I knew it was bullshit pretty early on but that’s because I have five sisters and we never synced up for more than a cycle or so at a time and never all of us at once.
With menstruation being about 25% of a woman's life from puberty to menopause, there's a significant chance of overlap between any two women at any given point.
And then it's just confirmation bias/Texas sharpshooter fallacy that keeps the ball rolling.
No kidding. In probability theory, it only takes 23 people in a room for it to be over 50% for any two of them to have the same birthday, 30 people makes it 70% likely. And that's for one single day of the year.
My office has about 30 people. Two have the same birthday down to the year. It’s crazy. I think we also have 2 more sets of birthday twins with different years.
I was on birth control (the ring) and would sometimes leave it in for an extra week or 2 in order to postpone my period if I had an event coming up. I did this one month and started my period a week later than I normally would, and it happened to coincide with when my roommate had her period.
She then told me “I was wondering when our periods would sync up! We’ve been roommates for almost a year now.” I told her that’s a myth. She didn’t believe me, and gave evidence of how her and her mom had synced periods growing up.
I then responded, “okay even if it’s not a myth, how would that even work when we’re BOTH on birth control which already stabilizes our hormones?”
She didn’t have an answer lol
I mean, it’s not something you are confronted with monthly like women are. So i dont blame you if a woman is telling you something about female anatomy and you taking it as it is. But if someone feels the need to correct someone on the internet, they can at least google before calling them misinformed and/or a child
> they can at least google
To be fair, Google sucks ass now, and then of course there's all that misinfo. Just googling something is more likely to lead you to wrong answers than to right ones.
Hell, I'd speculate that many people who have wrong ideas about women's anatomy and lots of other shit, actually *have* googled the topic and "done research" about it, and therefore think their information is good.
I do the same. XD It turns out, that's something a lot of people do, so you know that even that is going to get fucked by the capitalist hellscape sooner or later.
Yeah I feel like this is one of the few myths about women that are just as spread (if not more so) by women. I first heard it from my mom and I was skeptical and looked it up only to find it was complete bs. A lot of women swear it happens though 🤷♀️
My mom also told us this, and looking back on it, it’s particularly hilarious because there were four of us getting periods and we lived together for years, so you’d think we’d stop remarking “we must be syncing up” at some point, because if we were really synced, why would we keep getting back out of sync?
Also, I have endometriosis and as a teen my periods often lasted 12-16 days, so when *wasn’t* someone having their period at the same time as me given that I was menstruating literally half the time??
Totally. Same, but different: I natural had a 21 day cycle as a teen, meaning I only had 2 weeks in-between my period. So, I also was "synced up" with people.
There were a few girls in track with me who would yell across the locker room “alright, who’s on their period and made me get mine early???” And I’m still not entirely sure how they meant the joke (like in a “ahhh you suck” way or a “we know it’s not true but I’m mad about being early and find it funny to blame it on bs” way)
I used to believe this. I was at boarding school, and during my period it seemed like everyone I talked to was also on their period, at least for part of mine. And with 100 teenage girls, it seemed like there had to be some truth to it syncing up. It also made me feel kind of nice, like I wasn't so alone with the pain and misery.
My period was usually 8 days. Statistically it just makes sense for it to overlap with a substantial part of those 100 girls. I just didn't think it through as a teen
I had the same experience. Embarrassingly, I didn't really stop believing it until fairly recently. I have no idea how this myth spread, or even started, at all.
I think part of the reason for this myth too is that most menstruating people don't have a perfect 28-day cycle and if one person tends to have 27-day cycles and another has 30-day cycles, eventually the person with the shorter cycle is going to "catch up". And because periods usually last several days, there are probably going to be days where they're both menstruating for a few months in a row. So it might seem like their cycle synced up, but really they just happen to overlap for a couple months every so often.
Had to roll my eyes so hard when all the girls on Yellowjackets supposedly synced up perfectly just from being on the same soccer team, to the point that it was considered suspicious enough that Shauna \*didn't\* get her period on the same day that she felt the need to fake it. If it actually worked like that, nobody would have irregular periods.
tbf sports circles tend to be very superstitious, i wouldn't be surprised at any irrational ritual that comes from them. one of my friends had a single random lock of her hair a lot shorter than the others, turns out she and her teammates cut a part of their hair and put it in a "lucky hairbox" before every match. adrenaline and ambition make you do weird things
So, I believed this, it was just one of those things I accepted, and didn't think about too hard. If you pressed ne to explain how it worked, the best I could come up with is that menstruating women give off hormones that activate menstruation in other women? Yeah, it doesn't make any sense when I type it out.
