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Do you ever question why we have to go through so much pain?

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    #32
    Dolbert
    Closed Accounts Posts: 6,154 ✭✭✭Dolbert


    Here's an interesting article on why chilbirth might be comparitavely so painful/ dangerous for human beings.
    Why do modern humans have larger brains than earlier people such as Homo erectus? As large brains cause problems in childbirth, infancy and locomotion, the advantage they offer must be substantial. This advantage might be associated with increased IQ, but there is a problem: evidence from MRI volumetric surveys, microcephaly and hemispherectomy shows that there exist individuals with psychometrically normal IQ but Homo-erectus-sized brains. Why did evolution increase brain size (with its associated costs) when humans (as these individuals demonstrate) can have normal IQ without bigger brains? I propose that the advantage may be related to increased capacity for an aspect of intelligent behaviour not measured by IQ tests but critical to the survival of our simple hunter-gatherers ancestors: the capacity to develop expertise.

    As for the menopause, surely it makes sense that our reproductive system stops at a point where it would be far too risky to become pregnant/ give birth. Sometimes the pain and suffering is there for a good reason.

    Oh, and guys, a kick in the nuts is only comparable to childbirth if you're getting kicked in the nuts at increasingly regular intervals for about 8 hours straight.


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    #33
    minidazzler
    Registered Users Posts: 14,739 ✭✭✭✭minidazzler


    Dolorous wrote: »
    Oh, and guys, a kick in the nuts is only comparable to childbirth if you're getting kicked in the nuts at increasingly regular intervals for about 8 hours straight.

    You'd have to pay alot to get that kind of fun.........The thing about getting kicked in the nut's is, you always remember it, and anytime you think about it, you wince in pain. It's not nice at all!!! and there's no epidural for it:D


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    #34
    The_Minister
    Registered Users Posts: 10,255 ✭✭✭✭The_Minister


    Dolorous wrote: »
    Oh, and guys, a kick in the nuts is only comparable to childbirth if you're getting kicked in the nuts at increasingly regular intervals for about 8 hours straight.
    No, getting kicked in the nuts is a unique kind of pain.
    There is no pain to compare to it.

    It's a sick, creeping, eeking pain, a nauseous pain, a pain different from any other.


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    #35
    Pherekydes
    Registered Users Posts: 16,164 ✭✭✭✭Pherekydes


    Dolorous wrote: »
    Oh, and guys, a kick in the nuts is only comparable to...

    How can women try to compare this to anything? Much less childbirth. Childbirth is a completely natural event, usually fully expected, with plenty of time to prepare. The vast majority of women undergo it happily, many multiple times, while a kick (or any kind of contact) in the balls is (usually) a totally unexpected and very dangerous assault.

    If any woman wants to swap a kick in the balls for your next confinement just let me know.


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    #36
    wasabi
    Registered Users Posts: 370 ✭✭wasabi


    Actually, until the advent of modern medicine childbirth was a hugely dangerous process which killed many women.


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    #37
    stovelid
    Closed Accounts Posts: 27,252 ✭✭✭✭stovelid


    wasabi wrote: »
    Actually, until the advent of modern medicine childbirth was a hugely dangerous process which killed many women.

    As were sport-derived testicle kicks, before the miraculous advent of jock straps.


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    #38
    Dolbert
    Closed Accounts Posts: 6,154 ✭✭✭Dolbert


    You're right, a kick in the balls is probably more painful than childbirth. I hear the same goes for man-flu. ;) I kid, I kid.
    Chandler Bing wrote:
    'So, you ever wonder which is worse, you know; going through labor or getting kicked in the nuts? ... You know, because no one will ever know, because no one can experience both. One of life's great, unanswerable questions.'

    As for those saying that at least with childbirth you get a baby at the end of it, that's exactly why I'm saying it's worse :P


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    #39
    Oryx
    Subscribers Posts: 19,425 ✭✭✭✭Oryx


    Ive had all of the pain type stuff listed by the op. Ive also had multiple full body orgasms, and I dont have to shave my face daily. Theres plusses and minuses to everything. No point overemphasising the bad stuff. I like being female, pain included.


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    #40
    RacoonQueen
    Moderators, Sports Moderators Posts: 20,365 Mod ✭✭✭✭RacoonQueen


    Try having sore boobs the morning of your long training run then you can moan. :D

    Men are naturally better looking than women too...they don't NEED make up...yet there's plenty of women I know who are awful looking without make up...yet most men look finnnnnnnnnnne.

    Damn being female.


