The average man knows more about periods than we might think

The current stereotype about men and their knowledge of periods is pretty damning.

It’s easy to assume that at best, they know that blood comes out of somewhere for a few days and all of a sudden you’re eating a bar of Galaxy for every meal.

But it’s about time we gave them more credit, as a survey has revealed that they’re actually pretty clued up.

Pharmaceutical company Teva spoke asked 5,000 straight men in relationships from different 12 countries in Europe how much they knew about women’s menstrual cycles.

And found out that their knowledge was pretty accurate.

They estimated that the length of a woman’s period was 5.2 days – five for women not taking the combined pill and 4.6 days for those who were – which is pretty correct.

And when asked about symptoms, they said mood swings, pelvic pain and irritability, to which female respondents’ actual symptoms – who were also surveyed separately to see what they said their main symptoms were -matched up with their guesses pretty well.

Disappointingly, the big shortfall was understanding how severe cramps can be – and many didn’t know what women don’t necessarily have periods on certain forms of contraception.

Yes, it’s all pretty basic knowledge, but an improvement from the past.

Leader of the research Dr Iñaki Lete told Cosmopolitan:

“Prior to hormonal birth control becoming a contraceptive option, men had little awareness of what a woman experiences during menstruation,” he said.

“Menstrual symptoms were also less prevalent historically as women experienced fewer periods throughout their lives because of the later onset of menstruation, a greater number of pregnancies and the longer period of time during which they would breastfeed.”

He says a big spike in knowledge has occurred since the first contraceptive became widespread:

“In the 50 years since the first contraceptive became widely available, men have become increasingly aware of how their partner experiences menstruation,” he continued.

“These findings reflect wider societal changes, particularly where couples are encouraged to discuss previously taboo topics such as menstruation and contraception.”

And breaking down taboo can only be good news when it comes to menstruation.

So if your boyfriend doesn’t seem clued up, he’d better catch up with the rest of the world’s men.

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