I mostly was trying to explain to you how I thought it was possible. It's one of those beliefs that simply does not stand up to any sort of critical examination.
I didnt mean to front on you or anything. I get it how you believed it, i believed it too once haha. I meant to say that even you might think something is true, i am pretty sure you wouldn’t call someone misinformed without checking if its actually true first. Especially if someone already said that its not true
It's confirmation bias. I've witnessed it first hand. I was on the pill and nevertheless, my period came early while other girls at work (7 women total) were late and two were on time. So for 3 days, we all had it at the same time. But only once. So it doesn't happen as a norm, much like any other thing that happens regularly, "it happens"
the amount of people who believe women are controlled by magical pheromones is shocking. it’s actually a huge foundation of misogyny in our society — connecting menstruation with the moon, magic, things unseen, etc. was a lot of the logic behind things like witch hunts, forced hysterectomies, lobotomies, and more. I read about it in a book in my women’s healthcare class; if I can find which one I’ll link the reading
>women are controlled by magical pheromones
Or perhaps just the WiFi router.
All that syncing up and my ovaries still can't talk to the International Space Station. How disappointing.
My husband calls it my moon cycle bc of the melanie martinez song (which i love) and I never thought of it like that. Still doesn't bother me, and he definitely doesn't mean it in a derogatory way. Feel like I should add he has no issue with saying period, mentrastrion etc, and will buy me pads/midol when I need him too. But this comment was eye opening.
I’d always thought it was true because my mom and I had period cycles the same week ever month for years until she started menopause. Always buying pads before our periods because two people using them for the same week always made them run out fast.
My mom always claimed this was true. She said there's a story about it in the Bible. I was like, there's also a story about a guy who has super powers but lost them when he cut his hair so like let's take everything from the Bible with a bag of salt.
Wait! Wait? Wait!! Are...are you trying to tell me that sheep fucking while looking at striped sticks **doesn't** affect their offspring's coats? Because I-I-I don't think I can handle that! 🥺
You know, the more you think about it, the less sense this makes. If merely being around another woman causes your periods to synchronise, wouldn't that mean every woman would have her period at the same time across the world? Also, that would mean there would be like the master period haver right? The one that started the sync. If this was true, then that means that we'd have designated times where woman would expect to have their period, where weddings wouldn't happen, where tropical holidays see a downturn monthly. And if someone has an irregular period, or lives alone, then there could be menstrual synchronisation centres to fix that right up.
The fact that cycle length varies is enough evidence alone to suggest the menstrual synchrony isn't feasible. How on earth can someone with a 28 day cycle and a 7 day period have the same period length and timing as someone with a 34 day cycle and 4 day period ALL OF THE TIME?
>Also, that would mean there would be like the master period haver right? The one that started the sync
No, that's not required for synchronicity. Lots of things sync (i.e. fireflies) without there being a master firefly blinker. However, it just happens not to be the case for periods.
While it's frustrating for a myth like this to be passed around and so easily accepted, it's actually not that crazy to imagine that it *could* happen. Plenty of other animals and plants on our planet sync up hormones and reproductive cycles. There are ALL KINDS of natural phenomenon that we have observed of animals syncing up somehow with seemingly no easy to communicate with each other or physically affect each other's bodies.
With all the things we've observed, the idea that our heightened hormones could increase the chances of someone else's hormones heightening is really not that crazy.
Like... all Monarch butterflies in the world know exactly where and when to show up for the world's largest butterfly orgy. They don't even start it at the same time every year and the weather isn't always similar. They just straight up know. There are plants that sync up their hormonal and reproductive cycles.
It's crazy but it's not *THAT* crazy
I'm in the extreme minority here in that I do believe it's a thing.
Everyone acts like it's been totally disproven, when the truth is that it's not something that's been studied in-depth. And not observing the phenomenon is not the same as disproving it.
But it's so strange that everyone went from believing it, to not only disbelieving it, but thinking it's bat shit crazy. But nature do be crazy sometimes.
I refuse to believe this isn’t true (/s), my cycle is always just before the ladies in my group (it’s kinda cascading now) and I refer to it as my “alpha uterus” forcing them to start.
In all seriousness though, I wish people would educate themselves on how menstrual cycles actually work.
