22-Year-Old Guy Believes Periods Come From Butts, Mansplains How Anatomy Works When His Date Doesn’t Agree With Him
Anyone who’s in the dating game knows it can always turn sour for whatever reason. But this 20-year-old woman who goes by the Reddit handle Throwingawaylateeer has surely been caught by surprise after her 22-year-old date made a bizarre statement.
While spending time at the author’s place, the dude “said how he thought it was so strange that women give birth through the vagina but have periods from their butts.”
“I asked him what he meant by that and he said again exactly what he had said before. I kind of smiled, assuming he was very much just joking, and said ‘oh yeah, so weird’ thinking that he was going to start laughing soon to end the joke,” the author wrote in a now-viral post on r/AITA.
But there was no end to that joke, ‘cause apparently, it was no joke at all. Scroll down through the rest of this story and be sure to share your thoughts about the incident in the comment section!
Recently a woman shared how her date went sour after she realized the 22-year-old guy she is into is thoroughly convinced periods come out of butts
Image credits: Greta Hoffman
A recent survey commissioned by Intimina showed a shocking gap in men’s knowledge about menstruation
This story shed a light on how big the gap in men’s knowledge of women’s and trans people’s menstrual cycles really is. A new study commissioned by Intimina and conducted by YouGov surveyed 1,091 American males and found that a minority, only 41% of men, could correctly identify what exactly menstruation is. Its findings were pretty shocking. In fact, 52% believed a menstrual cycle lasts anywhere between 1-6 days, when in fact a menstrual cycle is between 23-35 days. The fact was correctly identified by only 20% of men.
Moreover, when respondents were asked to describe what having a period would feel like, a leading 40% said they would feel physical pain, followed by 36% revealing that a period would have no effect on them at all. And when it comes to menstrual hygiene, a whopping 65% of men said they have no idea what a menstrual cup is or how it works. Similarly, 33% of men believed a box of 36 tampons costs from $13 to $20.
Although the need for taking down the taboos about menstruation is obvious, more than a third of men are still uncomfortable talking about it
To find out more about the huge gap in men’s knowledge of menstruation and what can be done about it, we spoke with Danela Zagar, the Global Brand Manager at INTIMINA, a company that commissioned the illuminating survey quoted above. “So many organizations and brands worldwide are opening conversations about menstruation to reduce the stigma surrounding it. Still, it seems men still struggle to understand this significant function of women’s bodies. Despite many campaigns educating the public of the need to take down the taboos surrounding menstruation—by talking about menstruation, the survey shows that more than a third of men are uncomfortable talking openly about menstruation with women,” she said.
“The fact that there are barriers in starting conversations on periods shows men need to be educated on this subject more. More than half of respondents say they have learned about periods from their partners. But still, so many misconceptions are in place,” Danela explained.
Having said that, it’s encouraging that almost every man thinks it is important to educate boys about menstruation. “However, still, 40% would not feel comfortable talking to their teenage daughters about it. According to the survey, the top three reasons men gave for not talking about periods are: they don’t think it’s right for men to talk to women about periods; they feel too uncomfortable talking about periods; they don’t understand enough about the period.”
“Educating men on menstruation is not only a job our education systems should be doing but a job for every partner, wife, sister, and daughter,” says an expert
According to Danela Zagar, the only way to reduce the feeling of shame and the stigma surrounding menstruation is by talking about it. “Especially with men. Educating men on menstruation is not only a job our education systems should be doing, but a job for every partner, wife, sister and daughter.”
Moreover, Danela said that “periods should be discussed as a normal function of the female body, and it should be called by its name, without euphemisms such as Aunt Flow. Talking and educating about it is the solution to breaking period taboos.”
The author also gave some more context about the whole incident in the comments
And this is how people reacted to the story
She didn't laugh at him for not understanding, she laughed at him for REFUSING to understand, while arguing down an expert with 10 years of experience. Then he decides it's easier to break up with his girlfriend than to admit he was wrong. His head is so far up his own ass that he's gonna find a period.
That's the thing. Everyone is ignorant about something, it's his refusal to learn new information from an expert that's the problem.
Load More Replies...What an idiot. Period poops arent blood out the ass, it's just some girls get a bit diarrhoea on their periods
I used to get constipated just before, then all out in one go lol, that's what I immediately thought of on reading "period poops". So glad I don't get them any more lol
Load More Replies...Just to be clear, you *can* bleed from your butt, but a) it's not a period, b) it's not normal and you should probably seek medical advice.