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    #41
    Agent Smith
    Moderators, Regional East Moderators Posts: 21,503 Mod ✭✭✭✭Agent Smith


    Dolorous wrote: »
    You're right, a kick in the balls is probably more painful than childbirth. I hear the same goes for man-flu. ;) I kid, I kid.



    As for those saying that at least with childbirth you get a baby at the end of it, that's exactly why I'm saying it's worse :P


    When you give birth, and Grow a pair of testicles, i come over and kick you in them.


    Then you'll feel the the pain.


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    #42
    Oryx
    Subscribers Posts: 19,425 ✭✭✭✭Oryx


    mp1972 wrote: »
    Try having sore boobs the morning of your long training run then you can moan. :D
    I often do, I just leave that kind of detail out of the log. ;)
    Men are naturally better looking than women too...they don't NEED make up...yet there's plenty of women I know who are awful looking without make up...yet most men look finnnnnnnnnnne.
    Thats just social conditioning, that we expect men to be ruggedly handsome while the ideal woman has skin like a 5yo. Im as guilty of that as anyone, metrosexual does nothing for me. :D


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    #43
    bnagrrl
    Registered Users Posts: 996 ✭✭✭bnagrrl


    The quick answer is no.


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    #44
    wasabi
    Registered Users Posts: 370 ✭✭wasabi


    Dolorous wrote: »
    As for those saying that at least with childbirth you get a baby at the end of it, that's exactly why I'm saying it's worse :P

    Which you then have to breastfeed. With cracked, bleeding nipples and mastitis :)


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    #45
    Dudess
    Closed Accounts Posts: 37,214 ✭✭✭✭Dudess


    Faith wrote: »
    Your post is very subjective.
    Indeed, but even though my periods are a breeze, that doesn't change the fact that some women feel like they're at death's door every month. Ditto birth (sorry for stating the obvious here but there's a point to it :)). I think the OP is focusing on nature's imbalance, she's not saying every woman endures unimaginable suffering in those instances - but only women do, and men never have and never will.
    That said, you appear too negative OP. The "agonising sex" you talk about is kinda disturbing. I know it's different for many women, but that doesn't sound right at all. My first time wasn't the most comfortable but it wasn't "agony", and after that, it was just a matter of being sufficiently relaxed, turned-on and lubricated (no harm in a glass or two of wine if nervousness is an issue). The vagina needs to be in a certain "state" to accommodate penetration - doesn't sound like yours was. If I went a long time without sex and things "tightened" and then I was penetrated without being turned on/lubricated, by god I presume it would be extremely sore. Think of how rape victims who aren't virgins describe the experience as painful... seeing as it's not consensual, they're hardly gonne be aroused or lubricated and the changes that occur in the opening to accommodate penetration are not going on.
    On the other hand, when foreplay gets really hot and heavy, I'm absolutely longing to be penetrated.

    As for no vaginal orgasm, I climax all right but it's not as good for me as the clitoral orgasm, and what about all the other pleasures that come with being female? All those nerve endings everywhere make sex about far more than just penetration for us. I think it's amazing. :)

    OP, what's the point in getting upset about it? There is nothing you can do, only focus on the positives. It's not good for your mental health to get bitter about something which is beyond anyone's control. The way you ask how you can change it... well you can't.


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    #46
    daiixi
    Registered Users Posts: 2,347 ✭✭✭daiixi


    minidazzler wrote: »
    You'd have to pay alot to get that kind of fun.........The thing about getting kicked in the nut's is, you always remember it, and anytime you think about it, you wince in pain. It's not nice at all!!! and there's no epidural for it:D

    I have dislocated my ankle on a number of occassions and whenever I think about it I wince with pain also. But I don't go on and on and on about it like men do with respect to being kicked or even slightly knocked in the testicles. The whole testicle thing is a bit like the boy who cried wolf...


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    #47
    minidazzler
    Registered Users Posts: 14,739 ✭✭✭✭minidazzler


    daiixi wrote: »
    I have dislocated my ankle on a number of occassions and whenever I think about it I wince with pain also. But I don't go on and on and on about it like men do with respect to being kicked or even slightly knocked in the testicles. The whole testicle thing is a bit like the boy who cried wolf...

    Actually believe it or not, a slight knock is worse, because the pain is delayed, then you start feeling sick!!! It's horrible.


    And really, we are only messing when we are comparing a kick in the bollix to childbirth. Sure it's painful, but we are not being ripped open at the Vag. So ye got us there.

    I don't understand why anyone goes au naturale for Child bearing anymore. C-Section FTW.