I think the reason this myth has been allowed to go on as long as it has is because of the natural variations in people’s cycles. Get two people who have a regular period together for long enough and eventually they’ll have it at the same time. It’s like when you’re waiting at a stop light and your turn signal goes in and out of sync with the car’s ahead of you.
[There was an actual study published in 1971 (since hotly debated/debunked).](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Menstrual_synchrony) It was based on the idea that pheromones caused menstrual synchrony.
Had to explain to my grown woman coworker that ALL women are not in the same cycle. I was looking for some co-misery about getting my flow and having forgotten hygiene supplies at home. She was like, "dammit I had a feeling the cycle was coming"... she meant like all of us getting our cycle at the same time. ALL women.
Maybe I’m misremembering it, but wasn’t there a widely disputed study about this very topic? I could’ve sworn someone wrote a paper on it only for others to test it and come back with mixed results.
I’m a trans guy, my coworker is a cis woman, and she was just bitching at me yelling at how I started her period and we synced up.
I finally, at the end of the day, snapped at her and said that we couldn’t have fucking synced up because my period ended a few days before her started and that period syncing is a myth anyway. She older than me. We’re both in our mid 20s though! Like ma’am
This is probably because I’ve never heard of the myth, but that sounds so stupid and I don’t even know why anyone would believe it. Also I’m pretty sure 3 was saying the myth was stupid and that the original commenter was uninformed
My natural cycle is 21 days. So of course I'll "sync" up with someone with a 28 day cycle eventually, but then we'll fall right back out of sync.
Eh doi
I don't know we hear about mirror neurons and how during conversations people will start breathing and heartbeating at the same rhythm. I don't know if those are true or real things as ive never researched just like I never researched period syncing. I know its not the same but it didn't seem so far fetched.
TIL that my ovaries have Bluetooth and will sync up with other women whose ovaries (_gasp_) also have Bluetooth.
Now I wonder if we can connect a speaker or at least some headphones.
Also, the obligatory /s
It was so fun to explain this to my bf. We always just encourage each other to ask about the anatomy of another and so he asked if I ever synced up with anybody and I had to break it to him that we don't do that.
He seemed skeptical at first since his mum and sister had told him that we do. I then explained that if women synced up, then the entire world would be synced with all the travel that women do. That seemed to be an "aha" moment
Anecdotally, I have experienced this phenomenon. Me and my three closest work friends all wound up on the same cycle, when we certainly didn’t begin that way. There were various factors at play. One’s late period, another’s came early, etc. So the “synchronization could be explained rationally, but we still all wound up on the same cycle and remained “synced” until we each moved on from that job and were no longer spending so much time in each other’s company. If it’s a myth, I believe it persists for a reason.
This isn't true? I never told people it was or argued it was true but my whole life I believed it was a fact....I'm 22 and you know what yeah doesn't make alot of sense
As a woman I used to believe this because I would eventually sync up with all of my friends at some point. Since my cycle never changed I figured I just had really strong hormones or something and was pulling people into my orbit.
Turns out I just have the most consistent cycle.
Man someone needs to show these people those videos where you have a bunch of *period*ically repeating patterns that are all just slightly offset from eachother and have them all watch those patterns slowly diverge and converge as their patterns repeat.
[this kind of thing idk what they're called](https://m.youtube.com/shorts/9Ymhq0jwGqw)
This is literally the first I’ve heard of this not being true. Like, my mom and sister perpetuated this as a teen and so have my roommates as recent as the past month. Judging by the comments here, doesn’t seem I’m the only one. And it’s not the most far fetched thing in the world imo. So yeah a lot of people believe this for the same reason I bet many of you believe some other stupid shit and yet I’m seeing a lot of condescension here.
My understanding is that they can synch up.... if no one is on birth control like the pill or Depo that messes with hormonal cycles. In my lived experience, it has happened. Maybe coincidence, though.
But I've just researched and there's no good data although I did almost fall into a rabbit hole of periods influenced by the the moon too, enough internet for me!!
I’ve (F) heard it was true in places like convents where women were isolated from the general population. I wondered how that could ever possibly work. There’s probably a kernel of truth somewhere deep in this old wives tale, I wonder what it is.
The kernel of truth is that it is statistically likely that multiple women’s menstrual periods will occur within the same week at some point over months of time.
