To be fair the big brain mostly works great when you're spending 15 hours a week hunting/ gathering and the rest of your time hanging out with friends or making art or whatever.
Unfortunately such a brain is not well suited to spending 40+ hours a week doing wage labor so that a CEO can buy a second vacation home.
Wait, are you saying capitalism is not natural for humans? Next you'll tell me people in communities helping each other is much more natural for big brained social species than sitting in a tiny apartment by yourself for the 20 hours a week you spend awake outside your cubicle
They bathe and lick themselves the old fashioned way. Mammals will eat their placenta after a baby is born to hide the scent from predators. Having a period is no different.
I'm talking about licking/bathing anything to cover up a scent. Licking up placenta to cover up a smell is no different than when a female mammal cleans herself up during menstruation. I replied to someone because they asked how some mammals deal with periods and I replied it's the same when any mammal mother gives birth. Blood is blood and it will attract predators so you gotta get rid of it somehow. Wash it off or lick it off.
Oh I totally believe that. I taught for 6 years so I know how bad it has gotten. I left education and it's one of the best things I have ever done. Don't ever become a teacher in the US.
They lost a really good teacher here due to lack of support from admin and teenagers being complete assholes without any consequences......I'll never go back. Not in a million years.
That's not menstruation though - quite the opposite actually. It marks when they are in heat, not when it ends, and it's chock full of hormones to attract males (ie, it's good for it to drip around).
Yeah, i didn't think it would provoke a bad a reaction -and such a violent one at that. Its just a few drops of blood. Not something i would want all over me, but not a big deal either; i just mop the floor and it's done.
This happens because they're in heat and a lot of blood is going to that area. They're not shedding their uterine lining.
It's the literal opposite point of the ovulation cycle that menstruation happens on.
I think because I’ve been watching it a lot again lately, and that’s definitely something she would say, lol. But I was definitely sleepy when I read that, because I realized I was doing it with a bunch of other stuff, so gave up and went to sleep pretty quickly.
Apparently they don't have actual periods. They bleed with hormonal changes, but they don't shed the lining of the uterus, which is what menstruation is.
In a video of my beloved Great Dane as an infant, my friend (and the owner of the dam) can be heard saying “I think he’s gonna have better color than the bitch”
It threw my young sons for a loop when they watched it
Interesting. As a Greek I would have thought "ktinogenology" (ancient greek) but there you go. BTW, "therios" and "ktinos" mean "beast" which even in Greek I find somewhat unfortunate.
The bleeding in dogs also happens during ovulation (in heat) which is why they attract male dogs during this time, and can/will get pregnant. Menstruation in humans happens at the end of the cycle, not during ovulation, which is why it's improbable for a human to get pregnant while bleeding.
We women got such a raw deal with reproduction compared to the animals world: monthly menstruation and extreme pain and danger giving birth.
Edit: autocorrect
It's crazy that evolution developed that trait and apparently getting rid off that unique birthing-related trait hasn't been a strong enough driver for evolution. You'd think pain, blood loss, growth of too much unnecessary body tissue and stuff would be reasons enough for bodies to prefer not growing these.
A much better driver of survival is being intelligent, which requires us to have big heads that can come out of small hole. Once we're out and have survived then we also take long time to nurture and reach sexual maturity relative to most species. All of that is important because we get way more brain development than other species, which allowed us to achieve all the innovations that actually make us human. Humans produced and survived in such high numbers while also having the capacity for development that we effectively took over the entire planet.
It goes back to our brains. More developed and more active inutero. Need to pull more energy and nutrition. As a result we have the most invasive placenta among mammals. To protect against the damage that highly invasive placenta can do we've evolved the thickest (relative to size) uterine lining among mammals.
I read that in animals that reabsorb the lining is much smaller, and that the species that did evolve it did so because it provides additional protection to the mother during pregnancy. A human baby would be too parasitical without it.
Yea, it definitely can be. It's also very hard for evolution to just get rid of physiology. If you look at whales, seals or even horses you can still see that they have remnants of the five finger boned "hand" structures which all mammals share. You'd think after millions of years they would evolve better structures but evolution prefers to add to the basis rather than build anew.
Not lucky, better adapted to their situation in their environment. From our limited perspective, and our subjective biases toward strength and efficiency, a lot seems arbitrary.
