Devolving_Spud: The phrase i always hear at work: "I have a MIGRAINE!"

No, honey, you don't have a MIGRAINE. You'd be laying down in a dark room, unable to farking MOVE or even whimper in pain if you had a MIGRAINE. You have a farking HEADACHE, if anything! GBTW and STFU!

My Mother gets migraines. If I breathe too loudly on the opposite side of the house it causes her pain.

My uncle gets "migraines". He likea to complain about having them while listening to his stereo.

queezyweezel: So much this. I'm cold, my feet hurt, my arm's sore, I have cramps, I'm pregnant, it's a tumor.....biatch biatch biatch....

surprised this hasn't been done yet but...IT'S NOT A TUMAH!

Why do you put up with it?

Cause if we don't, we lose the house, the cars, the savings, the kids and .99 cents of every dollar we'll ever earn.

rubi_con_man: phlegmmo: ...women are more likely to mention minor ailments on a daily basis

I've often wondered why that is.

Because they're complaint machines.

Really, I understand your 'period' sucks, but is it a reason to make MY life suck for 8 days a month? How about you steele yourself emotionally for the matter and stop biatching to me. I can't fix a goddamn thing going wring in your body. I can't Replace your skin, or hair, I can't carve out the bits that are causing you pain and Frankly, you don't want to hear about the ice-pick-to-the-forehead that is the cure for your psychotic metal and emotional issues. Seriously, 1/3 of the year, you are clinically insane. That's 120+ days! That's a whole June, July, August and September full of you being a total biatch.

I do my best. I try to pamper you for a few days. I bring you breakfast in bed a few times, I try to pitch in with the housework. I indulge you with crap we really cannot ignore and I try to be supportive my listening to your insane crap.

But the fact is - you become a totally irrational, needy prick for the whole time and ... what is worse ... you act like it's your total right to simply dump this stuff on me (note: you don't treat anyone else like this ) over and over and over. Then you wonder why our relationship is degrading and how we can be emotionally out of sync.

...and then I want to stay in bed twice a year because I don't feel well and you have the unmitigated balls to question my dedication to you, my manhood, and all of freaking reality?

I wonder where misogyny comes from ... Hmmm...

/is a puzzlement
/oh, and I'm sick of hearing about your job, too.

I promise not all women are like this. I'll be the first to tell you that periods suck. But I'm also of the mindset that since there's nothing I can really do about it aside from getting a hysterectomy (which comes with its own hormonal roller-coaster ride), I don't complain. I figure, I don't want to hear about how Mr. Stonepa's "boys" get stuck to the side of his leg, etc, so he in turn most likely doesn't want to hear about how my Aunt Flo is that day. And if my hormones do crash and I start crying over the TV being too loud, I apologize because I realize it's irrational to think this way.
I tend to think that women who feel the need to be pampered and treated like a princess, as if they're the only farking woman on Earth who menstruates, need to be sent back home to Mommy and Daddy, where she was most likely instilled with this belief. Let them deal with her.

Ever since having a c-section, I have found most "pain" isn't worth complaining about. Aww, does the poor widdle pwincess's head huwt? Maybe she should have a 5-inch gash in her abdomen to put things in perspective.

FTFA: "According to the women surveyed, almost half of men will exaggerate their symptoms."

Survey invalid.

My ex would biatch about this stuff everyday. She was pretty much the textbook definition of a hypochondriac. Every little body pain MUST be some rare jungle illness she somehow contracted. For example, she would claim it was her "IBS" making her sick rather than eating a shiatload of fast food (...weight became an issue as well, whole other story there). I assume she would go to webmMD every morning and choose her ailment of the day.

I do have to admit that I probably play up my illnesses. I get sick maybe twice a year; i believe its justified to biatch about it a little. Plus, the woman tends to me, and who doesn't love that??

I'm a woman. I don't complain about being sick unless I'm vomiting so forcefully I've lost all motor control beyond being able to hold a garbage bag under my face. When I have my period, the only part of it that makes me feel different from "normal" is that I'm bleeding, and even that's easily controlled. My fiance said he'd make a terrible woman because he wouldn't know what to do if he started bleeding from "down there." I have two herniated discs in my back and yes, sometimes the pain flares up. But I still suck it up and try to function normally. I usually can, unless it gets bad enough that I can't walk. That's only happened once, and I had to have someone take me to the ER.

/ovaries of steel

I have kidney stones, a pretty much unfakable thing since if I want pain meds I have to get x-rays to prove I have one. I get routine medical visits and labs drawn yearly to ensure I have some level of health.

Wife has fibromyalgia and a host of other symptoms, mainly related to the fact she's anemic and doesn't get the right iron and B12 supplements. Hates going to doctors, because her symptoms are often so non-specific they can't diagnose her properly. It's a daily grind of "tiredness, non-specific aches and pains," and the only valid one I see is back pain related to her getting read-ended in a car accident, pain for which she will not seek treatment for (terrified of back surgery).

It's one thing not to complain about every little thing, it's another to let a chronic illness fester in stoic silence until it gets out of hand. A person will only get better if they WANT to, and it's easy to drag out the sympathy card for years doing that.

I love that all the women who cried wolf made it really f--king hard for anyone to take me seriously when I had abdomen pain that eventually got so bad it landed me on the ground (then in a urgent care place, then directly to an ER without passing Go or getting $200).

Thanks, ladies.

A collection of anecdotes gathered from people who are commenting on other people's illnesses does not constitute a "study", nor does it have any scientific or statistical relevance. This article is shiat.

Another interpretation of this "study" is that what's really happening is that women have less tolerance for men being ill than men do of women, therefore they assume the men are exaggerating.

/i refuse to accept "whinge" as the correct spelling of anything.

Kozmopoliskepticalopsis:

I wish I had a nickel for every time I've told my wife, "so, what do you want me to do about it?"

/yes, I know they want "emotional support" or some crap like that
//we are not wired for such things

yeah, a lot of us women are aware of this fact

complain to a woman she offers empathy, complain to a man and he thinks you want him to solve the problem

as was said before, sometimes we just want to vent

also to the above posters, yeah 8 days period is insane average period is about 3 days, 4 if it's a heavy month, (honestly I can't really relate, while I do get the mood swings and hormone cycles each month, I don't get the bleeding or cramps or anything, not sure if I'm lucky or not in that aspect) couple that with the "Why do you put up with it?

Cause if we don't, we lose the house, the cars, the savings, the kids and .99 cents of every dollar we'll ever earn." and frankly even most women will tell you that you married the wrong person

8 days period is insane average period is about 3 days, 4 if it's a heavy month,

GOOD GOD! You must be kidding! Mine used to be 14 days. Complete with psychosis, anemia and stomach cramps so bad my husband couldn't loosen them by pushing on them with his whole weight.

The pill helped the anemia. I switched to Depo and EVERYTHING went away - haven't had a period for 6 years now and no emotional roller coaster. (No getting tubes tied because I REALLY don't want my natural period to come back!)

Just an FYI guys, being on the other end of the monthly psychosis is no picnic either, at least you can leave the house. Imagine what it's like having that trapped in your own head with you, and it's driving. If your lady is having problems like this have her check into other forms of birth control.

Also, men are bigger crybabies when they are sick. That's because men want to be pampered by women when they are sick, where women just want to be left alone. I don't even want to be looked at when I'm sick.