Or it’s just hemorrhoids and you strained too hard.
Load More Replies...My GP explained that period poops are because of hormones that cause period contractions can leak into your intestins, causing the same contractions there. I'm sorry, English isn't my first language so I'm pretty sure "contractions" is not the word I'm looking for 🙈
Your English is great 👍 I think the word you're looking for is "cramping".
Load More Replies...The only thing more dangerous than an idiot is an idiot who thinks they know what they're talking about.
Isn't it nice of Shafeeq to come and prove your point.
Load More Replies...This is why boys should be present when girls are being talked about periods and stuff like that. Then there will be a decrease of these incidents. And vice versa
This is why I was confused as to why my 5th grade class separated the kids by gender when educating us about puberty. At least they had the common sense in 8th grade to not separate us when teaching us some basics about puberty/sexual education (and I was also glad that the 8th grade program wasn't just "if you have sex, you'll die").
Load More Replies...*edit: and even I learned something new today, thank you Leo, it's the hormones that cause cramping in other areas too. So I was wrong, wow that was not hard to say. Sigh, what is it with these guys I am a 45 year old WOMAN and I just recently learned about period poops. Ok, I am not a native English speaker.. For those of you who wonder; when you have cramps in your uterus (during your period), with some people they are so severe that your bowels start contract too and you might have to visit the toilet a bit more for a number 2. Amongs other things 😉 Did this not show up on Google I wonder?? 🤔 I mean they did Google right? Or some Wikipedia??
Google and Wikipedia, in my opinion, still show a great lack of understanding female, bodily functions (not to mention the big black hole that is a women's orgasm). But this probably still relates to the fact that the world is mostly explained by men to men. I unfortunately now what periode poops are and I also can tell you, that at least in my case, they are not related to cramps. Its probably the rush of different hormones flooding your body.
Load More Replies...Not the ah. At all. Why men don't know these things are not lack of access to information/education - its because they don't care. Same with things like pregnancy (even if they are fathers or expecting fathers) or sex/female orgasms. Many men are clueless, because they don't care about how a womans body works. The male body is the norm in a patriarchal society.
It's so true. The husband of my aunt is a bigoted asshole who insisted in having at least 10 kids and that my aunt should not scream during childbirth. Anyway the only time he was actually present during childbirth and not in the waiting room was for their 6th child. Coincidentally the doctor messed up the epidural, she told me later she couldn't feel half her body and the other half was in agony and she was sure that was it for her. This being the first time he was holding her hand, he was in hysterics, crying and screaming "save my wife idc about the kid please save my wife" almost fainting several times. Thankfully they were both alright in the end and he apologized for when told her to get hold of herself and not scream during her other childbirths, that he never ever imagined it was so hard and so painful and he would never ask her anymore for a +10 kids family as long as she was healthy by his side. Still an AH.
Load More Replies...If he hadn't refused to learn.... But he did. Also, if you do bleed from that orifice (they won't let me use the clinical term, for crying out loud, BP!)... see a doctor.
Run away. If you get to that age without understand what periods are, how and why they occur (even for men) you are potentially too dumb to stay in the human gene pool.
Sometimes you can't control your laughter when confronted with stupidity. Ignorance of something doesn't make someone stupid, refuting someone's evidence to the contrary does.
It's almost as if Google and Wikipedia didn't exist. I mean, this is easily clarified with a simple search. I studied anatomy in school, so even as a young male (in the pre-google era) I was pretty up to it, but these days? You have to be willfully ignorant to make such claims. Although, I am sure there are incel boards on FB that claim this very thing. I haven't checked, but the chances are high.
This is the type of s**t that would happen all of the time if we eliminated sex education like the morons insist we do.
We weren’t taught about periods in sex education but I figured it out
Load More Replies...NTA. He's purposefully ignorant. He could have looked up the information himself at anytime, but didn't care to be educated in what happens with a woman's body, then got petulant when his own ignorance and stupidity were pointed out to him. He's an utter child, don't bother with him again.
Not The A-hole. It's a subreddit abbreviation: AITA = Am I The A-hole; NTA = Not The A-hole; YTA = You're The A-hole; ESH = Everyone Sucks Here. These are the most common ones
Load More Replies...When will we, as a society as a whole, start to EDUCATE people on those basic things? Periods happen to basically half of the society and affect almost the whole of it.