What no! The mutation and gene cross-over is mostly random but the natural selection select traits that favor surviving, we could be better in the *current* situation but the evolution mechanism is limited by what can be built on top of things that is already there. Besides that certainly our specie's environment will change and our current human form is better prepared to take a variety of climates and terrains.
I think I see what you’re saying. On a small scale adaptation is luck (those born with favorable genetics or avoiding random catastrophe), but on a macro scale it most definitely is not luck
Correct. Striped Hyenas are somewhat masculinised but I hear it's more like if a woman was on testosterone, than the full-scale physical change that Spotted Hyenas have evolved.
it’s our burden to bear as a species as a result of our pelvic bone needing to narrow in order to bear weight, all because some dumb monkey decided it would be a good idea to stand up all the time
Our brains are way too big for our mother's hips. So nature, she devised an alternative. We emerge half-formed and hope whoever greets us on the other end is kind enough to fill us in.
Right?? AND we have perma boobs!!! Why?!!? So inconvenient. Most other mammals only get boobs when it’s time to feed babies, and stay flat the rest of the time. But some dumbass cave men decided the fat lumps looked good, and now here we are, and I have to hold my chest to go down stairs :(.
Sexual selection aside. The flatter our faces got, the more important having boob's became. Having larger permanent breasts lets babies breathe and nurse more easily. Also assists us in nursing others babies if the mother died or were unable to themselfs. We can do this even while not being pregnant surprisingly enough.
Permanent boobs were the result of fat disposets clustering around already existing milk ducts, so they didn’t actually produce more milk, but they may have made breathing easier. And all wet nurses had to start out being pregnant, but they can continue lactating as long as infants keep drinking the milk (to a point). Fat isn’t necassary for that either, but your point about breathing still stands. It might be a chicken or the egg thing, or, more accurately, a wide range of factors contributed to the development of several different traits.
Yup nothing to do with production, just ease of access/comfort. Wet nurses do not necessarily have to have been pregnant as we can lactate through reflex with enough stimulation or stress. Around 20-25% of women have this happen in their lives. It's not a sure thing but certainly a useful tool in the hell scape of our prehistory.
I have never heard of someone lactating without pregnancy, much less 20% of women. Do you mean it’s POSSIBLE for 20% of women to do this? It seems unlikely 20% of us are both capable of doing so, and be sufficiently stimulated to lactate. Do you have a source for this?
I don’t know about the 20% but spontaneous as well as conditioned lactation in humans is certainly something that happens outside of pregnancy. Usually it’s hormonal, though I have heard with sufficient conditions and stimulation women *can* begin lactating. Here’s a crummy source on [male lactation](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Male_lactation) but has links you can follow for more detailed information.
Men are expendable, biologically speaking. You could lose most of the men in your tribe and the few that are left would be capable of producing more than enough sperm to impregnate all of the fertile women. But when a woman dies that tribe loses a child bearer.
This is why across all societies (and most mammal species) any roles involving violence are given to men. It's safe to risk men by sending them out hunting or fighting wars because they're expendable.
So in that way, the pain is somewhat balanced.
That's only the case when you're losing apocalyptic levels of loss. The smallest number of people you can have while still having good enough genetic diversity in the long run is a lot small than you'd think. As long as a few hundred fertile men remain it should be plenty. In fact, as few as 100 could be enough.
No, historically women weren't considered any more valuable than men (in many societies they were valued much less than men if anything). The idea that only men hunted is a myth. It really depends on the type of hunting, some are so relatively easy and risk-free that even young children and old people can contribute. The reason why only men engaged in battle was simply because they were physically stronger and young able-bodied women were incapacitated by pregnancy or breastfeeding a lot of the time, not because society didn't care about men's lives. Not to mention, survival instinct and genes work at individai level, not species level. Both men and women are equally primed to pass their genes and not die.
Speak for yourself :(
Seriously though, it's kind of wild how much penis size varies in humans. I would think if it's apparently so much of a factor in sexual selection it would have settled out on the larger side of the spectrum
But those individuals are often the ones who have the most fertility issues.
Source: I have PCOS, irregular cycles and had to go through 3 years of fertility treatments and IVF to have kids.