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    #48
    Dudess
    Closed Accounts Posts: 37,214 ✭✭✭✭Dudess


    It is utterly bizarre though that something so natural and required for the population to exist at all... could be so gruesome. And even more bizarre is how dangerous it is. Just doesn't make sense.


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    #49
    Pherekydes
    Registered Users Posts: 16,164 ✭✭✭✭Pherekydes


    daiixi wrote: »
    I have dislocated my ankle on a number of occassions and whenever I think about it I wince with pain also. But I don't go on and on and on about it like men do with respect to being kicked or even slightly knocked in the testicles. The whole testicle thing is a bit like the boy who cried wolf...

    Next time you're wrestling playfully with the boyfriend slap him in the balls. Then accuse him of being a whiny bitch and crying wolf. :rolleyes:


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    #50
    Pherekydes
    Registered Users Posts: 16,164 ✭✭✭✭Pherekydes


    minidazzler wrote: »
    I don't understand why anyone goes au naturale for Child bearing anymore. C-Section FTW.

    Having seen kids born both ways I can't understand how women would opt for a c-section.

    They tear you a new one in your lower abdomen large enough to pull a 10 pounder out, and then stitch you back up. Like stitches? You'll love 'em after a c-section. When your abdominal muscles are in two separate pieces, being held together by stitches you'll understand why 'nature knows best'. You'll also realise you use your abdominal muscles for absolutely everything.


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    #51
    Piste
    Registered Users Posts: 11,440 ✭✭✭✭Piste


    Out of the list of painful things the OP posted not everything is something we "have" to go through. Sex and childbirth are almost always optional, in general people don't "have" to go through with either.

    Even if people elect to give birth then it needn't be that painful if they get an epidural- again it's choice as to whether they want to endure pain or not.

    I don't think being a girl makes my life particularly painful, almost all the pain in my life is caused by me being terribly clumsy and falling around and banging myself off things.


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    #52
    t-ha
    Registered Users Posts: 1,479 ✭✭✭t-ha


    Being a chick would suck. Period.

    As for reasons... **** happens. Unless you believe in God. Then God is punishing you.

    It gives me no pleasure at all to say that men are the genetic winners in life, but the fact is... ...oh actually I did get a small kick out of that.

    There is, of course, a simple method of revenge. Just pick a guy, marry him and then dedicate the rest of your life to making him more miserable than you.


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    #53
    Dragan
    Closed Accounts Posts: 13,497 ✭✭✭✭Dragan


    Yeah, chicks have it pretty bad on the whole body working against you thing.

    That said, the difference between males and females extends far beyond the biological and into the psychological and the social.

    No point in assuming that one side has it worse than the other....for a very long time there were men lying in trenches in warzones holding there guts in and they were there simply because they were men and couldn't dodge whatever reasons got them there in the first place.

    Then you have the women who were behind the lines, having to deal with the endless heartache of victim after victim.

    I think thats a nice example of the differences between the sexs at a different point in world history.

    Which would you rather be, or would you just be happy you live in your current situation?


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    #54
    Sleipnir
    Registered Users Posts: 5,514 ✭✭✭Sleipnir


    Moaning about the pain you have to go through is like moaning that the sun goes down every night. What's the ****ing point?

    Like the doctor said to my friends pregnant wife when she went in to him for the 1000th time after 3 months;

    "You are not "sick". Being pregnant is not an illness; it's a perfectly natural state for you to be in."

    Being kicked in the balls is not a natural state of being.:p


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    #55
    stovelid
    Closed Accounts Posts: 27,252 ✭✭✭✭stovelid


    Dudess wrote: »
    It is utterly bizarre though that something so natural and required for the population to exist at all... could be so gruesome. And even more bizarre is how dangerous it is. Just doesn't make sense.

    It's just to even things up with other species. When we're born, we're not in much danger of getting killed by our father in the delivery room, eaten by a non-family member on the way to school, or shot by a hunter on the way home. :)


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    #56
    The_Minister
    Registered Users Posts: 10,255 ✭✭✭✭The_Minister


    wasabi wrote: »
    Which you then have to breastfeed. With cracked, bleeding nipples and mastitis :)
    You're doing it wrong.


    Even I know you're meant to give them milk.


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    #57
    RacoonQueen
    Moderators, Sports Moderators Posts: 20,365 Mod ✭✭✭✭RacoonQueen


    minidazzler wrote: »

    I don't understand why anyone goes au naturale for Child bearing anymore. C-Section FTW.

