Here’s a PSA for all guys who love a woman, work with a woman, live with a woman, or even spend a little bit of time with any woman. Periods are really unpleasant things to have to deal with, leaving many woman quite debilitated for at least one week every month. And for some women, there’s a terrible week leading up to their period, a messy and exhausting week during their period, and a recovery week afterwards, meaning that they have one week in four where things actually feel normal. One in four. One. In. Four.

It’s not just about the bleeding – and honestly, this is unpleasant enough as it is. For many women, the bleeding comes with debilitating cramps. Not only that, we can be blighted by headaches and migraines, breast tenderness, severe aches and pains aside from the cramps, and extreme exhaustion. It’s gruelling. So no, we might not be at our best during our periods. But don’t mistake this for just hormonal mood swings. We don’t just bleed and get a little snippy. We’re expected to function normally in society, despite bleeding (sometimes A LOT), and all our body parts heavy and aching.

The poor roommate in this story is having to contend with all that, after returning from the funeral of a loved one. But when she reaches for the pads and pain meds she has stashed away for this exact moment, only to find that they’re all gone. And when she mentions this to her roommate, he gives her a truly frustrating response.

Read on to find out what happened here.

AITA for letting my girlfriend use my roommate’s pads?

I am a 25-year-old man with a roommate (25, female) who has been out of town for a few weeks to attend a family member’s funeral.

I asked her if it was alright for me to have my girlfriend over while she was gone, considering we hadn’t seen each other for a while due to the pandemic.

She said no problem, since we’d be staying in my bed/my room and she didn’t have any food in the fridge we were to leave alone, etc.

My girlfriend would probably be gone before she was back as well.

And still, the male roommate inadvertently overstepped.

While she was over, my girlfriend got her period. I know where my roommate keeps her pads, I thought it wouldn’t be a big deal if I told my girlfriend she could use them, as well the over the counter pain meds my roommate takes.

While my roommate has very painful periods every time, my girlfriend doesn’t have very painful periods, but every once in a while the cramps are worse and she needs to take them, and this was one of them.

I didn’t keep track of how many she used, and eventually the weeks were over and she left and my roommate came back.

Another couple days went by, and my roommate hit her period.

Read on to find out what happened when she found out her items were gone.

I don’t keep track of my roommate’s periods, but I know this because she came to me looking very stressed and asked where her pads were and where her pain meds were.

I told her that I let my girlfriend use them, and she said that my girlfriend had used all but a few, plus she had finished the pain meds.

She told me the least I could do was go out and get her more. I didn’t think I had to, was it really a big deal that I let another girl use her pads, and we bickered for a little bit before she left.

She came back a while ago and has been ignoring me since. We’ve always gotten along pretty well, so this reaction confuses me. Is she overreacting because of her period or was I in the wrong?

AITA?

Yikes. This guy really doesn’t get it, does he?

It sounds like his roommate gets really debilitating periods, and relies on the products she has when her period hits.

So given she lives with a guy, she would never have imagined her period products would have all been used up – it would have been immensely frustrating and confusing when she reached for them and they were gone.

And the fact he didn’t think it was on him to replace them? Clueless.

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about someone who asked their neighbor to move their fence off their property, then learned the neighbor was trying to claim their land as theirs instead.

Let’s see what folks on Reddit made of this.

This person spelled out for him exactly why he was in the wrong.

While others thought that he owed her more than just an apology.

Meanwhile, this Redditor thought he’d been really inconsiderate, especially considering the loss she was dealing with too.

You’ve got to feel sorry for this guy’s roommate. The truth is, most women would have no problem at all lending another woman some period products. After all, we’re all in this together, and we know what it’s like to be caught short. In fact, if it was just one or two pads that the girlfriend had bothered, this woman likely would have had no issue with this – albeit, she would most certainly have liked to have been asked.

But the sheer fact that she used all of the pads, as well as all of the pain meds, is totally unacceptable, especially without asking. This poor roommate knew how many pads she had in her bathroom – roughly, at least – so she knew she was prepared for when her next period came around. Living with a guy, she would have never once expected they would be missing, so she had every right to be livid when she found out that he’d literally stolen them, since he’d given them to his girlfriend without any plans to replace her.

Does he not understand how expensive this stuff can get? How it can feel like a literal emergency if you’re caught short without any of your usual period supplies? That she’s not being irrational or overreacting, he literally took her things that she needs to function at this time in the month, and is completely unsympathetic about it. He clearly doesn’t get anything about life as a woman, doesn’t care that she’s functioning ‘normally’ whilst bleeding heavily – and now his choices have forced her to take a trip to the grocery store too.

She’s not weak or overreacting. She’s fighting with everything she has to maintain a normal life while everything in her body is trying to prevent that. Just as she has to one week in every four. What about that does he not care to understand?

Women are warriors. Don’t forget that.

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