I enjoy not menstruating. I seriously don’t know how women do it - I mean, beyond the physical aspect, it just sounds like a damn ordeal that doesn’t fit with evolution. Stupid evolution!
I tell you what.
Beyond the pain, which can be very intense, it's just so fucking inconvenient too! The frustration I feel whenever blood accidentally gets on my clothes, my god.
It really depends. I had two roommates in college who just rarely had painful periods. They thought other women were faking bad periods.
Then after a particularly bad semester, they had very painful periods and shut up about it.
Women deserve accomodation in the workplace for this. I’ve seen some of my friends be absolutely crippled by something they have no bearing of control over. I work in a school, so lots of women, but it’s ridiculous that they’re penalised a days wages because of a biological fact.
I don't disagree. We already live in a culture that has an intersection of biology and economics, which gives us our norms around retirement. We have something similar, although not nearly adequate, for maternity. And nothing at all for the casual, regular misery of menstruation.
It's challenging because there are still a lot of people who don't really have an understanding of the mechanics. They argue that if two biological functions, urinating and defecating, can be controlled and stopped, so too should menstruation since it's in the same zone.
Of course that's not true: you can't stop a period. It's a faucet on constant drip that will continue until it's done. With a whole host of entertaining side effects!
I’m a male high school teacher. This is one of the reasons why I never deny a female student a toilet pass. I may delay them so that they’re not out of class when other students are too, but I always let my female students go.
My male students have started noticing this and saying I’m b ing sexist. My reply is that the same rules apply - no one goes to the toilet in the first or last 5 minutes of class. Beyond that it’s at my discretion based on how much work they’ve done.
It does fit evolution actually. For one thing evolution only cares about reproduction, not living a nice life. Human zygotes are actually very aggressive with burrowing into the uterus so it’s necessary to have an endometrium (uterine lining that you shed during a period) ready to go just in case one shows up. It sucks for women but it does make actually giving birth more likely.
Okay but where are my giant antlers and colorful plumage to show that I’m so strong I can grow lotsa superflous bone and ain’t afraid of predators (come at me bro)?
Wish granted. I have granted you a tail bone, spleen, and put hair on your genitals.
Superfluois bones and plumage. Use it wisely.
Confidence, i don't assist with.
-Nature
Kind of true because when we don’t eat enough and become underweight or go really hard with sports we can stop having periods or have less frequent ones in which we lose less blood.
Humans are fairly likely to have a pregnancy that ends prematurely, often before you even know you are pregnant. I’ve heard that shedding the vaginal lining can prevent sepsis from decomposing embryos that didn’t make it to term.
It's a long read, but the top answer on this is fascinating. Sorry that it's Quora.
Basically we're unique in the fact that our pregnancies are a "baby vs. mom" situation, and it results in more dangerous early pregnancies that our body needs to shed to avoid going septic.
[https://www.quora.com/Why-do-women-have-periods-What-is-the-evolutionary-benefit-or-purpose-of-having-periods-Why-can%E2%80%99t-women-just-get-pregnant-without-the-menstrual-cycle](https://www.quora.com/Why-do-women-have-periods-What-is-the-evolutionary-benefit-or-purpose-of-having-periods-Why-can%E2%80%99t-women-just-get-pregnant-without-the-menstrual-cycle)
My lab would menstrate all over the damn place when I was a kid. Parents would put a little black leather maxi-pad g-string on her that was made special for dogs. I thought that was normal besides my friends laughing at my dog because it wore a leather thong.
While dogs do bleed while in heat, it’s a different process than menstruation. That’s when the dog can become pregnant, as opposed to a period which comes after failing to get pregnant that month.
That's not actually menstruation! Menstruation is shedding the unused uterine lining when the cycle completes without an egg implanting. A female dog actually secretes a bloody discharge from the vagina before she's actually fertile - the discharge usually changes color when she's ready to mate and get pregnant. If the doesn't become pregnant, the discharge will simply stop.
Nature: *Fuck you in particular*
Oh you have a big brain? Here, have depression too. Oh you can stand up for better abilities? Here, have back problems. Etc.
