To answer in short: No one knows.
All sorts of theories in the article, none with any real evidence, except "this makes sense to me".
Why do women have periods when most animals don't?
21–30 of 68 posts
Re: Why do women have periods when most animals don't?
#22tl;dr: What we know for sure: foetuses produce hormones to keep the endometrial tissue from thinning. Once a zygote has implanted, the mother's hormones are thus no longer in control of whether her uterus will support its growth or not. Menstruation, when it happens, forcefully cleans out implanted zygotes, returning the uterine hormonal balance to normal. What we guess that that implies: menstruation is a side-effec…
The problem with that theory is I don't know of any women who are actually able to miscarry at will.
A garbled version of that theory got some politicians in hot water with the whole "during rape, their body can shut it down" comment.
Re: Why do women have periods when most animals don't?
#23Please fix the apostrophe in "animal's" It is annoying and leads non-native speakers on the board astray. Thank you. To non-native speakers: apostrophes are for possession, not plural.
> To non-native speakers: apostrophes are for possession, not plural.
It's not so easy.
it's = contraction of it is or it has
its = possessive form of it
Re: Why do women have periods when most animals don't?
#24Please fix the apostrophe in "animal's" It is annoying and leads non-native speakers on the board astray. Thank you. To non-native speakers: apostrophes are for possession, not plural.
> To non-native speakers: apostrophes are for possession, not plural. You could easily repeat that for plenty of native speakers. It's one of the most common mistakes in written English.
> It's one of the most common mistakes in written English
Holy crap, really? I just figured it was because people were learning English on the internet. Also a peeve: "Loose" when the writer means "lose."
Not that I want to derail the board or anything...
Re: Why do women have periods when most animals don't?
#25Earlier quoted context omitted.
> To non-native speakers: apostrophes are for possession, not plural. You could easily repeat that for plenty of native speakers. It's one of the most common mistakes in written English.
Isn't it sad? It's such a frustrating mistake. There's a bar that we drive past frequently that does it with everything. They're "Now accepting application's" and their "Burger's are $2" Sad.
Wait ... where is there a $2 burger?
Re: Why do women have periods when most animals don't?
#26Please fix the apostrophe in "animal's" It is annoying and leads non-native speakers on the board astray. Thank you. To non-native speakers: apostrophes are for possession, not plural.
> To non-native speakers: apostrophes are for possession, not plural. It's not so easy. it's = contraction of it is or it has its = possessive form of it
Agree: apostrophes are also for contraction. I should have taken a breath.
Re: Why do women have periods when most animals don't?
#27tl;dr: What we know for sure: foetuses produce hormones to keep the endometrial tissue from thinning. Once a zygote has implanted, the mother's hormones are thus no longer in control of whether her uterus will support its growth or not. Menstruation, when it happens, forcefully cleans out implanted zygotes, returning the uterine hormonal balance to normal. What we guess that that implies: menstruation is a side-effec…
[deleted]
Re: Why do women have periods when most animals don't?
#28tl;dr: What we know for sure: foetuses produce hormones to keep the endometrial tissue from thinning. Once a zygote has implanted, the mother's hormones are thus no longer in control of whether her uterus will support its growth or not. Menstruation, when it happens, forcefully cleans out implanted zygotes, returning the uterine hormonal balance to normal. What we guess that that implies: menstruation is a side-effec…
The problem with that theory is I don't know of any women who are actually able to miscarry at will. A garbled version of that theory got some politicians in hot water with the whole "during rape, their body can shut it down" comment.
Agree. I've seen ability to orgasm linked to selectivity for fertilization, as the speculation (I don't follow it enough to know if it is a theory or not in any allowable sense of the word) is that (female) orgasm during intercourse helps the sperm reach the egg.
Re: Why do women have periods when most animals don't?
#29Earlier quoted context omitted.
Downvoted but you have a point. Why is there no moderation with regards to topical content on HN? Why should HN be a place for pop-sci articles and repostings from the likes of the Economist, LA Times, BBC, etc. r/startups has more content pertaining to - you know - actually starting a technology business than HN does. HN lately reads like newsclippings sent to me by my grandma.
A glance at the homepage makes me wonder if your grandma is a former co-worker of Grace Hopper or something like that.
You should understand that "my mom" and "my grandmother" are commonly used to denote technical illiteracy/incompetence and inability to keep up with the latest technological advances. This usage remans an unchallenged bastion of both sexism AND ageism -- a double whammy!
Proper usage:
* This app is so easy, my mom could use it!
* This article is easy to follow and avoids too much jargon -- my grandma would even understand most of it!
... you get the picture.
Re: Why do women have periods when most animals don't?
#30Weird thing for hacker news
Downvoted but you have a point. Why is there no moderation with regards to topical content on HN? Why should HN be a place for pop-sci articles and repostings from the likes of the Economist, LA Times, BBC, etc. r/startups has more content pertaining to - you know - actually starting a technology business than HN does. HN lately reads like newsclippings sent to me by my grandma.
I don't recall HN being about starting a technology business...