They’re putting the men in menstruation.
Recently, several dudes have taken to TikTok proclaiming that a man can start a woman’s period just by lowering the register of his voice. “You’ve never made her start her period?” asks one man in a clip with nearly 6 million views. “You need to lower your tone!”
A similar video’s racked up over three million views — and on both, women have flooded the comments section insisting it’s true.
“Not a myth. I’ve literally asked my husband to make it happen so it could be over before we leave for vacation,” said one. Another said her husband called it “hitting the bottom of the ketchup bottle.”
But if you think a simple change of inflection can spontaneously override the intricate workings of a woman’s internal hormonal clock, plus the moon and the tides? It’s a blood-red flag, and now docs are doing a bit of debunking.
Dr. Kate Mclean, OBGYN and Chief Medical Officer at Evvy, tells The Post that “while it might make for a compelling TikTok, it’s not how the body works.”
“There’s no evidence or physiological pathway that we know of where a man’s voice, whether it’s deep or high-pitched, can trigger a menstrual period,” she says. “Your cycle is regulated by a carefully coordinated hormonal system involving the brain and ovaries, and it doesn’t respond to external sounds or vibrations.”
Ultimately, Mclean insists, there’s no biological basis for what these videos suggest.
“The menstrual cycle is controlled by hormones like estrogen and progesterone, which are regulated through communication between the hypothalamus, pituitary gland and ovaries,” she explains.
A period doesn’t appear on command like a dog. And it’s determined biologically by a person’s ovulation schedule, “not in response to someone speaking.”
“There’s no physiological pathway that would allow sound waves or vocal tone to influence hormone levels quickly enough to start a period,” says Mclean.
That doesn’t mean the menstrual cycle is rigid, though. It is prone to disruptions and can be thrown off course by things like stress, illness, significant weight changes or intense exercise.
And it’s possible to manipulate the cycle with some advanced planning and the help of hormonal birth control — the pill, the patch or a ring — and certain IUDs, which can delay or skip a period by controlling hormone levels.
“This is a safe and common approach for people who want more predictability around their cycle,” says the doc. “If timing matters for something like a vacation or major event, it’s worth talking to a healthcare provider about your options so you can plan in a way that works with your body, not against it.”
Back on TikTok, it’s not just power-hungry men claiming this is real. Dozens and dozens of commenters, many of whom appear to be women, have added their voices to the chorus, claiming they’ve experienced this with their boyfriends and husbands.
So why would that be?
“What’s likely happening is a mix of coincidence and perception,” Mclean says.
Someone who’s already close to starting their period might feel like it’s triggered by something external “when really it was about to happen anyway.”
One study points to how women may be attracted to different things at different points in their cycle, such as “during the fertile phase of the cycle, women tend to prefer more masculine partners,” while at other points masculinity is not as important. But it’s not entirely clear if that has anything to do with men’s voices.
“There is no real data yet that this is true, however science will begin to catch up as social media trends, like this, spike,” Mclean says.