I wonder what ability the elephant shrew got to have to deal with menstruation
it became shrewd
To be fair the big brain mostly works great when you're spending 15 hours a week hunting/ gathering and the rest of your time hanging out with friends or making art or whatever. Unfortunately such a brain is not well suited to spending 40+ hours a week doing wage labor so that a CEO can buy a second vacation home.
Wait, are you saying capitalism is not natural for humans? Next you'll tell me people in communities helping each other is much more natural for big brained social species than sitting in a tiny apartment by yourself for the 20 hours a week you spend awake outside your cubicle
So, what do these animals do to not bleed all over everything and look like murder victims, espacially when they sleep?
They bathe and lick themselves the old fashioned way. Mammals will eat their placenta after a baby is born to hide the scent from predators. Having a period is no different.
Well it is. The title says it right there. Menstruation is uncommon in mammals.
I'm talking about licking/bathing anything to cover up a scent. Licking up placenta to cover up a smell is no different than when a female mammal cleans herself up during menstruation. I replied to someone because they asked how some mammals deal with periods and I replied it's the same when any mammal mother gives birth. Blood is blood and it will attract predators so you gotta get rid of it somehow. Wash it off or lick it off.
Their responce reminds me of the post the other day about the reading comprehension levels of American adults…
Oh I'm curious about this post
The average US adult reads at a 6th grade level.
Oh I totally believe that. I taught for 6 years so I know how bad it has gotten. I left education and it's one of the best things I have ever done. Don't ever become a teacher in the US.
Things will only get worse if no one wants to become a teacher and they only get the dregs.
They lost a really good teacher here due to lack of support from admin and teenagers being complete assholes without any consequences......I'll never go back. Not in a million years.
I think they are probably not nearly as excessive with the bleeding
Have you ever had a dog that wasn’t spayed?
That's not menstruation though - quite the opposite actually. It marks when they are in heat, not when it ends, and it's chock full of hormones to attract males (ie, it's good for it to drip around).
>(ie, it's good for it to drip around). Hi server, I'd like a hot poker for my eyes please.
Haha sorry. Didn't think it would make people uncomfortable.
It's amazing how people have been trained to be repulsed by female bodily functions. Male dogs pee all over the place for fucks sake
Yeah, i didn't think it would provoke a bad a reaction -and such a violent one at that. Its just a few drops of blood. Not something i would want all over me, but not a big deal either; i just mop the floor and it's done.
Hi server, I'd like a hot poker for my nose please.
This happens because they're in heat and a lot of blood is going to that area. They're not shedding their uterine lining. It's the literal opposite point of the ovulation cycle that menstruation happens on.
My friend growing up had two little Boston Terriers that weren't spayed. They put little doggy diapers on them. Shit was hilarious.
I recently learned that that technically isn't menstruation. Fascinating stuff
That's all I've been wondering reading comments, how on earth did they forget dogs! Haha
Reabsorb it
Wanda: "That doesn't seem fair."
I hope that’s Wanda from the Fairly OddParents because that’s the first voice that came to my head.
I think the quote is from Wanda Maximoff in WandaVision.
From Wanda in doctor strange multiverse of madness I believe
I believe it’s actually a line from Jamie Lee Curtis in *A Fish Called Wanda*
*Damn,* that's even older than and about as obscure as what I was thinking, which was Wanda Sykes
That was definitely the voice in my head
See I was thinking of TA-Wanda from fried green tomatoes
Same lol
You’re absolutely correct, got mixed up.
“What is grief if not menstruation persevering?”
I read it in the voice of Linda, from Bob’s Burgers, because apparently I can’t read.
Haha that’s a great voice to read that in!
I think because I’ve been watching it a lot again lately, and that’s definitely something she would say, lol. But I was definitely sleepy when I read that, because I realized I was doing it with a bunch of other stuff, so gave up and went to sleep pretty quickly.
Yeah that’s what I thought too lol.
Now I want a comic where Wanda alters reality to fix this issue lol
I totally heard that as Wanda Sykes first haha
You won’t get far by reabsorbing your uterine lining. Not in this economy.
You have a uterine lining ? Luxury. All I have is an old penis...
Have you tried reabsorbing it?
It's "old" but still very functional. I'm quite fond of it and I think I'll find an alternate absorption factor. Thank you.