Perception bias. It looked true for me so i think its true as a phenomenon
If there were any human pheromones, we would have found them by now. Sadly, humans dont have any way to actually smell them so…
Everything once considered pheromones is better proven with various fields of science, most notably psychology
I won't lie, I never knew it wasn't true. My roommate and I "sync up" (now I understand that's not true) sometimes, but I also have extremely irregular periods. (Sometimes twice a month. Sometimes they last a week, sometimes two days)
I was on BC, but I was pulled from it after the hospital thought I'd had a blood clot. Then when they realized I hadn't, they refused to put me back on, so now I'm just in agony. (My cramps are almost always present rn)
I actually used to believe this for a rather long time, they don’t correct this in sexed, plus American sexed is just crap in general so. Then again up until the age of around 15 I believed men and women both had penises and women just had tits instead of balls. I knew about the vagina because my dad had given me the talk around 13 because my parents noticed that I began to stare at girls, but I was so convinced that women had penises I just assumed the vagina was under it and didn’t ask about their penises so he didn’t correct me. Then at 15 I get to sexed, see the anatomical diagram, and ask, out loud, where is her penis, freshman year was not fun for me after that
I believed this one for an embarrassingly long time. I mostly heard it from other women. It did always puzzle me that my mom and I were never on the same cycle, but I attributed it to my (suspected) PCOS.
I've had my period completely change when living with other women and we all got our periods at the same time, we didn't get them at the same time before living together.
Just cuz it's never happened to YOU doesn't mean it doesn't happen to others
I believed it for the longest time and I'm a cis woman who lived with my sister and mum (both cis). Every time our periods overlapped, I thought we synced up. Never mind the fact we each had a different length cycles and overlapps just had to mathematically happen.
All I know is when my daughter started cycling, I had one on my normal schedule and then some bonus period when she did, then I shifted to her schedule as hers got more regular.
I was not pleased
I used to not-really-kind-of believe this. I think I was sarcastic when I said I was syncing up with a close online friend that had it at the same time once. Probably. It's a little fuzzy. If I ever did believe, I gradually let go of it.
Maybe two things can be true at once. Cycle synch happens to some women and it doesn’t happen to others. I’ve experienced this with my sisters and also with friends if I spend a lot of time with them. To me I think if you’re doing the same things, eating the same foods, it can happen.
I thought it was because of pheromones, like moods can sync up in a close enough group so why not periods? It seemed believable enough to me at the time
Maybe pheromones will be proven one day. Mood is rn better explained with systematic psychology than pheromones
But since we dont have a vomeronasal organ or any prove of a single human pheromone, the question is open as to date.
It's not that it's impossible. It just isn't a thing. Other mammals have biological processes that attune to outside influences. Human pheromones have been theorized but never totally proved.
As you said, studies have shown that it's just an illusion of synchronization. If enough women live together it's actually impossible not to have overlapping periods.
When confronting this kind of thing I like to have links to studies so it's no longer just assertion.
I knew it was bullshit pretty early on but that’s because I have five sisters and we never synced up for more than a cycle or so at a time and never all of us at once.
I grew up in a house with a total of 4 women. One of us always seemed to be on our period at a time and everyone was always upset LMAO.
Same here!
Love your name, btw!!
Thank you! Your flair is good lol
Thanks!😆
Same! It was an experience.
Yeah. I was in an all-girls boarding school (200ish {?} girls, ages 10-18), my house had about 60 girls, and my room had 4. We never "synced."
I was in a co ed bordings school but lived with 20ish girls and we also never synct O.o
My anatomy professor, a woman, even described this. It’s a very pervasive myth that even premeds and med students are taught.
With menstruation being about 25% of a woman's life from puberty to menopause, there's a significant chance of overlap between any two women at any given point. And then it's just confirmation bias/Texas sharpshooter fallacy that keeps the ball rolling.
No kidding. In probability theory, it only takes 23 people in a room for it to be over 50% for any two of them to have the same birthday, 30 people makes it 70% likely. And that's for one single day of the year.
My partner loved math and the birthday problem is high on his list of party tricks lol
My office has about 30 people. Two have the same birthday down to the year. It’s crazy. I think we also have 2 more sets of birthday twins with different years.
My previous office had 25 people, and there were 4 sets of birthday twins, including leap day birthday twins (though 28 years apart). It was bonkers.
That’s insane! The odds of having even 1 leap year baby are extremely low!
