I don't have words for the rage. Male bodies do not have periods. Or monthly cycles. Or anything of the sort

submitted by TurkishCoffee from self.GenderCritical

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[–]Comatoast 8 insightful - 1 fun8 insightful - 0 fun9 insightful - 1 fun -  (6 children)

It might be that they're talking about lower intestinal pains, which I've noticed a lot of people say "stomach" instead of. (Self included, because outright saying lower intestinal cramping indicates you probably need to poop or fart soon and that's going into a little too much detail for the standard conversation).

[–]TarshishJupiter 7 insightful - 1 fun7 insightful - 0 fun8 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Yeah, personally, I happen to get both uterine cramps in my back and diarrhea cramps in my back, so on rare occasions they're hard to tell apart. But I know uterine cramps can feel different for different women. Just my personal experience.

[–]MarkTwainiac 6 insightful - 1 fun6 insightful - 0 fun7 insightful - 1 fun -  (4 children)

Yes, but going along with these sorts of descriptions and claims has the effect of erasing female biology and female-specific experiences of pain that come from female-only organs. Sorta like using "vagina" as the name for the entire female genitalia, or just calling it all "the down there."

I've personally experienced terrible menstrual cramps, experienced difficult labor & childbirth, miscarriage, ovulation pain, ovarian cysts, fibroids, childbirth injuries, pudendal neuralgia, as well as pregnancy-induced nausea, indigestion & "heartburn" and liver pain (due to late-stage fetus constantly kicking me in liver) ... I've also had a variety of other painful "abdominal" conditions and illnesses including all the usual GI bugs, constipation, diarrhea, acute appendicitis, recurrent UTIs/cystitis, PID/chronic pelvic pain, kidney stones, IBS/Chrons, pulled groin muscles, hernia, C-difficile, gardia and various other intestinal parasites and bacteria picked up in places like Egypt, South Asia and Mexico (aka "Montezuma's revenge"), acute & life-threatening liver inflammation due to hereditary hemochromatosis, post-menopausal vaginal atrophy, pelvic organ prolapse, painful urination due to post-menopausal changes in my female urethra and bladder and so on...

IME, "stomach" and bowel pains and the discomfort that come from having "binged on candy" like another poster here said are very different to the very distinct kinds of pain women feel in our female-only reproductive organs. And pretending all abdominal pains are the same, and there's nothing distinct about female organ pain, is just another way of erasing female reality and trivializing and "pooh-poohing" what girls and women go through.

[–]squintypreyeyes 7 insightful - 1 fun7 insightful - 0 fun8 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

I dunno man... If you've had a lot of serious, diagnosed pain conditions I'm sure you learn to tell them apart and distinguish the types of pain. But if you're an otherwise healthy person who usually has painless periods, how would you know? I occasionally have lower abdominal pain/discomfort and I have no idea what the cause is. How would I? It's nothing to be mad about lol.

[–]Comatoast 5 insightful - 1 fun5 insightful - 0 fun6 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

I understand where you're coming from. I assumed that the poster talking about everything being in the same general place was a woman too, since birth control was mentioned. I try to be patient about perspective on cramping because I get it in my lower back, lower abdomen, hips and thighs (I think because of my uterus being tilted, but who knows). It gets confusing sensation-wise because it screws up my lower digestion and the feelings are similar to me. As far as referring to it as something else to avoid female erasure, I'm fine to do that here but what do those of us that are more private about such details? Especially those of us from more... reserved areas like the Southern US?