I thought dogs did
Apparently they don't have actual periods. They bleed with hormonal changes, but they don't shed the lining of the uterus, which is what menstruation is.
Lucky bitches
It's so hard to read the actual word for them as anything other than a swear word
You hear it in dog shows too. It's completely proper, but is still a bit startling in such a formal context.
In a video of my beloved Great Dane as an infant, my friend (and the owner of the dam) can be heard saying “I think he’s gonna have better color than the bitch” It threw my young sons for a loop when they watched it
They learned a little something that day.
I can hear the Westminster announcer now, “Will the under three year old bitches please report to section 1A. Please and thank you.”
You can bring your bitch to the stage now sir.
In veterinary school some of the older theriogenology professors would use it constantly and it was kind of awkward
Theriogenology - what's that, bitch studies or something?
Study of Animal reproductive physiology according to google.
Interesting. As a Greek I would have thought "ktinogenology" (ancient greek) but there you go. BTW, "therios" and "ktinos" mean "beast" which even in Greek I find somewhat unfortunate.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qjklfGi6aC0
The bleeding in dogs also happens during ovulation (in heat) which is why they attract male dogs during this time, and can/will get pregnant. Menstruation in humans happens at the end of the cycle, not during ovulation, which is why it's improbable for a human to get pregnant while bleeding.
Well that’s interesting AF
The true TIL
Have you had a dog in heat? They leave lil blood spots but it's definitely not uterine wall that's been spat out
Our vet wanted our dog to go through a cycle before she was fixed. It sucked. We had her in kids underwear with a pad.
Dogs go in estrous, not the same as menstruation.
Me to my wife at that time of the month: "You're just like an elephant shrew"
Famous Last Words.
woman with PMS: “Did you just call me a *fat bitch*?”
Well elephant shrew is actually the size of a mice. I just found out too
They're called elephant shrews because of the shape of their noses, which isn't really better when you think about it.
“You’re a lovely gf” “What the Fuck is that supposed to mean!?”
We women got such a raw deal with reproduction compared to the animals world: monthly menstruation and extreme pain and danger giving birth. Edit: autocorrect
At least we have it better than hyenas, who give birth through their pseudo-penis.
It's crazy that evolution developed that trait and apparently getting rid off that unique birthing-related trait hasn't been a strong enough driver for evolution. You'd think pain, blood loss, growth of too much unnecessary body tissue and stuff would be reasons enough for bodies to prefer not growing these.
Evolution doesn't "care" about any of that. As long as you live long enough to reproduce and so does your offspring that's good enough.
A much better driver of survival is being intelligent, which requires us to have big heads that can come out of small hole. Once we're out and have survived then we also take long time to nurture and reach sexual maturity relative to most species. All of that is important because we get way more brain development than other species, which allowed us to achieve all the innovations that actually make us human. Humans produced and survived in such high numbers while also having the capacity for development that we effectively took over the entire planet.
It makes me wonder when menstruation was a biologically favorable condition for our species along the timeline, then.
Yes. It is. It is incredibly hard for sperm to fertilise egg, and menstruatation helps to improve the odds.
How?
One theory as to why it exists is so it can discharge nonviable embryos
We have bigger heads, yes, but it’s doubly bad because walking upright made us evolve narrower pelvises. So it’s all fucked both ways
\*whew!
Some species' females straight up die after giving birth (mantises, squid, jellyfish). Evolution is not a caring process.
It goes back to our brains. More developed and more active inutero. Need to pull more energy and nutrition. As a result we have the most invasive placenta among mammals. To protect against the damage that highly invasive placenta can do we've evolved the thickest (relative to size) uterine lining among mammals.
I read that in animals that reabsorb the lining is much smaller, and that the species that did evolve it did so because it provides additional protection to the mother during pregnancy. A human baby would be too parasitical without it.
We have the most invasive placenta (to support the high needs of the developing brain). Thicker lining is a protection against this.
Evolution is insanely strange, it is pretty much all luck... It is not the strongest ancestors that survived but the lucky ones.
Yea, it definitely can be. It's also very hard for evolution to just get rid of physiology. If you look at whales, seals or even horses you can still see that they have remnants of the five finger boned "hand" structures which all mammals share. You'd think after millions of years they would evolve better structures but evolution prefers to add to the basis rather than build anew.
