These are meant to be clever young people...

[parentalhelpline]

Every time I see this stuff, I just feel more and more bafflement and despair.

Do these people really think that a male-bodied person can have PMS?

Who are these young women rushing in to 'be kind' and share their own experiences?

Well - at least be comforted by the knowledge that in a few short years (or months) the women will be cringing themselves inside out when reminded of what they says. The men, well they are just having a laugh surely?

The Internet never forgets does it?

To get a male to actually have period cramps. You'd presumably need to transplant an entire female reproductive system. And then do something complicated to their hormones etc. To make body think it was in child bearing years.

It would need to be fully connected into blood supply etc.

More I'm sure.

In short no. For the few who have surgery it's a hole that will fit a penis. And plastic surgery on outside to mimic female as best as they can.

I doubt if I'm alone here in having done my level best not to draw attention to period pain during the long, long years I experienced it. (Hurrah for the menopause!) I would mention it briefly to my husband and that was about it. Mostly it was a matter of taking maximum painkillers, getting a hot water bottle if I was at home, and just gritting my teeth until the worst passed. Not a public performance to get sympathy.

With all due respect: bubs here doesn't get how periods or PMS work, at all!

I just so happen to be an accidental and involuntary expert on the topic of "how much pain periods can be":

Collapsed in public and taken to hospital by ambulance a total of six times. Two out of these have included me having to yell, in utter pain, at doctors "no, I didn't collapse because I'm a drug user. I'm not an addict. I just have fucking enometrial lining and a body that seems to have determined to make it hard and painful to shed it! I DO WANT pain killers - but it's because I'm keeling over, not because I need my opiate hit here! Just give me bloody Ibuprofen, if you must and can't bring yourself to give me opiates - give me ANYTHING AT ALL!"

Only my final ambulance ride to hospital eventually concluded in a diagnosis of "severe endometriosis - patient wasn't exaggerating, but OF COURSE she was in excruciating pain all along". I was 37 at the time and had been having periods that had, occasionally, seen me pass out on the floor from pain for way over two decades! On a side note: a part of these these two decades were also spent wondering why other women seemed to get pregnant by pretty much just thinking about fertile men, and I had the hardest time ... turns out: that'll ALSO be endometriosis for you. It's all quite simple once you get that ONE doctor to believe you're genuinely in agony and investigate that one step further rather than just write you off as a patient ...

Sorry if I'm taking offense. But: NOT FUCKING SORRY, though! It feels SO VERY dismissive and belitteling to have people whose bodies are not even remotely capable of doing to them what mine has done to me yapping on about "PMS".

"PMS", in my world, boils down to "at worst, I'm irritable, and I'll tell you you're a self-indulgent arse for making such a fuss over your imagined one" [I never would, I'm quite the diplomat IRL]. - Actual periods boil down to "you make a fuss because you want validation - and I am in A&E, begging some physician to please believe me that I'm genuinely in pain and not after opiates".

Forgive me for not being THAT sorry.

On the plus side, the men at least will presumably not be procreating so some of the stupidity might die out...?

A high proportion of transwomen transition after having fathered children. It's the very young trans-identifying people who are likely to miss out on having a chance of becoming parents, as a result of going on puberty blockers followed by cross-hormones.

Trans allies have as much chance as the rest of us as becoming parents. If they are as credulous as the screenshots above suggest, it doesn't bode well for their future parenting.

To be honest, it's the responses of the women that I'm more worried about.

I'm just really hoping that none of them are studying medicine.

This is nothing to do with ignorance. The first post was to put forward something [I'd put in more here but that would get my post deleted] to get compliance. The responses are people showing their willingness to comply.

It's simply a dominance display and submissive responses in a hierarchy. I read about this kind of behaviour in Desmond Morris books decades ago.

I think you folks are being really unkind.

I am a man and have suffered terrible PMS. Just this morning when I made a joke about my wifes lack of performative womanliness, I suffered awfully with Penis Met Shoe.

That's hilarious 😆😆😆

Even entering into a discussion about biology is playing the game of a manipulative male.

@QueenSue

He seems to think that PMS is the same thing as period cramps...

It'll be the ibs from over loading on hormones that aren't very good for people with xy chromosomes.

Interesting, nauticant. Which book are you refering to?

I don't even get cramping.Does that mean I'm not female?

(Sorry!)

Findwen, this is most obviously an entirely different case and, in my function as a fellow-sufferer of "genuine lower body discomfort (see previous post)", I shall concede that your "PMS" experience sounds genuinely agonising even to someone like myself who lacks the required rigging and can only guesstimate the level of pain ...

@Deliriumoftheendless

I know there’s some male posters here - I wonder if you can help me boost my sperm count?

I’ve heard diet can improve it.

At the moment it’s at zero 😟 possibly because of my uterus/ovaries etc.

Anyone? Anyone?

You need to eat Brazil nuts every day brah

If this is about dominance then I wonder what would happen if that poster got no replies from women but only men posting laugh emojis or something.

It's so long ago I can't recall which book QueenSue but I'm talking about primate behaviour.

I would imagine Desmond Morris is so unfashionable these days as to be beyond cancellation. (Until the neo-Inquisition finds some shocking heresy in his works.) The astonishing thing though is he's still with us.

Someone has suggested they look into endometriosis

If transwomen can identify into PMS and period cramps can I identify out of them?
I'm sat here right now feeling like my insides are falling out and wondering which of my kitchen knives would do the most harm to my arm.* Thanks PMDD. I've also been vile to everyone today as a result of PMS.

• please don't be alarmed. I never act on this thought. Its just an intrusive thought I get.

@DuckDuckNo

Many of them seem to think that oestrogen causes the cramping. When it is actually prostaglandins that cause it, and they are being secreted by the endometrial lining when it sheds from the uterus. So, first you have to have a uterus with an endometrium that needs shedding, and when it sheds it causes the uterus to cramp so that the byproducts are ejected, so to speak, from the uterus.

Absolutely - plus the menstrual cycle is controlled by at least six hormones, including progesterone, FSH and LSH. Oestrogen alone might give them a few side effects just from taking oestrogen, but it definitely doesn’t produce anything like an actual menstrual cycle, even if they had the requisite equipment!

I see this “tw have period pains and pms” rubbish on sites like Tumblr all the time, and it’s hilariously awful how misinformed young men and young women are about the menstrual cycle.

I remember in GCSE biology having to draw diagrams of the full menstrual cycle, including the corpus lutem and the hormones active at each point - don’t they do this any more?!?? (Obviously not, or they wouldn’t be so blooming ignorant…)

I feel old. Sometimes I just don't get this world I'm living in any more. It's gone mad.

How can educated students be so stupid?

@nauticant

This is nothing to do with ignorance. The first post was to put forward something [I'd put in more here but that would get my post deleted] to get compliance. The responses are people showing their willingness to comply.

It's simply a dominance display and submissive responses in a hierarchy. I read about this kind of behaviour in Desmond Morris books decades ago.

I do agree with this. It is an indication that intellectual ability is not necessarily protective against being sucked into these sorts of dominance displays.

Three of my DC's friends have liked this. One is trans, so that is hardly surprising, but I do worry for my DC and the pressure they are under to agree at least externally with this crap.

I read something today, I think it was in Dominic Cummings’ substack, about how there is evidence that elite level education in fact makes you more not less likely to be taken in by ridiculous ideas.

Is it worth adding something to the comments or is it just feeding them?