Does Your Boyfriend Have A Man Period? Here’s How I Cope With Mine

I’m a firm believer that dudes have their time of the month just like women. My boyfriend certainly does. He may not be bleeding out of his junk every 28 days but he turns into a cranky pain in the butt nonetheless. Here’s how I cope—and how you can too if your guy goes through the same thing.

1. When he whines, I have to listen. Sometimes all a person wants is to be heard. I know when I’m in a mood where I just want to complain, I always feel a little bit better when I feel like someone else is hearing what I have to say, no matter how dumb it is. My boyfriend will go on and on about how he can’t get comfortable or how he can’t find any good movies to watch and a simple bit of listening and commiserating on my end goes a long way.
2. When he gets weird food cravings, I’m a master chef (or delivery driver). Where I prefer ice cream or french fries when I’m PMSing, my dude is all about tacos. It doesn’t matter the time of day—when the craving hits, he can be absolutely miserable until he gets his fill. When I start to notice it may be coming, I prepare if I can. I sense out his mood and plan tacos for dinner and the surprise is always well-received. When I don’t see it coming, I just hit up the Taco Bell drive-thru.
3. When he gets irrationally angry, I validate his feelings but try to bring him back down to earth. If the mail comes late and he’s expecting something, it’s the end of the world, I swear. I get that it’s upsetting but the mail will come again tomorrow. Of course, he doesn’t see it that way sometimes. I try my best to make sure he knows it’s completely okay to feel that way but also remind him that it’s something he has no control over and he shouldn’t waste his energy being upset about.
4. When he gets legitimately angry, I validate and sympathize. I don’t want him to go berzerk but I do want to be sure he knows I get it. I’m an advocate for validating whatever my partner feels even if I don’t always agree. My boyfriend works hard and sometimes doesn’t always get the recognition he deserves at the office. We’ve all been there and so I do my best to help him through something tough like that. I try to offer advice and when he feels like he’s being understood, he’s usually open to taking it.
5. When he needs extra attention, I try my best and give it. There can be some upsides to a man period and one of those things with my boyfriend is that he gets extremely excited over little, sometimes silly things. I may have watched the same video 10 times before or I might not care about the subject he wants to discuss but it matters to him so I indulge.
6. When nothing I say is right, I don’t engage. On the other hand, there are moments where no matter how much I try and give him every single thing he needs, it won’t work no matter how hard I try. I have to recognize those moments and not run myself ragged trying to please him. Sometimes he’s just in a downright pissy mood and I have to let him have his space.
7. When he cries over something other than sports, I hug him. It’s simple but effective. Every so often, my guy gets emotional. It can be over a number of things: work, family, life in general. I get it—I’m the most emotional person ever and he deals with that whether I’m on my period or not. I figure it’s sometimes my turn to play protector and comforter and it’s a job I love having. It’s rare that I’m not on the receiving end so if I can make my boyfriend feel better when he’s sad, I’m all for it.
8. When he doesn’t feel well, I take care of him. There are occasions I go all out and set him up a little fortress with some snacks, tea, some movies he loves, and a bunch of blankets and pillows. Sometimes he simply doesn’t want to get up and move so I’ll bring him things he needs and run errands for him. It goes both ways—he’s good to me when I’m feeling crappy so I’m happy to do the same for him.
9. When he fights with his friends, I side with him but remind him they’re his pals. If he’s really in a bad mood, he can easily take that out on his friends. Even if I don’t necessarily agree with his thoughts on whatever they’re arguing about, it may not always be the best time for me to point out that maybe he’s overreacting. I figure that can come later when he’s less upset about it, so in the moment I tend to take his side, listen and agree. Still, I never say anything negative about his guys. I know these fights are usually short-lived so I try and remind him that it’ll blow over and it’s not something worth losing friends over.