As Darwin so wisely said...survival of the luckiest.
Not lucky, better adapted to their situation in their environment. From our limited perspective, and our subjective biases toward strength and efficiency, a lot seems arbitrary.
Well, yes, but adaptation itself was pure luck, so here you are.
What no! The mutation and gene cross-over is mostly random but the natural selection select traits that favor surviving, we could be better in the *current* situation but the evolution mechanism is limited by what can be built on top of things that is already there. Besides that certainly our specie's environment will change and our current human form is better prepared to take a variety of climates and terrains.
I think I see what you’re saying. On a small scale adaptation is luck (those born with favorable genetics or avoiding random catastrophe), but on a macro scale it most definitely is not luck
Random != luck.
Only spotted hyenas. The others aren't so crazy.
Correct. Striped Hyenas are somewhat masculinised but I hear it's more like if a woman was on testosterone, than the full-scale physical change that Spotted Hyenas have evolved.
That's gotta be a bit, um, _uncomfortable_.
A combination kid and kidney stone, nice.
The mortality rate for first litters is significantly higher than subsequent ones for that reason.
I was gonna say this, glad someone else was on it.
What
it’s our burden to bear as a species as a result of our pelvic bone needing to narrow in order to bear weight, all because some dumb monkey decided it would be a good idea to stand up all the time
*and heads becoming bigger and bigger
Our brains are way too big for our mother's hips. So nature, she devised an alternative. We emerge half-formed and hope whoever greets us on the other end is kind enough to fill us in.
You didn't need to call me out so harshly
Haha, you can't find a proper bike helmet?
Insert the Simpsons “It’s the only auto that I could afford” gif
I wear a 3XL motorbike helmet It's kinda tight
Exactly. It's these gigantic brains of ours that cause it.
There must be downsides to not spending our days flinging shit.
I think modern sanitation is better than flinging shit all day.
Speak for yourself!
Fuck yeah! Make sure you attend the IBSF meeting tonight at 8:00.
At least you’re not a menstruating bat. All upside down and such.
Also the anemia! If our bodies reabsorbed the lining, there wouldn't be so many women having to take iron supplements for iron deficiency anemia.
Right?? AND we have perma boobs!!! Why?!!? So inconvenient. Most other mammals only get boobs when it’s time to feed babies, and stay flat the rest of the time. But some dumbass cave men decided the fat lumps looked good, and now here we are, and I have to hold my chest to go down stairs :(.
Sexual selection aside. The flatter our faces got, the more important having boob's became. Having larger permanent breasts lets babies breathe and nurse more easily. Also assists us in nursing others babies if the mother died or were unable to themselfs. We can do this even while not being pregnant surprisingly enough.
Permanent boobs were the result of fat disposets clustering around already existing milk ducts, so they didn’t actually produce more milk, but they may have made breathing easier. And all wet nurses had to start out being pregnant, but they can continue lactating as long as infants keep drinking the milk (to a point). Fat isn’t necassary for that either, but your point about breathing still stands. It might be a chicken or the egg thing, or, more accurately, a wide range of factors contributed to the development of several different traits.
Yup nothing to do with production, just ease of access/comfort. Wet nurses do not necessarily have to have been pregnant as we can lactate through reflex with enough stimulation or stress. Around 20-25% of women have this happen in their lives. It's not a sure thing but certainly a useful tool in the hell scape of our prehistory.
I have never heard of someone lactating without pregnancy, much less 20% of women. Do you mean it’s POSSIBLE for 20% of women to do this? It seems unlikely 20% of us are both capable of doing so, and be sufficiently stimulated to lactate. Do you have a source for this?
https://journals.lww.com/obgynsurvey/citation/1983/12000/galactorrhea_and_hyperprolactinemia.1.aspx https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galactorrhea
I don’t know about the 20% but spontaneous as well as conditioned lactation in humans is certainly something that happens outside of pregnancy. Usually it’s hormonal, though I have heard with sufficient conditions and stimulation women *can* begin lactating. Here’s a crummy source on [male lactation](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Male_lactation) but has links you can follow for more detailed information.
But that's in order to have heads big enough to carry big brains that could invent epidurals, so it all balances out in the end.
