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Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Trans women do not have periods.

684 replies

zaazaazoo · 19/12/2023 18:12

According to period pants maker Modibodi, transwomen can have 'periods'. Periods which are just as valid apparently.

Whilst I'm not going to suggest I know what hormone treatment tied to a trans woman, I can confidently say that no, they don't have periods. Periods involve blood. Trans women don't bleed.

Modibodi seem to acknowledge that there is no bleeding involved I transwomen's 'periods' but bizarrely under a section on how to manage their periods, trans women should wear period pants. For the life of all God's WHY???! Wtf would wear period pants if they didn't have to?

OP posts:
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WickDittington · 19/12/2023 20:55

The article to which @lifeturnsonadime has linked shows how utterly ignorant Modibodi are about women's physiology. They say guff such as

"Some trans women don’t have uteruses, so they won’t bleed as part of a monthly menstrual cycle. But the hormonal experience of menstruation can still be very real. "

Menstruation is not just about bleeding and hormonal cycles: it's a part of the way that women's bodies are organised around the role we play in reproduction of the species.

You can't just separate out the bleeding, or the hormonal cycle - menstruation is an organic part of the human female mammalian physiology from menarche to menopause.

The hormones trans-identified men might take are not HRT - they are not 'replacing' hormones which used to be there. They are adding in opposite-sex artificial hormones.

Also 'some transwomen don't have uteruses???? How about "No transwoman has a uterus"

momonpurpose · 19/12/2023 20:55

SarcasmAndCoffee · 19/12/2023 18:18

Absolute facts

Agreed. It's madness

DontGoGran · 19/12/2023 20:57

Also 'some transwomen don't have uteruses???? How about "No transwoman has a uterus"

@WickDittington thank you for this, I thought I was being a bit dim!

IamfeelingSad · 19/12/2023 20:58

zaazaazoo · 19/12/2023 18:12

According to period pants maker Modibodi, transwomen can have 'periods'. Periods which are just as valid apparently.

Whilst I'm not going to suggest I know what hormone treatment tied to a trans woman, I can confidently say that no, they don't have periods. Periods involve blood. Trans women don't bleed.

Modibodi seem to acknowledge that there is no bleeding involved I transwomen's 'periods' but bizarrely under a section on how to manage their periods, trans women should wear period pants. For the life of all God's WHY???! Wtf would wear period pants if they didn't have to?

Zaazaazoo - maybe if you could get your first post to be edited to include modibodys article link where they give transwomen advice on their period being valid as anyone else’s and how they should buy period knickers it might help some posters confusion if that’s ok with you.

Melroses · 19/12/2023 20:58

Nowhere in that article does it explain they should be taking their medications consistently and going to the doctor to get it altered if it is causing symptoms.

But then they would't get to sell them superfluous pants.

MrsTwatInAHat · 19/12/2023 20:59

people who seem to be completely over invested on what underwear someone else is wearing, when it has absolutely no affect on your daily lives.

This is straw manning and misrepresenting the complaint.

I don’t care if some random bloke walking past is wearing period pants because he gets off on it. I have no time for his fetish at all but I’m not going to know.

I DO object to a company doing publicity pieces featuring people who can’t have periods and telling me, a woman, that a male’s “period” is as “valid” as mine. That’s insulting and in any other comparable context people would be able to see that, as I and others have pointed out.

Shall I try another example? If a company making products for Afro hair featured Rachel dolezal or another white person who “identifies” as black, and instructed its customers that she is black and her “afro” hair is as “valid” as theirs, you could see why they might be pissed off and insulted… right?

lifeturnsonadime · 19/12/2023 20:59

Mornusting · 19/12/2023 20:55

You don't see the bigger picture do you?

I think WestendvBroadway is speaking straight out of the TRA playbook. This is a similar argument used to allowing males in single sex spaces such as toilets and sports by stating that we would need to do genital checks which is utter nonsense.

Of course it's a fetish to pretend you have periods if you don't have a uterus.

WickDittington · 19/12/2023 21:00

Your extremism isn't helping anyone.

It's extremism to say that males don't have periods???!!!!!!

Did you sleep through all your biology lessons?

