Do periods make you feel like less of a guy?

[notyouraverageguy]

Also, what do you do to cope with them?
And do any of you still pack or use your stp while on it?

PMSing and having a period makes me feel weak and like a girl. You know, being extra sensitive and emotional, having cramps and headaches and being in so much pain. Having to worry about "changing", and not wanting to go out or do anything.

One thing that helps me usually forget, after the first day cause thats usually my heaviest and most painful(just the worst cause you havent had it, you knkow)..Tampons, they work wonders to help you forget your even on it.

But idk sometimes I just feel really girly, so do any of you use packing to help you feel more like the man you are?

I hate this

[Sharky]

I don't really feel different. I don't pack or have a stp. It's just a hassle and my pants fit snugger. Whenever I'm feeling down I just play video games.

[rexgsd]

well, of course if it isn't enough that i'm a guy born in a chicks body and i think its disgusting, i have to have the female's cycles too. and even worse, they are really heavy and ->-bleeped-<-ing gross and horrible. excuse my french.
but basically, those few days, my mind just goes on full blast of 'blocking out' everything basically (the same thing i have to do when i shower, etc, but atleast a shower isnt 5 days long :/ )
i just say "i dont give a damn, ill go to the bathroom a hundred times during work,  i dont care what people think, but im not gonna sit here in my own female filth and rot and feel disgusting and womanly'. i dont use tampons, eww gross nothing is going in that female private area thats on me. i use pads, and i dont  care i use the biggest overnight whatever ones or else ill be going to 'change' them every 5 minutes instead of every 30 minutes or w.e., ugh. but yeah, i dont use my stp =( cause its just too much, and would interfere with my minds extreme blocking-out of everything. i still pack though, but partly because i have a weird layering method so its between my 'real' underwear where the pad is and stuff and another pair of underwear over it, so its safe so to say.

but yeah...i mean, i wouldnt say it makes me not a guy anymore, but it definitly doesnt make me feel like a regular guy. its like having a weird disorder that only girls get, and you happen to be one of the few guys that get it. in that case, how would you be able to feel very guyish? but yeah, i just block out everything those few days and get the hell through it, then after wards, i come back to earth and keep on living, haha.

(wow that was a long post lol. anyways, hope that helps a bit =P )

[notyouraverageguy]

Sharky, what system do you have? I would play video games but I dont have any :/

Rex,
I feel you, Its a real pain that I wish we didnt have to deal with.
It makes me feel vulnerable, and like im not tough lol idk I just try to get through the first day then im usualy good.
Yeah I wear 2 layers of undies also. And I think that trying to STP would be an extra hassle to having to go to the restroom every few hours.

[Sharky]

Xbox 360, PS3, and a Wii that I never play. I'm going to start playing WoW too. You could play PC games.

[Mr.Rainey]

Nope. The first day I am in so much pain I pass out and vomit. I feel pretty angry around it. Not because of PMS but the blind rage that I cannot have control over this body and that I am sick of it. I punch walls, cuss, yell and act like a complete bastard. The rest of the week I kinda avoid people. I still act kind of edgy because its not supposed to happen to me. Sometimes I drink and smoke after the first day because I get so fed up. I want this thing gone, and I wanna be better but I'm still in the closet because I want to keep my family. I tried to ask my doc for just a hysto and she won't listen, I know that I should seek someone else but I don't know if any transfolk are allowed surgery and no hormones. I guess i am blathering on but I am just so frustrated and pissed off that theres nothing else for me to do.

[Tad]

I view it as annoying and painful, but it's not the end of the world. I still pack but no STP as I really don't want to deal with bloody crappy bodily fluids on my stp. I use the big overnight pads too, so I don't have to change them every hour or so. I can throw one on and try and forget about it for 5+ hours.

[Alexmakenoise]

Mine aren't bad.  I wear pads and otherwise don't think about it.

[ilanthefirst]

I feel defeated when I see that it's started, but then I can sort of talk myself out of feeling like less of a man.  I say to myself, "this is an opportunity to prove how much of a man you are" by some silly macho standards that basically boil down to stoicism and try to just deal with it quietly and pretend it's not even happening.  The worst part for me is wearing girl underwear, because pads and boxers don't mix, but I can mostly forget about that except for when I go to bed and when I wake up, the only times I change my clothes. 