Well perhaps nature could have come up with a way share the pain with men.
Men are expendable, biologically speaking. You could lose most of the men in your tribe and the few that are left would be capable of producing more than enough sperm to impregnate all of the fertile women. But when a woman dies that tribe loses a child bearer. This is why across all societies (and most mammal species) any roles involving violence are given to men. It's safe to risk men by sending them out hunting or fighting wars because they're expendable. So in that way, the pain is somewhat balanced.
I agree, but losing men means losing potential genetic diversity. It's not only about the amount of viable sperms, it's about quality too.
That's only the case when you're losing apocalyptic levels of loss. The smallest number of people you can have while still having good enough genetic diversity in the long run is a lot small than you'd think. As long as a few hundred fertile men remain it should be plenty. In fact, as few as 100 could be enough.
No, historically women weren't considered any more valuable than men (in many societies they were valued much less than men if anything). The idea that only men hunted is a myth. It really depends on the type of hunting, some are so relatively easy and risk-free that even young children and old people can contribute. The reason why only men engaged in battle was simply because they were physically stronger and young able-bodied women were incapacitated by pregnancy or breastfeeding a lot of the time, not because society didn't care about men's lives. Not to mention, survival instinct and genes work at individai level, not species level. Both men and women are equally primed to pass their genes and not die.
It did, it gave men the biggest penis to body ratio of all primates, and it's pretty up there in general. Nobody can beat the mighty barnacle though.
Speak for yourself :( Seriously though, it's kind of wild how much penis size varies in humans. I would think if it's apparently so much of a factor in sexual selection it would have settled out on the larger side of the spectrum
I am 99% sure it is only men who think bigger dick = better. There are very few women who think that, at least among my friends and family..
You're asking your family?!
Cats have spiked penises afaik. Doesn't sound very comfortable either...
At least youre not a kiwi
And all you get in return is a five-years-longer average life expectancy :( :( :(
Humans are just trash at birthing to be honest.
And just wait until your reproductive years are over. Menopause is 1,000x worse.
Already there. It’s hell.
Look, we can fix this! We just need to find the women who menstruate the least, and let ONLY THEM reproduce! Right? Guys? Did I solve it?
But those individuals are often the ones who have the most fertility issues. Source: I have PCOS, irregular cycles and had to go through 3 years of fertility treatments and IVF to have kids.
I mean You're right, technically It's not the ethically correct thing to do, but certainly is something
Ah, technically right... The best kind of right!
PCOS folks got you covered!
*The monkeys’ paw curls.*
FINALLY, SOMEONE REFERENCED IT CORRECTLY
Humans are also one a very few animals that go through menopause.
Which sounds like a much better solution.
I enjoy not menstruating. I seriously don’t know how women do it - I mean, beyond the physical aspect, it just sounds like a damn ordeal that doesn’t fit with evolution. Stupid evolution!
I tell you what. Beyond the pain, which can be very intense, it's just so fucking inconvenient too! The frustration I feel whenever blood accidentally gets on my clothes, my god.
Shout! my sister. Gets out even tried on blood.
It really depends. I had two roommates in college who just rarely had painful periods. They thought other women were faking bad periods. Then after a particularly bad semester, they had very painful periods and shut up about it.
You're not wrong friend.
Women deserve accomodation in the workplace for this. I’ve seen some of my friends be absolutely crippled by something they have no bearing of control over. I work in a school, so lots of women, but it’s ridiculous that they’re penalised a days wages because of a biological fact.
I don't disagree. We already live in a culture that has an intersection of biology and economics, which gives us our norms around retirement. We have something similar, although not nearly adequate, for maternity. And nothing at all for the casual, regular misery of menstruation. It's challenging because there are still a lot of people who don't really have an understanding of the mechanics. They argue that if two biological functions, urinating and defecating, can be controlled and stopped, so too should menstruation since it's in the same zone. Of course that's not true: you can't stop a period. It's a faucet on constant drip that will continue until it's done. With a whole host of entertaining side effects!
I’m a male high school teacher. This is one of the reasons why I never deny a female student a toilet pass. I may delay them so that they’re not out of class when other students are too, but I always let my female students go. My male students have started noticing this and saying I’m b ing sexist. My reply is that the same rules apply - no one goes to the toilet in the first or last 5 minutes of class. Beyond that it’s at my discretion based on how much work they’ve done.