Finteq · 19/12/2023 21:00

AppleChristsBirthdayMacchiato · 19/12/2023 20:27

To be fair posters throughout this thread have conflated two different things:

The "All Gender" product page linked on page 1 which features a transmale model (who at least one poster wrongly believed was a natal male).

The blog entry "Tips for navigating your period as a trans woman" which was not linked till later on in the thread.

I don't think posters are necessarily wrong for getting the two confused, since some people are offended by the use of "all-gender." But yes, the site does very explicitly refer to side effects of artificial hormones given to transwomen as being "periods" which is obviously not okay.

And then tells transwomen to buy modibodi pants to feel better.

GrouchyKiwi · 19/12/2023 21:00

It's just so bonkers, and obviously about the money.

DD1 is nearing period age and I was looking at Modibodi as an option. Will now have to look further. (And avoid the other companies owned by Essity, as PP has pointed out.)

I'm extra irritated about this today as I'm on my period and it's fucking painful and exhausting, and not just fucking hormonal fluctuations.

Lovemusic82 · 19/12/2023 21:01

Where does it actually say “trans women”? Pretty sure it doesn’t? It’s aimed at trans men who do have periods? They make boxer shorts for trans men that have periods and women/girls who have periods. I can’t see anything that implies trans women have periods.

DrBlackbird · 19/12/2023 21:01

Mornusting · 19/12/2023 19:01

There are ones for transmen where they can add a "packer" which is fair enough.

https://www.modibodi.co.uk/products/pride-longline-short-light-moderate-hand-multi-print

That image makes me feel so sad. Some poor woman convinced by the gender narrative that being female is wrong. Taking drugs and removing their breasts but their face is still very much female. What utter tragedy this madness has inflicted on our young.

DuesToTheDirt · 19/12/2023 21:02

Hang on a minute...

  • Educate yourself about trans experiences, including menstruation, and help correct misinformation. (TransHub, Twenty10 and local LGBTQIA+ community centres are good places to start.)

help correct misinformation... Is this paragraph some kind of satire?

101 — TransHub

https://www.transhub.org.au/101

appylittle · 19/12/2023 21:03

Will any of these people that buy into this stuff answer me this:

  • is it ok to pretend I'm seriously unwell with a life limiting disease when I am not? In order to fit into that group and have it as part of my identity?
  • is it ok to dress up in traditional dress from a different culture (one that is a minority) and borrow their features, bits of their appearance that I like?

And before you answer consider this:

  • Some women are literally disabled by periods. Ask anyone with endometriosis.
  • there is still a gender pay gap, still less women ceos and still wayyyy more violence committed against women.
Penguinmouse · 19/12/2023 21:03

You’ve got it mixed up. Trans women don’t menstruate and don’t claim to. Trans men, who were biologically born female, do.

AccidentallyWesAnderson · 19/12/2023 21:03

WestendVBroadway · 19/12/2023 20:52

I do not think transmen ( or transwomen for that matter) who wear periods pants have a fetishism. However I do wonder about all you people who seem to be completely over invested on what underwear someone else is wearing, when it has absolutely no affect on your daily lives.

So, so shortsighted that if it wasn't so tragic I'd laugh.

Desecratedcoconut · 19/12/2023 21:04

If you just really BELIEVE then you will prove your devotion.

ThomasinaLivesHere · 19/12/2023 21:04

You can't just separate out the bleeding, or the hormonal cycle - menstruation is an organic part of the human female mammalian physiology from menarche to menopause

I agree but the whole TRA movement is about dissecting different parts of being a woman and pretending they’re not related to each other.

LdnAnna · 19/12/2023 21:04

I don’t understand the confusion. It says “made to be worn and loved by all people who menstruate”. Trans men menstruate? Key word being trans.

thinslicedham · 19/12/2023 21:05

I'm so very tired of all the pathetic pandering on this issue. It's frustrating to those of us old enough to know the truth (sex is biological and cannot be changed, and it's not anyone's job to facilitate another person's delusion), but it's the thought of the confusion being forced upon so many children today that's truly disturbing. They're being lied to just to "affirm" a small group of people. It's not phobic to grasp basic biology and refuse to lie about scientific fact.