Oh, and I do use my STP (a pStyle) all month long, but the open funnel style isn't any trouble to clean. . . if I had an STP packer (or a packer at all), I don't know if I'd use it during shark week.

[jmaxley]

Shark week.  There's a good name for it.

[PixieBoy]

I "over-compensate" for my "lost" manliness. When I was younger and still closeted, I borrowed father's shower gel and used it then. Now I simply play violent video games and listen to music with more screaming (L7 and Hole are very good). I also try to look at "manly" videos and such things, and generally overcompensate.

I don't get PMS, I get PMH. premenstrual happiness. I get happy, confident and sex-crazed right before the period itself starts, ad I think it might be because the body is washed with T before the period. Most women/female-at-birth apparantly get cranky because of low E, but I get happy and feel awesome because of the high T!

[LordKAT]

-quoted from Mr.Rainey

I don't know if any transfolk are allowed surgery and no hormones.

My surgeon was willing whether or not I was on hormones. I just happened to get my T letter a bit before I got to my surgery date.

[Lukas-H]

It doesn't really make me feel anything except pain and annoyance. I hate having to use the pads and use 'different' underwear (I normally wear something akin to boxer-briefs, but pads just don't work in them and I have to use my old 'girly' underwear again every month).

The pain is terrible for a while, sometimes I try to ignore it but I end up giving in and taking pain-killers because I can't focus on anything when it feels like there is a big fist inside crushing my abdomen just below my stomach. The blood sometimes makes me a little dysphoric but I mostly try to ignore the hot, wet feeling and do things like watch movies, play video games or whatever else distracts me. I really try not to make a big deal out of it or complain because I don't see it as a really big thing unless I'm in a lot of pain and feeling really cranky and gross.

The mood swings are annoying as anything too, and I don't really always know how to deal with them, so I don't have much to say there.

[Aikotribs]

I'm not sure if it make me feel less of a guy, but it certainly doesn't make me feel like a girl.
For coping methods, I'm just a geeky gamer, I go kill stuff in a virtual realty. Since I got anxiety to rooftop proportions I rather stay home in general.
I'm not packing as long as it looks ridiculous on me.

I don't seem to get PMS, or real moodswings, I just get utterly depressed and I'm not really pleasant to be around with. I can be a whine, and I don't like it heh. As for the pain, I'v always imaged them to be a dozen of knives trying to find a way out of my body, thus I drug myself up completely for 2 days so I can somewhat resume my job without feeling like I'm dieing on the spot. I'v been taking pain killers starting from my early teen years, I can't imagine going true it without them.
oh and noting goes down there, just pads thats all. I don't mind the blood, tho its a hateful disgusting mess, and its like a once in a month reminder that 'I have noting down there' isn't really true.

[Clay]

i manage to ignore it most of the time. i just don't dig the blowfish-look^^

[meh]

Only when I talk about it.

[Wolf Man]

More and more recently, I've been forgetting about this little bastard. It's nice and joyous and suddenly I'm in pissier moods than I have been. Or maybe I feel like crying a river over something so mundane. That's when it hits me like a sack of bricks and I feel disgusting.

I feel like a woman, I feel wrong, I feel like I'm being punished in a way. I hate it. Being stealth and having these things really don't go together. I feel more self conscious when I have it. I do my best to try and just live through it.

[mm]

No guy his blood flowing out of him every month and call it a normal part of being man.  I use tampons so I don't feel that pad between my legs all the time and don't see it every time I pee.  I need only change it 2 or 3 times a day  usually.  That is all I have ever had in me.  I haven't mastered a stp yet, they all seems to all leak, probably need more paractice i n the shower to learn to feel where my urethra opening is.  Don't like to do much feeling around down there.  I should have a hose like guys do so I can just take it out and aim to pee.

[PixieBoy]

I tend to forget that I even have a period, as I forget that I have breasts and female parts. I have to think "Oh yeah, I have periods." and "Oh yeah, I have breasts, I can't just take my shirt off in summer." and "Oh, right, I can't pee standing up.".

I must be the most stupid member on this board

[DylanAugusten]

Completely. I hate that time of the month and can't imagine ever using sanitary napkins again, I did when I first started but moved over to tampons when I was in high school.

*Side note: I started T two weeks ago(Dec.8th) and a week ago shark week started...and it's still going on. I take my second shot tomorrow and I was just wondering if that's (I don't know) "normal"? Is it likely to stop when I take my second shot?