NTA it was okay that he didn't understand, but when he argued with a woman about her own anatomy, as if she didn't know where her period blood came from. Period poops can be different and digestion symptoms can arise during mensuration. I'm sure that's what caused him to misunderstand. But he shouldn't mansplain what he doesn't experience.
Has anyone considered that his previous g/f had bad piles? Just a thought. Perhaps she was so embarrassed about having piles, she'd rather make him think it was menstrual blood. But he's still a twat.
He sounds like a clueless liberal puke. Oh yeah, men can get pregnant too🙄
Doctor here. There is a reason he may be confused and a reason why he may be even right (in a handful of cases). 1) Possible confusion: When he refers to "period poop" he may be referring to how periods affect intestinal tissue in some women (myself included) due to the excess of prostaglandins (hormone necessary to start shedding the lining of the uterus) and giving them mild diarrhea during their period - hence term "period poop". This does not generally cause bleeding from the butt unless you have so much diarrhea you are sore from papering it off and scratch your r****m (sorry for that image). Maybe he did not understand what his girlfriend meant to tell him. 2) Why he may be right: there is an illness called endometriosis where womb tissue migrates to other parts of the body and causes the lining to shed and bleed. It's usually the peritoneum, but in some cases it can be the intestine, and if it's invasive, it can indeed cause bleeding from the r****m during periods.
The medical term for bleeding from the butt during periods due to endometriosis is "Catamenial rectal bleeding due to invasive endometriosis". Hope his poor ex girlfriend does not have it, it is painful and needs surgery in many cases.
Load More Replies...My first husband was 30 years old and we had been married 5 years and had 2 children and he thought all women had their periods on the 28th of the month!
I'm sure one of those many questions she refers to must be " where do you think tampons are inserted in" followed by "the a**s is a one way road for most, where the other vagina is a two way, or do you believe babies are only conceived at the back door?.....Many questions he didn't wonder and ask anyone for clarity. A dad or a buddy or wait, a teacher?
on my period right now. can guarantee it is not coming out of my butt.
This is a sad commentary on sex ed in schools -- even though the girls *did* have a separate class from boys (where they presumably talked about femine hygiene products and how to use them so girls could feel more comfortable asking personal questions), they did describe both male and female reproductive systems, including how periods work. But since he apparently didn't learn about it in school, I think a big part of his misunderstanding came from his previous girlfriend's incomplete description of her periods. And probably his mindset got so ingrained in her explanation that he couldn't believe he was wrong. Though probably best to believe a girl when she tells you how her body works.
Not discussing with an idiot is a sure way to keep them an idiot. Did saying this just make me an idiot?
Load More Replies...I honestly don't know what my opinion is about who the asshole (ahem) is here...but if he specifically used the words "period poops", it might have been helpful to explain to him that "period poops" are a thing that do indeed come from the butt but are not the actual period blood. Maybe he would have got it if he realised how the misunderstanding between him and the ex happened. To be fair he did say he thought periods came from the vagina until his ex told him about period poops. Alternatively maybe the ex was herself confused or was indeed experiencing a**l bleeding, which raises a whole different set of concerns.
If a man tells a woman she doesn't know something or is wrong about her own body, that is mansplaining. The fact that he didn't believe her about HER OWN BODY is mansplaining. He couldn't take her for her word, about her own body. This wasn't just a misunderstanding.
Load More Replies...When he was corrected he continued to double down and mansplain how HER body works...to HER! He felt he knew better...that's why he's the AH, and deserves to be laughed at
Load More Replies...Are you serious?! "Date conversation"?! You don't know them enough to decide what's appropriate "date conversation". Did you not read that the topic came up?? He wanted to have sex and she explained why that wouldn't happen. Then HE was the one that brought on the conversation about periods. And what the hell does that mean; "...why do you expect men to care...?"?!? They were going to have SEX, they BOTH have an obligation to understand how those parts work on the other person!! If you aren't willing to talk about the anatomy of your partner, then most definitely, YOU are the immature one. I think you've been burned before, and now you're a bit bitter
Load More Replies...She didn't hold it against him. He refused to believe her when she told him how it atually was and only then did she get the giggles.
Load More Replies...She didn't laugh at him for not understanding, she laughed at him for REFUSING to understand, while arguing down an expert with 10 years of experience. Then he decides it's easier to break up with his girlfriend than to admit he was wrong. His head is so far up his own ass that he's gonna find a period.
That's the thing. Everyone is ignorant about something, it's his refusal to learn new information from an expert that's the problem.