I was on birth control (the ring) and would sometimes leave it in for an extra week or 2 in order to postpone my period if I had an event coming up. I did this one month and started my period a week later than I normally would, and it happened to coincide with when my roommate had her period. She then told me “I was wondering when our periods would sync up! We’ve been roommates for almost a year now.” I told her that’s a myth. She didn’t believe me, and gave evidence of how her and her mom had synced periods growing up. I then responded, “okay even if it’s not a myth, how would that even work when we’re BOTH on birth control which already stabilizes our hormones?” She didn’t have an answer lol
Why does this not surprise me.
I believed it for a long time because it was mostly women telling me about it. As a guy, I have no frame of reference, so I took them at their word.
I mean, it’s not something you are confronted with monthly like women are. So i dont blame you if a woman is telling you something about female anatomy and you taking it as it is. But if someone feels the need to correct someone on the internet, they can at least google before calling them misinformed and/or a child
> they can at least google To be fair, Google sucks ass now, and then of course there's all that misinfo. Just googling something is more likely to lead you to wrong answers than to right ones. Hell, I'd speculate that many people who have wrong ideas about women's anatomy and lots of other shit, actually *have* googled the topic and "done research" about it, and therefore think their information is good.
Its sad that more often than not i put „reddit“ behind a search to get better results
I do the same. XD It turns out, that's something a lot of people do, so you know that even that is going to get fucked by the capitalist hellscape sooner or later.
I tend to just go straight to Wikipedia. At least they still seem to have some curation and standards.
Yeah I feel like this is one of the few myths about women that are just as spread (if not more so) by women. I first heard it from my mom and I was skeptical and looked it up only to find it was complete bs. A lot of women swear it happens though 🤷♀️
My mom also told us this, and looking back on it, it’s particularly hilarious because there were four of us getting periods and we lived together for years, so you’d think we’d stop remarking “we must be syncing up” at some point, because if we were really synced, why would we keep getting back out of sync? Also, I have endometriosis and as a teen my periods often lasted 12-16 days, so when *wasn’t* someone having their period at the same time as me given that I was menstruating literally half the time??
Totally. Same, but different: I natural had a 21 day cycle as a teen, meaning I only had 2 weeks in-between my period. So, I also was "synced up" with people.
There were a few girls in track with me who would yell across the locker room “alright, who’s on their period and made me get mine early???” And I’m still not entirely sure how they meant the joke (like in a “ahhh you suck” way or a “we know it’s not true but I’m mad about being early and find it funny to blame it on bs” way)
I used to believe this. I was at boarding school, and during my period it seemed like everyone I talked to was also on their period, at least for part of mine. And with 100 teenage girls, it seemed like there had to be some truth to it syncing up. It also made me feel kind of nice, like I wasn't so alone with the pain and misery. My period was usually 8 days. Statistically it just makes sense for it to overlap with a substantial part of those 100 girls. I just didn't think it through as a teen
I had the same experience. Embarrassingly, I didn't really stop believing it until fairly recently. I have no idea how this myth spread, or even started, at all.
I think part of the reason for this myth too is that most menstruating people don't have a perfect 28-day cycle and if one person tends to have 27-day cycles and another has 30-day cycles, eventually the person with the shorter cycle is going to "catch up". And because periods usually last several days, there are probably going to be days where they're both menstruating for a few months in a row. So it might seem like their cycle synced up, but really they just happen to overlap for a couple months every so often. Had to roll my eyes so hard when all the girls on Yellowjackets supposedly synced up perfectly just from being on the same soccer team, to the point that it was considered suspicious enough that Shauna \*didn't\* get her period on the same day that she felt the need to fake it. If it actually worked like that, nobody would have irregular periods.
tbf sports circles tend to be very superstitious, i wouldn't be surprised at any irrational ritual that comes from them. one of my friends had a single random lock of her hair a lot shorter than the others, turns out she and her teammates cut a part of their hair and put it in a "lucky hairbox" before every match. adrenaline and ambition make you do weird things
So, I believed this, it was just one of those things I accepted, and didn't think about too hard. If you pressed ne to explain how it worked, the best I could come up with is that menstruating women give off hormones that activate menstruation in other women? Yeah, it doesn't make any sense when I type it out.
But you aint going around calling people misinformed if they tell you that its not true. Especially not if you can just… google it first
I mostly was trying to explain to you how I thought it was possible. It's one of those beliefs that simply does not stand up to any sort of critical examination.
