What is the male equivalent of menstruation?

I don’t think men get periods.

…there isn’t one…

The man who wrote Men are From Mars said men have a roughly 6 week cycle and if women paid attention we’d understand men better.

I read somewhere they do get some version of PMS but I forgot what it’s called. Any ideas? Or was this just another Enquirer story?

@faye – how is this cycle the equivalent of menstruation? What are they doing, and why?

There’s a Man-struation joke in here somewhere.

Basically men are fertile all the time, and don’t need to make internal preparations to carry a child to term, so in essence they don’t have a menstrual cycle. However, they may still have a hormonal cycle. I know that a scientist who lived on an isolated research station did a study on his beard growth and discovered that his beard grew faster the week before he was scheduled to go into town on his every-two-month break, where he had a sweetie.

I could go dig the book out if I wasn’t so energy efficient. He was referring to our cycle causing understandable behavioral influences from hormones. I think he was talking about a sort of burnout cycle. It was a long time ago.

@faye – Ah, okay. I was taking “equivalent of menstruation” to mean some preparation for reproductive success, or perhaps shedding the lining of the prostate gland (said to be the organ that is parallel to the uterus in women), not necessarily something as broad as a hormonal cycle.

@Darwin – Have you ever heard of the band Da Yoopers? I keep thinking, It’s the second month of Beard Camp…

I have never heard of male menstruation, but have heard of male menapause.

@laureth I posted that clip on my facebook! Make my friends smile for New Years.

masturbation.

It had to be said.

I’m confused.

Wh… uh… masturbation and menstruation aren’t .. uh… oh, nevermind.

Menstruation is the female body preparing for impregnation.
Masturbation is the male body preparing to impregnate.
Sheesh, I hadda spell it out for you?

@Kelly_Obrien – Actually an erection is the male body preparing to impregnate. Masturbation is what they do when they get all ready but no one else shows up.

Here we go. LOL!

@Kelly_Obrien You’re absolutely correct.

Except you aren’t.

Well, I do recall hearing a joke about menstruation being the time of month when women act the way men act all the time….

;)

Manopause?

Since when has masturbation become a male only thing??!!

@ccrow – you took the words right out of my mouth! Chronic constant male PMS hehehe.

They do get moody and PMS-y, but no menstruation. They know not the pain which that is.

@faye if we’re talking embryology here there really isn’t an equivalent of a uterus in males. We do however have an equivalent of a vagina. About half way down the penis there’s a small bump of tissue with a whole in the middle of it…that hole was our developing vagina that stopped developing…thank God!

@faye Guys masterbate!? :-/

@chrisf2009 I love to know these things. I’ve taken anatomy courses, why do they leave the interesting things out?

@faye These interesting things are what got me through gross. :-) It made it just bearable.

Queuing up their ejaculate and/or shedding unnecessary sperm cells. Men’s reproductive systems are constantly at work, just like those of women. Every day, a man is queuing up sperm readying for just the right moment to ejaculate. His behavior is carefully tailored to make his ejaculation as potent as possible. Masturbation, for instance, gets rid of older sperm that will be less viable. Ejaculation into a long-term partner will be different depending on how long she’s been around; she gets a bigger, juicier load after an aggressive bout of copulation if she had the opportunity for infidelity (pornography exploits this reaction; when a guy sees porn, he becomes instantly aroused by the act of another guy having sex; his urge is to ejaculate into the woman so he can compete for the chance to fertilize her). Ejaculating into a new partner might mean a big, fat, juicy load replete with the most potent sperm cells possible.

TMI

The ‘juicy’ word only appeals to me if we’re talking steak.

@faye – hehehe, I must admit I agree! ga

So when a man sees copulation in a porn movie, he thinks, “That woman is excellent Mom material for my kids.” Tee hee!

(Yeah, I know it’s not as conscious or deliberate as all that.)