    Takes much longer to recover from a c-section than natural child birth. I'd be asking the midwife when I can start training again as soon as the baby was born...c-section would only be done, for me, in a life or death situation as I will have gone about four months without running I'd want to be back out there ASAP. :pac:


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    #58
    Lockstep
    Registered Users Posts: 9,029 ✭✭✭Lockstep


    daiixi wrote: »
    I have dislocated my ankle on a number of occassions and whenever I think about it I wince with pain also. But I don't go on and on and on about it like men do with respect to being kicked or even slightly knocked in the testicles. The whole testicle thing is a bit like the boy who cried wolf...

    I'm not playing down the pain women experience in various things, but seriously, nothing I have ever experienced compares to being kicked in the nuts. I really dislike when women trivialise this.


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    #59
    coffee_cake
    Registered Users Posts: 81,310 CMod ✭✭✭✭coffee_cake


    Sleipnir wrote: »
    "You are not "sick". Being pregnant is not an illness; it's a perfectly natural state for you to be in."

    Death is a perfectly natural state too :rolleyes:

    I do get tired of all this "it's perfectly natural so there can't be anything wrong". There's a reason there's a f!-ton long list of problems that can be caused by pregnancy, from minor up to major including death. While some people yeah can be approaching the whingey stage, being "natural" doesn't preclude it making you feel pretty damn bad or unhealthy or having genuinely bad illnesses etc.


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    #60
    embee
    Registered Users Posts: 2,890 ✭✭✭embee


    Pherekydes wrote: »
    How can women try to compare this to anything? Much less childbirth. Childbirth is a completely natural event, usually fully expected, with plenty of time to prepare. The vast majority of women undergo it happily, many multiple times, while a kick (or any kind of contact) in the balls is (usually) a totally unexpected and very dangerous assault.

    If any woman wants to swap a kick in the balls for your next confinement just let me know.

    Women only undergo it more than once because the human body is such a great machine that you generally "forget" the pain of childbirth. I don't for the life of me remember the particular sensation of the pain, I remember it hurt but I don't remember how bad it was :) What I DO remember is the massive, massive rush that happened just after delivery, it was awesome. I've never taken hard drugs but I'd imagine it has to be pretty similar.

    Mother Nature rocks :D
    wasabi wrote: »
    Actually, until the advent of modern medicine childbirth was a hugely dangerous process which killed many women.

    It could be argued that modern medicine these days is far too quick to jump to intervention when there is no need. Modern medicine is perceived to be safer, but not always. It is said by some that home birth is safer than hospital birth!
    minidazzler wrote: »
    I don't understand why anyone goes au naturale for Child bearing anymore. C-Section FTW.

    For the vast, vast majority of pregnant women, you can't "opt" for a C-section for the heck of it. There has to be a medical reasoning behind it. It is major invasive surgery with a lot of recovery time post-partum. It's no joke and not something that should be entered into lightly.
    Sleipnir wrote: »
    Being kicked in the balls is not a natural state of being.:p

    lol maybe not Sleipnir, but you don't deal with the effects of being kicked in the balls for 9 months beforehand and 6-8 weeks afterwards.


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    #61
    midlandsmissus
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 3,838 ✭✭✭midlandsmissus


    embee wrote: »
    Women only undergo it more than once because the human body is such a great machine that you generally "forget" the pain of childbirth. I don't for the life of me remember the particular sensation of the pain, I remember it hurt but I don't remember how bad it was :) What I DO remember is the massive, massive rush that happened just after delivery, it was awesome. I've never taken hard drugs but I'd imagine it has to be pretty similar.

    Mother Nature rocks :D



    It could be argued that modern medicine these days is far too quick to jump to intervention when there is no need. Modern medicine is perceived to be safer, but not always. It is said by some that home birth is safer than hospital birth!



    For the vast, vast majority of pregnant women, you can't "opt" for a C-section for the heck of it. There has to be a medical reasoning behind it. It is major invasive surgery with a lot of recovery time post-partum. It's no joke and not something that should be entered into lightly.



    lol maybe not Sleipnir, but you don't deal with the effects of being kicked in the balls for 9 months beforehand and 6-8 weeks afterwards.

    I hear you bleed really heavily for 2 months afterwards aswell - is that true?:eek:

    To the posters who said about multiples, I don't get them!!!! Can all women get them or is it only some!? Is it random for you or do you do something particular to get them?

    I was thinking about the positives today, and the one thing I did come up with is I am slim and yet have big boobs. Not that I ever go around thinking 'wow ive got great boobs!!' but I hear this is a big worry for alot of girls with smaller ones, so I should be grateful I have them.

    On the whole though, as I have a particularly heinous reproductive system, and I have seen others with the same, such as this one poor girl faint from the pain of her periods at work, I'd definitely come back as a man next time if I had the choice. No question about it.


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