Load More Replies...What an idiot. Period poops arent blood out the ass, it's just some girls get a bit diarrhoea on their periods
I used to get constipated just before, then all out in one go lol, that's what I immediately thought of on reading "period poops". So glad I don't get them any more lol
Load More Replies...Just to be clear, you *can* bleed from your butt, but a) it's not a period, b) it's not normal and you should probably seek medical advice.
Or it’s just hemorrhoids and you strained too hard.
Load More Replies...My GP explained that period poops are because of hormones that cause period contractions can leak into your intestins, causing the same contractions there. I'm sorry, English isn't my first language so I'm pretty sure "contractions" is not the word I'm looking for 🙈
Your English is great 👍 I think the word you're looking for is "cramping".
Load More Replies...The only thing more dangerous than an idiot is an idiot who thinks they know what they're talking about.
Isn't it nice of Shafeeq to come and prove your point.
Load More Replies...This is why boys should be present when girls are being talked about periods and stuff like that. Then there will be a decrease of these incidents. And vice versa
This is why I was confused as to why my 5th grade class separated the kids by gender when educating us about puberty. At least they had the common sense in 8th grade to not separate us when teaching us some basics about puberty/sexual education (and I was also glad that the 8th grade program wasn't just "if you have sex, you'll die").
Load More Replies...*edit: and even I learned something new today, thank you Leo, it's the hormones that cause cramping in other areas too. So I was wrong, wow that was not hard to say. Sigh, what is it with these guys I am a 45 year old WOMAN and I just recently learned about period poops. Ok, I am not a native English speaker.. For those of you who wonder; when you have cramps in your uterus (during your period), with some people they are so severe that your bowels start contract too and you might have to visit the toilet a bit more for a number 2. Amongs other things 😉 Did this not show up on Google I wonder?? 🤔 I mean they did Google right? Or some Wikipedia??
Google and Wikipedia, in my opinion, still show a great lack of understanding female, bodily functions (not to mention the big black hole that is a women's orgasm). But this probably still relates to the fact that the world is mostly explained by men to men. I unfortunately now what periode poops are and I also can tell you, that at least in my case, they are not related to cramps. Its probably the rush of different hormones flooding your body.
Load More Replies...Not the ah. At all. Why men don't know these things are not lack of access to information/education - its because they don't care. Same with things like pregnancy (even if they are fathers or expecting fathers) or sex/female orgasms. Many men are clueless, because they don't care about how a womans body works. The male body is the norm in a patriarchal society.
It's so true. The husband of my aunt is a bigoted asshole who insisted in having at least 10 kids and that my aunt should not scream during childbirth. Anyway the only time he was actually present during childbirth and not in the waiting room was for their 6th child. Coincidentally the doctor messed up the epidural, she told me later she couldn't feel half her body and the other half was in agony and she was sure that was it for her. This being the first time he was holding her hand, he was in hysterics, crying and screaming "save my wife idc about the kid please save my wife" almost fainting several times. Thankfully they were both alright in the end and he apologized for when told her to get hold of herself and not scream during her other childbirths, that he never ever imagined it was so hard and so painful and he would never ask her anymore for a +10 kids family as long as she was healthy by his side. Still an AH.
Load More Replies...If he hadn't refused to learn.... But he did. Also, if you do bleed from that orifice (they won't let me use the clinical term, for crying out loud, BP!)... see a doctor.
Run away. If you get to that age without understand what periods are, how and why they occur (even for men) you are potentially too dumb to stay in the human gene pool.
Sometimes you can't control your laughter when confronted with stupidity. Ignorance of something doesn't make someone stupid, refuting someone's evidence to the contrary does.
It's almost as if Google and Wikipedia didn't exist. I mean, this is easily clarified with a simple search. I studied anatomy in school, so even as a young male (in the pre-google era) I was pretty up to it, but these days? You have to be willfully ignorant to make such claims. Although, I am sure there are incel boards on FB that claim this very thing. I haven't checked, but the chances are high.
This is the type of s**t that would happen all of the time if we eliminated sex education like the morons insist we do.
We weren’t taught about periods in sex education but I figured it out
Load More Replies...NTA. He's purposefully ignorant. He could have looked up the information himself at anytime, but didn't care to be educated in what happens with a woman's body, then got petulant when his own ignorance and stupidity were pointed out to him. He's an utter child, don't bother with him again.
