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 ?

to be fair to men generally, it's very dependent on things they can't necessarily control like quality of school sex education, whether they had sisters or gf who were open about periods, social and educational level and so on.

Bleeding generally is very alarming because it's only normally seen in an accident and lots of blood is associated with life threatening injuries...

so it's probably not a topic that most men want to know more about or are curious to learn... thus it becomes very dependent on their socialising environment.

There is a shocking stat being shared at my daughters (girls and ladies) football club that 50% of teenage girls drop out of sport due to period anxiety. Whilst, a her club, they are working to ensure the girls alway have access to a toilet and sanitary products, given that even in girls sports many of the coaches and club officials are male, if they share some of these beliefs it is not surprising

As a teenager I was going away with a bf. Said I was going to be on my period. He said I wasn't, as it wasn't the first day of the month.

Turns out he has listened in biology, but had mixed up cycle day 1 with calendar day 1.

In relation to this, many women are taken by surprise by how heavy the bleeding is after birth. I don't know why this isn't talked about more. I got a rude awakening having only brought two packs in my hospital bag, and ended up staying for three days. I had to ask my son's father to bring more in, which he didn't do, being an arsehole, so had to grovel for some from the midwives. The NHS don't give them out willingly.

My friend thought this when she started her periods ( well ahead of me). I only knew which way up because she told me how embarrassing it was when her mum heard her squealing in pain every time she changed it.

That's how long a period lasted at my school.

Except double maths. That was two hours and was awful! 😉

When we got our two cats, my DH’s first pets, he went into a meltdown when I said I wanted a boy/girl combo.

Turned out he was panicking about dealing with the female cat’s periods every month, and having to clean up the blood/put her in kitty sanitary nappies or whatever he thought we might need to do. Explaining that spayed cats don’t go into heat, and even unspayed ones in heat reabsorb their womb lining rather than ejecting it, was met with utter relief.

I hate to say it but reabsorption would have been a sooooper-handy evolutionary trait to develop for us humans too.

I definitely didn’t know this!

PS: your son’s dad sounds like he was a right charmer!

So he thought every woman in the entire world had their period at the exact time on the same date for the same number of days...

@Umanresources - When she started she didn’t know what was happening. Her mum pinned a cloth to the front and back of her vest, told her she would be like that until she was 50 and keep away from boys.
She wasn't wrong though, was she 😂

Apparently I don't know what a hymen looks like either. But do I really, really need to know?

Can it? Where is the pain? Belly or more anus region?

I actually don't think that is unreasonable, and your comment makes me question my own understanding. The hymen is always described as something that gets broken when a woman first has sex, or on occasion when riding a bike or horse, resulting in spots of blood, but I have picked that up from period tv dramas (no pun intended). I don't think the hymen was ever mentioned at school.

I recently watched an episode of Salvage Hunters on TV. A couple of middle aged antique experts were interested in an old medical wall chart of the female reproductive system. They bought it thinking it was male.

Saturday night with the lights out. Like Hyacenth and Richard, no doubt. (Sheridan came from somewhere!)

No you can't. You can make it come out quietly but it still comes out.

I never saw any evidence of my mum having periods when I was growing up.

I think she used towels rather than tampons but never saw any. She must have kept them in her bedroom?

I once saw a tv ad for towels when I was 8-9 maybe and asked what they were and my parents just sat in silence ignoring me.

I didn't even tell my mum when I started.

So what does it look like?

If you don't know, why would I???

@Iateallllllthepies

So sorry but that made me LOL … yes you do appear to have attracted some crackers 😂

Encyclopaedia Britannica was my internet and convinced me of syphilis ("vaginal discharge") when my periods started, aged 13. I could not face the family, for the shame I knew I must have brought upon them !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Easier in one way, but you’d need a very accurate advance warning system plus option to postpone .

I'm very open with my husband, although we never have sex during my period as I just don't like it. He is sometimes surprised that I'm on my period again, although I feel the same sometimes but didn't mention it's every 28/30 days.
I'm late 30s and got surprised recently as have been through fertility treatment and had a withdrawal bleed and I had a decidual cast. Scared the crap out of me as it looked like a piece of tissue. Googled and found what it was but they seem to be quite rare and not everything can be covered

That reminds me of the very sad story about Chad Varrah, @Pizdietz, who founded the Samaritans because a young girl took her life thinking exactly the same thing. But that was the 1930s. How old are you and from what kind of background, didn't anyone discuss periods with you?

This occurred to me too!

Teenagers who have just started their periods can get caught out because they are not used to it or their periods are irregular.