Whether it's from a friend, a parent, or even a health teacher, chances are you've probably been told a totally false statement about your body that you never bothered to question until years later.
Recently, Reddit user u/Psycho_Bunny_Cutie asked, "Women of Reddit, what is a lie about your bodies that you later found wasn't true?" Maybe unsurprisingly, many women had a lot to say, so here are some of the most informative responses:
1. "A lot of men have this narrative that women can only have kids in their 20s and men can keep having kids until they're well in their 60s and 70s. This simply isn't true either. My dad had me when he was pretty old, and now I have a bunch of health problems thanks to that."
2. "Before puberty, I believed that only men had butt hair. Well, life proved me wrong."
"Oh, thank God someone said it. For the longest time, I thought there was something wrong with my hormones. I’m 38, and I literally only learned butt hair is normal for women like two years ago."
3. "Folks told me my whole damn life that I'd one day up and turn around, hormones would scream and I'd suddenly decide that I want to have children! I'm almost 60, still waiting... Women who know they don't want to have children know."
4. "My mom made me wear bangs growing up because of my 'big' nose. As an adult, I normally don't wear them. I've had stylists tell me that I have a perfect face to go either way, but I have a lifelong 'my nose is too big' worry. Thanks, mom."
5. "That something was wrong with me because the gussets of my underwear were all bleached. Some vaginas just run a little acidic, and it’s okay!"
6. "That the hymen determined virginity, or that every girl has one."
"I broke my hymen when I was five during a pretty bad fall that involved the edge of a big, cardboard box, and I remember my mom asking the doctor if the fact that it was broken meant that I was now 'impure.' He laughed at her and told her that it was fine, but I remember my mom being extra weird and protective of me whenever there were men around after this as if they could sense my broken hymen or something."
7. "That I was a fat child and teenager. I look back at old photos, I was not fat, and I didn’t need to be on a 1,200-calorie-per-day diet since I was 12 years old."
8. "That childbirth is painful, but it’s not that big of a deal because the body and vagina are made for it, right? Then, I learned about how poorly the human body is suited to birthing physical trauma to the birth canal and life-threatening complications during birth."
9. "Shaving, waxing, or plucking your body hair will give you more of it."
10. "That your first time having sex would hurt a lot. This was compounded in all of the books that I read as a teen that had sex scenes where the woman's first time always started with a dramatic scene of it being painful until it slowly became pleasurable. I really thought that was what I could expect until I was in my early 20s. Then, my own first time was completely pain-free. Also, I really wish that trope would die already in romance novels. Especially because it's women writing it. It's 2022, can we stop normalizing pain during sex, please?"
"I was in so much pain the first time that I had sex and as I believed it was normal, I just grit my teeth instead of telling my boyfriend that he was hurting me, as I should have done. The trope perpetuates the message that women should put up with pain."
11. "When I was 12, I was told my period stops when I take a shower. Obviously, that's not true."
12. "A friend's mom told me that my boobs were so big because I drank a lot of milk. I was in the fifth grade at the time, so it was weird all around."
13. "That I had a perfectly normal period. Nope, I have an abnormal period. Normal periods don’t cause excessive vomiting that leaves you in bed all day. Periods shouldn’t be so painful that you can’t do basic tasks throughout the day. Growing up, I was always told, 'suck it up, buttercup' WHILE I WAS SENT HOME FROM SCHOOL PUKING. It wasn’t until I was an adult and more educated about periods that I brought it up to my OBGYN, and she confirmed that it was not normal. Now I take birth control to help regulate it."
14. "That zits disappear after puberty."
15. "That men want sex all the time, while women don’t want it as much. My sex drive is sky high, and it caused me so much pain and anguish when my spouse didn’t want it as much as me, because 'men want it more than women,' so I assumed that there must be something wrong or unattractive about me if he didn’t want it as much."
16. "The one that I heard was that 'only people who have been pregnant get stretch marks' from other girls in school. At 11 and 12, I was covered in them and was worried the other girls would see and they’d think I’d had a baby. I wonder how many other girls in my class also had the same concerns?"
17. "That virginity actually mattered. It doesn't. Go live your life and enjoy some good sex."
18. "That pregnancy is beautiful. It was disgusting, and I hated it. The ugly truth is that it's awful. I was literally just waddling around with hideous indigestion, looking for the nearest toilet to make sure that my sand grain-sized bladder didn't explode. I was constantly nauseous and wasn't able to eat, but was also starving half to death because I couldn't stomach more than a few bites at a time. All the while, my most precious parasite was kicking the shit out of me and I couldn't sleep because, for the life of me, I couldn't get comfortable. When sleep would finally come I would literally snore myself awake."
"I know that it's a gift and I wouldn't have changed it for the world, but I loathed being pregnant with every single fiber of my being."
19. "That using feminine products like douches, sprays, and cleansers was good for you! Even products labeled as 'safe' for intimate areas, could upset the delicate intimate balance of the vagina and give rise to infections."
20. "That the dent in my chest isn’t just cleavage. It turns out, I have a chest deformity where my sternum caves in. After 20 years of returning to doctors with the same symptoms over and over and having it dismissed, blamed on depression or anxiety, or having doctors act like I’m simply blowing things out of proportion and not trying hard enough, I finally find out the dent in my chest isn’t normal and very very likely the cause of all of my symptoms."
21. "Ugh, I remember even in the early 2000s there were still articles 'THE FEMALE ORGASM: IS IT A MYTH?' Just goes to show how bad many men are at giving pleasure to women."
22. "My mom told me that men had more heart problems because their blood didn’t filter out as ours did during our periods. I believed that for an astonishingly long time."
23. "I had a male gynecologist tell me that PMS has never been 'proven,' so the PMDD I was previously diagnosed with didn't exist either. He said there was nothing medically that would cause PMS to exist. This was only a year ago."
24. "That my hair is ugly because it's thin. I have super thin, curly hair that I use to straighten when I was in high school. My hair was damaged, I looked bald, and I didn't know how to love my hair. It wasn't until I was well into my mid-20s, that I realized that a great haircut and my natural curls made my hair look amazing, full, and beautiful. I wish that I knew how to love my hair more back then."
26. "How my vagina is supposed to smell. Your vagina isn't supposed to smell like flowers. Yes, there are specific smells you should be aware of, and you can make your vagina smell a tad better, but anyone who expects your vagina to smell like potpourri is bugging. I messed up my pH balance trying to make my vagina smell like a Bath and Body Works."
27. "That getting your first period would completely change your body, and you'll all of a sudden be slim and beautiful 'cause you’re now a woman. It never happened for me. My whole life, I had to work at it if I wanted to be a healthy weight. My period did not save me."
28. "Bras prevent our breasts from sagging. This is a big lie. The only thing a bra does is hurt."
