Men and women can get periods now?

[PlanterGents]

I’m shocked. I didn’t think official NHS advice would say this.

Men can’t get periods. Why confuse matters? This is medical advice.

Also, I’m sure I was taught that you never put a comma before the word “and”. So the grammar is correct. (I think) it was years ago I was taught!

I think I was also taught not to put a comma before the word "and" but I think it might be one of those rules that has more subtle cases (that I never learned or retained). There are times when I feel using an extra comma would be more clear, but I tend to overuse them.

And I agree with what justawoman said much more succinctly than me, while I was laboriously typing!

The fact that it clearly is ambiguous to some readers when it could be clearer is a problem though. I think.

I wonder if they will get any complaints about bit saying men, transwomen and non binary males for the first bit, and people who menstruate for the second.

I would guess not.

An illustration of how the Oxford comma prevents confusion.

I think it's just missing a comma.
It should read

For men, and women whose periods have stopped.

Punctuation is all

The NHS periods section refers to women and girls.

eats, shoots and leaves eh?

what about eats roots, shoots and leaves?

Thats the title of a book about punctuation - ie Pandas eat shoots and leaves (not eats, shoots and leaves, which is the Tarantino version)

@movingquandry

I think it's just missing a comma. It should read

For men, and women whose periods have stopped.

Punctuation is all

The NHS periods section refers to women and girls.

But it doesn’t say ‘for men and women whose periods have stopped’. It says ‘for men and for women whose periods have stopped’. The second ‘for’ removes the ambiguity that would be there otherwise (and would need a comma). I personally cannot see that it’s confusing as it currently is.

I read it as

For men and for women, whose periods have stopped

Right or wrong and punctuation aside, I'm not the only one who read it that way. So it's not clear. And clarity is what matters in these messages.