Recently, I wrote about a Reddit thread in r/badwomensanatomy where women shared the wildest things they've ever heard someone say about the female body. Unsurprisingly, most responses had to do with men having zero clue how women's bodies work.
But it's not just men who are misinformed. Plenty of responses also included the wildly incorrect things other women have said about the female body. Here are some of the most shocking stories:
1. "While we were in high school, my best friend told me that she wasn’t allowed to have tampons because her mom told her she would lose her virginity. She hated using pads, but didn’t know how to use tampons. I was thoroughly shocked and explained to her (without any judgement) that that’s not how it works, showed her how to use one, and then gave her some to take home. Been besties since."
2. "My mother told me that she’d know when I started having sex, because 'virgins have a special glow.' And I believed her."
3. "A woman once told me if women take baths for too long, the impact of getting out of the bath (presumably gravity?) would have such an effect that their uterus would fall out."
4. "My ex’s mother once told me that if I lift heavy weights at the gym, my uterus will fall out and I won’t be able to have kids. She also thought the hymen completely blocked the vagina and that men had to literally 'break' it to have sex. I asked her if that’s the case, how do women have periods if there’s something completely blocking the vagina? She didn’t know, LOL."
5. "'Women can't get pregnant if they don't orgasm,' said by a woman with six children. I explained that if that were the case, my son wouldn't be here. She said that I obviously didn't know what an orgasm is, and I had to have had one without realizing it... No, I think that's something I would've noticed."
6. "My mother-in-law told me only women who have had babies could use tampons. This woman has three daughters."
7. "That wearing the wrong of type bra could give you HIV and cancer. We were both 16 at the time and had decent sex ed."
8. "In high school, one of my best friends expressed worry about going on birth control because 'all the blood would just slosh around.' She apparently thought that birth control sort of...plugged you up? And that somehow, this is what stopped pregnancy, but you would continue to get periods that just wouldn't come out, so you'd feel it inside you like some kind of hormonal water balloon. Luckily, I was able to clear that up for her, but it was definitely a moment of 'what??' when I realized what she was saying."
9. "This was about 30 years ago or so. My OB/GYN had a four-week backup for appointments so I called my GP and asked her if she could remove my IUD. I make an appointment, go in, she removes the IUD, and then says, 'No sex for six weeks.' I asked, 'No sex, like no intercourse? Or no orgasms for six weeks?' She looked at me like I was a freak and said, 'You can't have an orgasm without intercourse.' I felt so incredibly sad for her, and never went back to her."
10. "My aunt said that if I touch plants while on my period, the plants will die."
11. "A woman over the age of 65 told me that my tubal ligation was going to send me into early menopause… She said the same thing when I got my endometrial ablation."
12. "My grandmother-in-law believed babies were connected to us belly button-to-belly button, and since our belly button connects directly to our stomach, the baby gets actual food delivered to their stomach via belly button."
13. "I had a fight with a 'friend' about wether or not you could pee with a tampon in. She insisted it was impossible and would not listen to anything I had to say."
14. "A girl I worked with told me women can only get pregnant when they're on their period. She had six kids."
15. "A girl I knew in eighth grade once confidently said that boobs don't weigh more than one pound until you’re about 20 years old."
16. "I got pregnant last year, a freak accident. Two forms of birth control failed, and I’m infertile. I was told I had no eggs during many fertility tests over a decade earlier. My mom told me it was because I was in a committed long-term relationship, my hormones changed, and my body created an egg to be fertilized. I miscarried at eight weeks, but my mom really thought my infertility was cured because I was in a serious relationship with a man, and that the 'love' made my body more receptive to receiving his seed."
17. "I once had a coworker tell me (while I was pregnant) that I shouldn’t walk so much, or the baby would fall out. I asked some clarifying questions, and it turns out she thought the uterus/vagina were the same thing, so the baby was just right there in the vagina ready to fall out at any moment."
What's the wildest thing you've ever heard another woman say about the female body? In the name of education, share it in the comments.
Note: Responses have been edited for length/clarity.