Not The A-hole. It's a subreddit abbreviation: AITA = Am I The A-hole; NTA = Not The A-hole; YTA = You're The A-hole; ESH = Everyone Sucks Here. These are the most common ones
Load More Replies...When will we, as a society as a whole, start to EDUCATE people on those basic things? Periods happen to basically half of the society and affect almost the whole of it.
NTA it was okay that he didn't understand, but when he argued with a woman about her own anatomy, as if she didn't know where her period blood came from. Period poops can be different and digestion symptoms can arise during mensuration. I'm sure that's what caused him to misunderstand. But he shouldn't mansplain what he doesn't experience.
Has anyone considered that his previous g/f had bad piles? Just a thought. Perhaps she was so embarrassed about having piles, she'd rather make him think it was menstrual blood. But he's still a twat.
He sounds like a clueless liberal puke. Oh yeah, men can get pregnant too🙄
Doctor here. There is a reason he may be confused and a reason why he may be even right (in a handful of cases). 1) Possible confusion: When he refers to "period poop" he may be referring to how periods affect intestinal tissue in some women (myself included) due to the excess of prostaglandins (hormone necessary to start shedding the lining of the uterus) and giving them mild diarrhea during their period - hence term "period poop". This does not generally cause bleeding from the butt unless you have so much diarrhea you are sore from papering it off and scratch your r****m (sorry for that image). Maybe he did not understand what his girlfriend meant to tell him. 2) Why he may be right: there is an illness called endometriosis where womb tissue migrates to other parts of the body and causes the lining to shed and bleed. It's usually the peritoneum, but in some cases it can be the intestine, and if it's invasive, it can indeed cause bleeding from the r****m during periods.
The medical term for bleeding from the butt during periods due to endometriosis is "Catamenial rectal bleeding due to invasive endometriosis". Hope his poor ex girlfriend does not have it, it is painful and needs surgery in many cases.
Load More Replies...My first husband was 30 years old and we had been married 5 years and had 2 children and he thought all women had their periods on the 28th of the month!
I'm sure one of those many questions she refers to must be " where do you think tampons are inserted in" followed by "the a**s is a one way road for most, where the other vagina is a two way, or do you believe babies are only conceived at the back door?.....Many questions he didn't wonder and ask anyone for clarity. A dad or a buddy or wait, a teacher?
on my period right now. can guarantee it is not coming out of my butt.
This is a sad commentary on sex ed in schools -- even though the girls *did* have a separate class from boys (where they presumably talked about femine hygiene products and how to use them so girls could feel more comfortable asking personal questions), they did describe both male and female reproductive systems, including how periods work. But since he apparently didn't learn about it in school, I think a big part of his misunderstanding came from his previous girlfriend's incomplete description of her periods. And probably his mindset got so ingrained in her explanation that he couldn't believe he was wrong. Though probably best to believe a girl when she tells you how her body works.
Not discussing with an idiot is a sure way to keep them an idiot. Did saying this just make me an idiot?
Load More Replies...I honestly don't know what my opinion is about who the asshole (ahem) is here...but if he specifically used the words "period poops", it might have been helpful to explain to him that "period poops" are a thing that do indeed come from the butt but are not the actual period blood. Maybe he would have got it if he realised how the misunderstanding between him and the ex happened. To be fair he did say he thought periods came from the vagina until his ex told him about period poops. Alternatively maybe the ex was herself confused or was indeed experiencing a**l bleeding, which raises a whole different set of concerns.
If a man tells a woman she doesn't know something or is wrong about her own body, that is mansplaining. The fact that he didn't believe her about HER OWN BODY is mansplaining. He couldn't take her for her word, about her own body. This wasn't just a misunderstanding.
Load More Replies...When he was corrected he continued to double down and mansplain how HER body works...to HER! He felt he knew better...that's why he's the AH, and deserves to be laughed at
Load More Replies...Are you serious?! "Date conversation"?! You don't know them enough to decide what's appropriate "date conversation". Did you not read that the topic came up?? He wanted to have sex and she explained why that wouldn't happen. Then HE was the one that brought on the conversation about periods. And what the hell does that mean; "...why do you expect men to care...?"?!? They were going to have SEX, they BOTH have an obligation to understand how those parts work on the other person!! If you aren't willing to talk about the anatomy of your partner, then most definitely, YOU are the immature one. I think you've been burned before, and now you're a bit bitter
Load More Replies...She didn't hold it against him. He refused to believe her when she told him how it atually was and only then did she get the giggles.
Load More Replies...
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