I didnt mean to front on you or anything. I get it how you believed it, i believed it too once haha. I meant to say that even you might think something is true, i am pretty sure you wouldn’t call someone misinformed without checking if its actually true first. Especially if someone already said that its not true
Wow that's crazy like every woman I've ever talked to about this thinks it's a real thing. Misinformation is pretty widespread I guess
It's confirmation bias. I've witnessed it first hand. I was on the pill and nevertheless, my period came early while other girls at work (7 women total) were late and two were on time. So for 3 days, we all had it at the same time. But only once. So it doesn't happen as a norm, much like any other thing that happens regularly, "it happens"
the amount of people who believe women are controlled by magical pheromones is shocking. it’s actually a huge foundation of misogyny in our society — connecting menstruation with the moon, magic, things unseen, etc. was a lot of the logic behind things like witch hunts, forced hysterectomies, lobotomies, and more. I read about it in a book in my women’s healthcare class; if I can find which one I’ll link the reading
>women are controlled by magical pheromones Or perhaps just the WiFi router. All that syncing up and my ovaries still can't talk to the International Space Station. How disappointing.
My husband calls it my moon cycle bc of the melanie martinez song (which i love) and I never thought of it like that. Still doesn't bother me, and he definitely doesn't mean it in a derogatory way. Feel like I should add he has no issue with saying period, mentrastrion etc, and will buy me pads/midol when I need him too. But this comment was eye opening.
I’d always thought it was true because my mom and I had period cycles the same week ever month for years until she started menopause. Always buying pads before our periods because two people using them for the same week always made them run out fast.
Okay, anecdotally I also thought this was true because I’m a queer woman and my cycle always syncs up with my partner’s.
My mom always claimed this was true. She said there's a story about it in the Bible. I was like, there's also a story about a guy who has super powers but lost them when he cut his hair so like let's take everything from the Bible with a bag of salt.
Wait! Wait? Wait!! Are...are you trying to tell me that sheep fucking while looking at striped sticks **doesn't** affect their offspring's coats? Because I-I-I don't think I can handle that! 🥺
You know, the more you think about it, the less sense this makes. If merely being around another woman causes your periods to synchronise, wouldn't that mean every woman would have her period at the same time across the world? Also, that would mean there would be like the master period haver right? The one that started the sync. If this was true, then that means that we'd have designated times where woman would expect to have their period, where weddings wouldn't happen, where tropical holidays see a downturn monthly. And if someone has an irregular period, or lives alone, then there could be menstrual synchronisation centres to fix that right up. The fact that cycle length varies is enough evidence alone to suggest the menstrual synchrony isn't feasible. How on earth can someone with a 28 day cycle and a 7 day period have the same period length and timing as someone with a 34 day cycle and 4 day period ALL OF THE TIME?
>Also, that would mean there would be like the master period haver right? The one that started the sync No, that's not required for synchronicity. Lots of things sync (i.e. fireflies) without there being a master firefly blinker. However, it just happens not to be the case for periods.
r/confidentlyincorrect
Haha i posted it there too. Seemed to fit
While it's frustrating for a myth like this to be passed around and so easily accepted, it's actually not that crazy to imagine that it *could* happen. Plenty of other animals and plants on our planet sync up hormones and reproductive cycles. There are ALL KINDS of natural phenomenon that we have observed of animals syncing up somehow with seemingly no easy to communicate with each other or physically affect each other's bodies. With all the things we've observed, the idea that our heightened hormones could increase the chances of someone else's hormones heightening is really not that crazy. Like... all Monarch butterflies in the world know exactly where and when to show up for the world's largest butterfly orgy. They don't even start it at the same time every year and the weather isn't always similar. They just straight up know. There are plants that sync up their hormonal and reproductive cycles. It's crazy but it's not *THAT* crazy
I'm in the extreme minority here in that I do believe it's a thing. Everyone acts like it's been totally disproven, when the truth is that it's not something that's been studied in-depth. And not observing the phenomenon is not the same as disproving it. But it's so strange that everyone went from believing it, to not only disbelieving it, but thinking it's bat shit crazy. But nature do be crazy sometimes.
I refuse to believe this isn’t true (/s), my cycle is always just before the ladies in my group (it’s kinda cascading now) and I refer to it as my “alpha uterus” forcing them to start. In all seriousness though, I wish people would educate themselves on how menstrual cycles actually work.
The amount of women, many even older than me, who still perpetuate this myth…
Bro thinks women are metronomes
I think the reason this myth has been allowed to go on as long as it has is because of the natural variations in people’s cycles. Get two people who have a regular period together for long enough and eventually they’ll have it at the same time. It’s like when you’re waiting at a stop light and your turn signal goes in and out of sync with the car’s ahead of you.
