Cry Me A Bloody River: Article about the Pathetic Plight of Period-Plagued Trans Men

[Durgasarrow]

Lord, shrink me a violin so I can play my sad little heart out about the very very very special pain that our uteri having brothers have in getting and using period products. According to this article, period products are expensive, embarrassing, and inaccessible. Whereas for boring old Cisters, they are apparently free, and we gaily run through our offices waving tampons like torches and flapping our pads like happy handpuppets. Oh and we find them somehow "in stores?" Another interesting factlet: TM find it embarrassing to rip open tampon packages in the men's room. Much as women might feel if, um, males were allowed in the women's room? Just sayin.
www.nbcnews.com/feature/nbc-out/transgender-men-pain-menstruation-more-just-physical-n1113961

Oh FFS.

FF fucking S.

The obnoxious entitlement.

My head is going to explode soon.

I have MS. Can I bleat about that and pretend it doesn't exist.

Also noticing how ironic it is that me typing ‘menstrual’ autocorrected to ‘men struggling’ on my phone

OMFG! :o That just sums this world up basically.

go on the pill

Can't, stroke risk, I have migraines.

get an implant,

Can't, makes me suicidal.

get a coil

Had a Mirena. It caused me agonising pain for five years because I have never gestated and so the frame was too big for my uterus.

All free on the NHS

I pay around £800 every five years to travel to Europe to get an IUS that you can't get here. The alternative is escalating endometriosis and the kind of menstrual cramps that cause fainting and collapsing on the floor. The idea that sanpro packaging is somehow oppressive makes me howl with laughter when I think of what I face because of my female biology.

Therefore all women who haven't opted out of womanhood must love every single thing about being women, otherwise they would have transitioned too.

This is why I get really pissy when people call me "cis".

People expect perfection. Feel like you don’t fit in? Feel like you don’t like your body? Right, transition will solve that.
But Hang on! My life is STILL not a complete and utter rose garden.

Here’s the thing. If you try to do something impossible, it WILL be problematic. You make a choice. Accept the consequences, and don’t expect the rest of the world to do somersaults to make you feel better, or place a red rug before you so you don’t hurt your delicate tootsies on the pebbles. No- one has a perfect life. Just about everyone at some point feels they don’t “fit in”, or hates their body. And everyone has problems and issues to deal with.

I have fibroids and endometriosis. Microgynon sorted my horrendous periods but after age 35 with high blood pressure I was unable to stay on it.

The mini pill makes me bleed constantly, and I became very anaemic and hospitalised on it due to blood loss, whilst waiting for it to settle my periods down.

Norethisterone does not stop my periods either.

The mirena coil made me bleed so heavily the wretched thing fell out in a large blood clot. It was also excruciatingly painful.

My GP wont even talk about a hysterectomy or ablation until I try the mirena again.

So, please, please don't be dismissive of other's menstrual experiences, just be glad that yours are not as rubbish as theirs!

I thought their periods stop when they are on T?

Given my monthly misery few things trigger me quite as much as ridiculous period whinges. Buy one of the blue or green tampon boxes, send a friend (my other half often buys sanpro for me), look into alternative forms of san pro. Do what literally (almost) every other female person on the planet has to do at some point in their lives. Be grateful you don’t rely on fucking rags and aren’t banished to a sodding cow shed. Campaign for removal of taxes and accessibility/free products for those in poverty if you must campaign for anything at all. Or you know, now that you‘re an adult and see some of the awkwardness and difficulties in managing this shit around men maybe stop for a moment and maybe consider the impact mixed sex toilets have on young adolescent girls.

seethe

Lots of young women have struggles with embarrassment around periods. It took me years before I felt I really had a handle on my periods and they continued to be annoying and intrusive in some situations like work . Now that I am middle aged they have become annoying again because I bleed like a stuck pig.

A lot of these young people are just too immature to have any ability to look at things from anything but a self centred POV. But they don't seem to be growing out of it. Even as a 13 year old embarrassed to buy sanpro at the shop, or use it in a public toilet where people might clue into what I was doing, I knew intellectually it was stupid and I needed to get over it.

There is part of me that rolls my eyes at this nonsense, but a part of me is genuinely angry. How fucking dare anyone expect women to pity trans men for having periods. I mean, really. Trans men and Non-binaries free-ride on women's misery and expect a prize for it. If it's your contention that you can bleed out of your uterus and be a man, then do not fucking whine that doing so makes you feel "dysphoric." You aren't dysphoric. You're just not happy you're women. And that is, in the end, an insult to other women. Being a woman can suck, it's not that women don't understand why another woman wouldn't want to opt out. But we don't need the emotional labor of pitying women who despise being women.

But we don't need the emotional labor of pitying women who despise being women.

100% this!

Well said, Durgasarrow!

But we don't need the emotional labor of pitying women who despise being women.

This x 1,000,000.

I thought their periods stop when they are on T?

They do, and puberty blockers before T also do.

If you read the 2018 account, the same person had periods from age 15 until puberty blockers at 16. Their mother was there to adjust pillows and blankets so I think purchase of pink products was probably minimal in that time.

It is one huge pity fest.

bd67th did you know about the smaller coils now available here on the nhs eg Jaydess, Kyleena and Levosert? They are smaller and can be more easily placed in women who have not had a vaginal delivery. Maybe worth a try??

Oh thank you! I was just about to suggest to Goth that she contact the Fibroplant developer for a private fitting of a framesless IUS in Belgium.

If I can get a small-framed IUS here, that saves me a fortune and travel.

What bettybeans said.

That article has to be the biggest load of self-pitying “woke” shite ever written. Where is all this going to stop?

Oh, I see, so it's all about them feeling they are somehow special. That seems odd to me as I would have thought they would have a massive avoidance of all things ''feminine'' but would've thought they'd also avoid even talking about any of it. Drawing attention to hating things like sanitary towel design just seems out of place.

Just take the pill and you don't get periods. Simple.

(Apologies for the digression)

Wait - there are alternatives to the Mirena?! I had no idea. Increased stroke risk here (4 generations above me all had debilitating strokes, my mum at 49 when she was put on a pill to sort her periods).
Anyone have experience with them? Mirena made me lose hair, made losing weight nigh impossible and generally feel depressed. It did stop my periods though although recently they seem to have returned. Please message me - I prolly need a new Mirena but am interested in alternatives.

Just take the pill and you don't get periods. Simple.

It also quadruples your risk of a stroke.

I had a Gynaefix coil in the 90s. Designed for women who haven’t had children, it is copper beads on a thread which is held in place by pushing a knot into your uterine wall - in my case without anaesthetic. 😵 I haven’t experienced pain that bad since. If it’s still around, ask how they fit it it.

Catsfriend There are several hormonal IUS available but they all contain the same synthetic oestrogen. Some have a lower dose than others. All the ones available in the UK have T frames of around 30mm by 30mm. If you need frameless, you have to go to Belgium for it.

held in place by pushing a knot into your uterine wall - in my case without anaesthetic. 😵 I haven’t experienced pain that bad since

The fibroplant fits the same way. The knot in the uterine wall wasn't the painful part for me, the dilation of my cervix for my Mirena had me screaming. The cervical dilation can be made much less painful with a needleful of lidocaine, but you have to ask for that in the UK, in Belgium you will be offered it.

The cervical dilation was also very painful. I didn’t know you can request lidocaine. Why the hell isn’t it offered as standard?