These weren't with an applicator! They were just tampons, but yours are like, short and fat-hers were long and thin like a cigar'.

'Dave, they'll have been the applicator ones. You don't GET 'long' tampons'.

This repeat X100 until I sent him a link to a website aimed at helping young girls learn about the different sorts of tampons and he read it and realised about applicator/non-applicator tampons.

Same dude also prized a tampon from his dog's mouth once on a walk, and brought it home with him so he could ask me what it was. 😖

My great aunt thought you weed from the same hole you had a baby from. She would NOT have it that that wasn't the case until someone said 'So do you think your baby grows in your bladder with all the wee around it?'

Oh, your poor Nanny.

your poor nanny

😂😂😂😂😂

I remember in school a lad being so confused that our 'tammys' never fell out when we had a wee 😂

I have very heavy periods so need to change every 2-3 hours. On a long car journey, I told my DH that we need to go to a service station (he knew I had my period) and he half joked that couldn’t I just hold it in i.e. blood. I said it’s not like wee! Maybe it just doesn’t occur to some people if they have never had to think about or deal with it?

Please tell me they weren't a uni lecturer.

What a jerk not to believe you.

I remember doing biology at secondary school and being taught that the urethra was separate from the vagina. This was definitely news to me, and I had to check this out for myself by a complicated use of torch and mirror whilst sitting on the toilet. (Mind you, I'd also read a Reader's Digest article called "I Am John's Prostate" and overlooked the fact that only biological men have prostates, so biology lessons had to disabuse me of that too!)

In my defence I was probably only about 12 or 13, and we're talking about the 1970s.

What really annoys me is that all medical students study the same curriculum, which means that all GPs will have the same basic gynae training. But mention a gynae problem and the average male GP develops a look of panic and tells you to come back to see a female colleauge (who may have no medical/academic interest in gynae stuff but hey, that's Womens' Stuff and the men can't be expected to remember it). Obviously many women would choose to see another woman for a gynae matter but sometimes that isn't an option. And the women GPs are usually expected to crack on with examining prostates and testicles if necessary, rather than refer to their male colleagues.

I wonder what has gone wrong somewhere if 'younger' adult men don't know this stuff.

My DP is 60 and knows about periods. I am starting to think that my (and his) generation (I'm in my 50s) are far more clued up about stuff than younger people, despite the fact that everything is basically all now in your face. Maybe it's all so in your face that nobody bothers with the actual biology bit any more - which would give jolly confusing messages.

My DDs shudder and say "ewwwwww" if I mention anything to do with periods, whereas it was perfectly normal for my generation to talk about it. Things seem to be going backwards. Though maybe periods aren't part of the "my oh so perfect life" Instagram "culture".

Don’t these men have partners, mothers, sisters, female friends etc

like maybe having a frank educational chat about menstrual cycles, variables in length etc.

fucking men.

My Grandmother (born in the late 1800s had 6 children but, although all born vaginally, didn't know until number 4 or 5 that it birth was through the vagina. Despite, obviously (maybe) knowing how pregnancy started, she thought that her umbilicus opened up and the baby came that way.

They come out of your grandmother, home help, or a goat? 🤔

But mention a gynae problem and the average male GP develops a look of panic and tells you to come back to see a female colleauge (who may have no medical/academic interest in gynae stuff but hey, that's Womens' Stuff and the men can't be expected to remember it)

That's not my experience at all. But the male GPs at my surgery are my sort of age, and don't assume that it's a "women's thing".

😂😂😂

Was that in her job description?

When we got married my Dh didn't know anything about periods.
He only had a brother and his mum was very reserved.
No sex education in those days.
Fortunately I had given him a run down of everything that happens before our daughter started her periods.

This reminds me of DH.
I said I needed to nip out to get DD more sanitary items.
Confused, he said you bought a pack yesterday. Shouldn't they last her for atleast one period?!

I had to explain to him that no, they need changing multiple times a day, even more so if a woman has a heavy flow how did he not know this?
He said he just didn't listen to period talk as it wasn't his business.

Not even talks we had were remembered.

Yep. Her body, her choice. I find the string wicks urine up into a tampon too. We are all built a bit differently.

Mind you, I'd also read a Reader's Digest article called "I Am John's Prostate"

I learned an awful lot from Reader's Digest! My parents used to leave it lying round the house, so I was happily reading articles about sex at the age of six 😃

Yes op stupid people exist. Are you surprised on the age of Wikipedia when the generations under 35 think they can google a topic in 60 seconds. Imbeciles who have everything at their fingertips but know nothing.

Had a very 😑 convo with a 30 something male colleague as we were discussing stocking the loos with sanpro at work as a community initiative.

He was baffled that women might be caught short or that they’d need to use more than one tampon or pad per period - he thought it was like a poo so you got the urge, went to the loo, then ‘pooed’ out your period for the month and that you could generally hold it if needed.

What's even worse is he tried arguing with me that I was wrong and he was right and that women just exaggerated how much came out!
I’d been having period for 30 years at that stage but no, he knew better. It took me describing a heavy period in detail before he would concede maybe I had a better handle on it than him.

When I was at school the girls had a talk about periods from someone known in our school as "the tampon lady" while the boys did extra PE. We all got a couple of free tampons with a blue plastic case to keep them discretely in our school bags. So I'm not overly surprised that men of around my age don't know much about them.

I remember my now dh asking me about 3 months into our relationship whether I had periods because I didn't complain about them every month like his mum did! We were both young (teens) and I was embarrassed so I just guided his hands away from that area for 5 days every month. Over 25 years later I use reusable pads and period pants so even the postman knows when I'm on my period!

Given that in current year kids are being taught that men can have periods, the level of knowledge isn't likely to improve:

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/4954912-hey-girls-at-it-now

I don't think its surprising, its just not something that comes up in daily conversations and education in this country is shocking.

a boy i knew though a period only lasted an hour