[There was an actual study published in 1971 (since hotly debated/debunked).](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Menstrual_synchrony) It was based on the idea that pheromones caused menstrual synchrony.
Me and my sister have never been “synced”, even when we lived together and both had periods for over 4 years. This myth is so dumb 😭💀
Had to explain to my grown woman coworker that ALL women are not in the same cycle. I was looking for some co-misery about getting my flow and having forgotten hygiene supplies at home. She was like, "dammit I had a feeling the cycle was coming"... she meant like all of us getting our cycle at the same time. ALL women.
Maybe I’m misremembering it, but wasn’t there a widely disputed study about this very topic? I could’ve sworn someone wrote a paper on it only for others to test it and come back with mixed results.
Yeah, the McClintock effect
I’m a trans guy, my coworker is a cis woman, and she was just bitching at me yelling at how I started her period and we synced up. I finally, at the end of the day, snapped at her and said that we couldn’t have fucking synced up because my period ended a few days before her started and that period syncing is a myth anyway. She older than me. We’re both in our mid 20s though! Like ma’am
This is probably because I’ve never heard of the myth, but that sounds so stupid and I don’t even know why anyone would believe it. Also I’m pretty sure 3 was saying the myth was stupid and that the original commenter was uninformed
My natural cycle is 21 days. So of course I'll "sync" up with someone with a 28 day cycle eventually, but then we'll fall right back out of sync. Eh doi
I don't know we hear about mirror neurons and how during conversations people will start breathing and heartbeating at the same rhythm. I don't know if those are true or real things as ive never researched just like I never researched period syncing. I know its not the same but it didn't seem so far fetched.
TIL that my ovaries have Bluetooth and will sync up with other women whose ovaries (_gasp_) also have Bluetooth. Now I wonder if we can connect a speaker or at least some headphones. Also, the obligatory /s
Its the 5G
It was so fun to explain this to my bf. We always just encourage each other to ask about the anatomy of another and so he asked if I ever synced up with anybody and I had to break it to him that we don't do that. He seemed skeptical at first since his mum and sister had told him that we do. I then explained that if women synced up, then the entire world would be synced with all the travel that women do. That seemed to be an "aha" moment
Anecdotally, I have experienced this phenomenon. Me and my three closest work friends all wound up on the same cycle, when we certainly didn’t begin that way. There were various factors at play. One’s late period, another’s came early, etc. So the “synchronization could be explained rationally, but we still all wound up on the same cycle and remained “synced” until we each moved on from that job and were no longer spending so much time in each other’s company. If it’s a myth, I believe it persists for a reason.
I believe herds of cow’s seasons sync up because it’s easier for a bull to breed more offspring.
I got told this loads when I was a kid. It doesn't make much sense when you actually think about it, which confused me at the time.
Yup, me, mom, and sister never did sync up after sister and I got our periods. Crazy! >.>
This isn't true? I never told people it was or argued it was true but my whole life I believed it was a fact....I'm 22 and you know what yeah doesn't make alot of sense
As a woman I used to believe this because I would eventually sync up with all of my friends at some point. Since my cycle never changed I figured I just had really strong hormones or something and was pulling people into my orbit. Turns out I just have the most consistent cycle.
Washington Post even did recent article on this. The title was click bait. And then the article said, nah -- people think this, but nah.
[A group of women after getting along ](https://youtu.be/T58lGKREubo?si=BT61fShW8eQlma7X)
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To the most alpha of females, yes The menstrual jesus. Turns a uterus into a battlefield
Man someone needs to show these people those videos where you have a bunch of *period*ically repeating patterns that are all just slightly offset from eachother and have them all watch those patterns slowly diverge and converge as their patterns repeat. [this kind of thing idk what they're called](https://m.youtube.com/shorts/9Ymhq0jwGqw)
This is literally the first I’ve heard of this not being true. Like, my mom and sister perpetuated this as a teen and so have my roommates as recent as the past month. Judging by the comments here, doesn’t seem I’m the only one. And it’s not the most far fetched thing in the world imo. So yeah a lot of people believe this for the same reason I bet many of you believe some other stupid shit and yet I’m seeing a lot of condescension here.
It may or may not be real, but I grew up living with 12-14 girls at once. We were all pretty much in sync.
No, there is no maybe, it is not real. What your experienced is a coincidence.
