Calgary Stampede Men Got Hooked Up To A 'Period Pain Simulator' & Couldn't Handle It (VIDEOS)
Men in Calgary have been trying out a period pain simulator and they're finally getting a taste of how it actually feels with some pretty hilarious results.
Period pain relief company Somedays is challenging men at the Calgary Stampede to try out the period pain simulator. Their responses are being shared in TikTok videos that have received hundreds of thousands of views.
Each man is hooked up to a machine that simulates how period cramps feel. For most people that experience periods, it's around a five to seven out of 10 on the machine. Anyone who has periods knows just how miserable it can be, and the men are almost brought to their knees with pain.
Two cowboys struggled with a pop quiz
Two brave cowboys took a period pop quiz while hooked up to the machine. With every question that was answered incorrectly, the machine was amped up a level and the whole thing went about as well as anyone would expect.
@getsomedays My new favourite game 😂 #periodpainsimulator #calgarycrampede #calgarystampede2023 #periodpain #endo
They were quizzed on everything from the length of the average menstrual cycle (28 days) and how long people who have periods will be on their period throughout their lifetime – which is a whopping 3,000 days or the equivalent of eight years by the way.
As the men continue to get questions wrong, you can see them start to grunt, pant, swear and cling to a stool for dear life as the machine ramps up.
"Can we get a round of applause for every woman in this crowd?" one of the men said after the experience.
It got so wholesome
Another man who tried out the simulator had the most wholesome response to the whole thing.
@getsomedays When the wife runs in 😭😭😭 #calgarycrampede #periodpainsimulator #calgarystampede2023
In the video, he seems like he's already feeling the pain at the early stages and is so surprised when he finds out the level of pain he is experiencing is similar to what most people would feel the day before they get the period.
As the machine increases the levels, he's closed his eyes and he's barely able to talk, all while cycling.
"Respect to all you queens out there," he said.
At a level 10, he manages to scream out a solid "yeehaw" through the pain, before his wife runs in to give him a big hug.
It's teaching men a lot
Speaking to Narcity, Lux Perry, co-founder of Somedays, said men had usually been "really afraid" to talk to them about periods. They also mentioned there was a bigger issue of people "not believing women" when they're in pain or being able to empathize and the period pain simulator is a way of bringing awareness to this experience.
"It's funny, it's entertaining, but it also opens this door to having a conversation with people who otherwise wouldn't," they explained.
While there have been some hilarious results, men trying the period pain simulator has also had a pretty surprising outcome.
"They look at the women in the crowd. They connect with them after. There's this deep sense of gratitude that they express for being able to understand and that is something that we were not expecting, so it always catches us off guard," Perry added.
"It's been so illuminating for us to see the sensitivity that we didn't know was there."
"We think there's such a stigma. We don't talk about it. We don't interact with a lot of men. We all just assume that men are going to be disgusted or disturbed or dismissive. It's been really humbling to find that that's not the case all the time," they added.
This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.