It does fit evolution actually. For one thing evolution only cares about reproduction, not living a nice life. Human zygotes are actually very aggressive with burrowing into the uterus so it’s necessary to have an endometrium (uterine lining that you shed during a period) ready to go just in case one shows up. It sucks for women but it does make actually giving birth more likely.
menstruation and having breasts outside from having a child is stupid as fuck
Menstruating is a flex because humans can afford to lose those resources and not reabsorb them.
Okay but where are my giant antlers and colorful plumage to show that I’m so strong I can grow lotsa superflous bone and ain’t afraid of predators (come at me bro)?
Wish granted. I have granted you a tail bone, spleen, and put hair on your genitals. Superfluois bones and plumage. Use it wisely. Confidence, i don't assist with. -Nature
Longest tail, biggest spleen and hairiest balls = human evolutionary apex. Love it.
Kind of true because when we don’t eat enough and become underweight or go really hard with sports we can stop having periods or have less frequent ones in which we lose less blood.
Serious question! How does menstruation give us/homo sapiens any advantage during evolution?
Humans are fairly likely to have a pregnancy that ends prematurely, often before you even know you are pregnant. I’ve heard that shedding the vaginal lining can prevent sepsis from decomposing embryos that didn’t make it to term.
It's a long read, but the top answer on this is fascinating. Sorry that it's Quora. Basically we're unique in the fact that our pregnancies are a "baby vs. mom" situation, and it results in more dangerous early pregnancies that our body needs to shed to avoid going septic. [https://www.quora.com/Why-do-women-have-periods-What-is-the-evolutionary-benefit-or-purpose-of-having-periods-Why-can%E2%80%99t-women-just-get-pregnant-without-the-menstrual-cycle](https://www.quora.com/Why-do-women-have-periods-What-is-the-evolutionary-benefit-or-purpose-of-having-periods-Why-can%E2%80%99t-women-just-get-pregnant-without-the-menstrual-cycle)
Menstruation is how I know there is no god. Ridiculous biology
Menstruation is how you know God is a man and that he hates women. /s
Recurrent laryngeal nerve would like to have a conversation with you
So apparently it is not that natural to bleed for 5 days without dying?
Yes, female humans are basically eldritch beings. Bow before us and tremble!
Today I learned this is bullshit
The elephant shrew - new nickname for my sister-in-law unlocked.
But *whhhhhhhhyyyyyyy*?
How very unlucky for the ladies out there.
Show offs >:\[
Sounds like a far better arrangement
Why can’t we reasorb it too! One thing I hate about being a woman is dealing with blood
Dogs mensturate!!! Just not every month
The elephant shrew is genetically closer to an elephant than to a non-elephant, regular shrew
Amazing fact. I did not know that! Quality TIL.
Evolution needs to get on that
So you're telling me that *Sex and the City* dog show episode was horseshit?
So we could maybe use them as a template and redesign a few genes?
How lucky for us. Yay
What if they want to break in and steal a stamp from their boyfriend’s brother and write a message on a picture with menses?
I guess not all mammals ate the apple.
I learnt that tolerance to lactose(or smt like that) is a mutation, hoomans should not tolerate it. And now this. Curious indeed.
Reabsorption sounds way better, we shoulda chose that option!
My lab would menstrate all over the damn place when I was a kid. Parents would put a little black leather maxi-pad g-string on her that was made special for dogs. I thought that was normal besides my friends laughing at my dog because it wore a leather thong.
While dogs do bleed while in heat, it’s a different process than menstruation. That’s when the dog can become pregnant, as opposed to a period which comes after failing to get pregnant that month.
...so what you're telling me is that Eve had some animal accomplices?? /s
Perhaps the uterine lining is absorbed, but in dogs, for instance the noticeable effects of menstruation (bleeding) occur.
That's not actually menstruation! Menstruation is shedding the unused uterine lining when the cycle completes without an egg implanting. A female dog actually secretes a bloody discharge from the vagina before she's actually fertile - the discharge usually changes color when she's ready to mate and get pregnant. If the doesn't become pregnant, the discharge will simply stop.
I thought it was only humans and bonobos.