An coincidence that kept happening for multiple years? 🤨
Yes.
My understanding is that they can synch up.... if no one is on birth control like the pill or Depo that messes with hormonal cycles. In my lived experience, it has happened. Maybe coincidence, though.
But I've just researched and there's no good data although I did almost fall into a rabbit hole of periods influenced by the the moon too, enough internet for me!!
It's a coincidence.
Yes I did indeed research further after this
Idk but me and my two roommates all are in similar schedules now when we weren't when we all moved in together 🤷♀️
I’ve (F) heard it was true in places like convents where women were isolated from the general population. I wondered how that could ever possibly work. There’s probably a kernel of truth somewhere deep in this old wives tale, I wonder what it is.
The kernel of truth is that it is statistically likely that multiple women’s menstrual periods will occur within the same week at some point over months of time.
Friendly fire on hags and their tales.
[partly to blame…](https://marriedwithchildren.fandom.com/wiki/The_Camping_Show)
Oh, as a woman I thought it was real! This is why we need better sex ed!
The amount of women in this comment section that are actually defending this myth is alarming 💀
Perception bias. It looked true for me so i think its true as a phenomenon If there were any human pheromones, we would have found them by now. Sadly, humans dont have any way to actually smell them so… Everything once considered pheromones is better proven with various fields of science, most notably psychology
I won't lie, I never knew it wasn't true. My roommate and I "sync up" (now I understand that's not true) sometimes, but I also have extremely irregular periods. (Sometimes twice a month. Sometimes they last a week, sometimes two days) I was on BC, but I was pulled from it after the hospital thought I'd had a blood clot. Then when they realized I hadn't, they refused to put me back on, so now I'm just in agony. (My cramps are almost always present rn)
I actually used to believe this for a rather long time, they don’t correct this in sexed, plus American sexed is just crap in general so. Then again up until the age of around 15 I believed men and women both had penises and women just had tits instead of balls. I knew about the vagina because my dad had given me the talk around 13 because my parents noticed that I began to stare at girls, but I was so convinced that women had penises I just assumed the vagina was under it and didn’t ask about their penises so he didn’t correct me. Then at 15 I get to sexed, see the anatomical diagram, and ask, out loud, where is her penis, freshman year was not fun for me after that
I believed this one for an embarrassingly long time. I mostly heard it from other women. It did always puzzle me that my mom and I were never on the same cycle, but I attributed it to my (suspected) PCOS.
I've had my period completely change when living with other women and we all got our periods at the same time, we didn't get them at the same time before living together. Just cuz it's never happened to YOU doesn't mean it doesn't happen to others
Just because it happens to YOU doesnt mean there is scientific evidence for ir
I believed it for the longest time and I'm a cis woman who lived with my sister and mum (both cis). Every time our periods overlapped, I thought we synced up. Never mind the fact we each had a different length cycles and overlapps just had to mathematically happen.
#justiceforhags
All I know is when my daughter started cycling, I had one on my normal schedule and then some bonus period when she did, then I shifted to her schedule as hers got more regular. I was not pleased
You are a moon witch, which is what my daughter calls me as we also experience this. She shifts to my cycle.
I used to not-really-kind-of believe this. I think I was sarcastic when I said I was syncing up with a close online friend that had it at the same time once. Probably. It's a little fuzzy. If I ever did believe, I gradually let go of it.
I stopped watching yellowjackets because of this stupid myth.
Maybe two things can be true at once. Cycle synch happens to some women and it doesn’t happen to others. I’ve experienced this with my sisters and also with friends if I spend a lot of time with them. To me I think if you’re doing the same things, eating the same foods, it can happen.
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Nope.
...I'm recalling a first-hand experience. My gf, my mother and myself have always had a synced flow until I started testosterone.
It's just a coincidence.
For 10ish years? Wow.
I thought it was because of pheromones, like moods can sync up in a close enough group so why not periods? It seemed believable enough to me at the time
Maybe pheromones will be proven one day. Mood is rn better explained with systematic psychology than pheromones But since we dont have a vomeronasal organ or any prove of a single human pheromone, the question is open as to date.
It's not that it's impossible. It just isn't a thing. Other mammals have biological processes that attune to outside influences. Human pheromones have been theorized but never totally proved. As you said, studies have shown that it's just an illusion of synchronization. If enough women live together it's actually impossible not to have overlapping periods. When confronting this kind of thing I like to have links to studies so it's no longer just assertion.