I am a female and do not view menstruation in the least bit as dirty or gross. A lot of people, especially mean, freak when you even mention your cycle! That comes off to me as very immature. I don't expect all men to be happy to hear about periods, but when you have a female partner, you need to get used to it. It is a reality for us and it's crazy to be grossed out by it. I don't see a big deal about avoiding sex or masturbation during that time.

For me, my periods are a curse. Seriously. The last thing I could do during mine is sex. I've got a health condition though, that makes mine so miserable. I've gotten a lot better now that I take medication to stop my cycle, but I still have the symptoms, just no... bleeding. Sorry for that. SO I can handle sex and sometimes even enjoy it on my period, but I rarely feel like doing it. Before I had the surgery and meds, I wouldn't be able to leave the house for 2 weeks out of the month and our sex life suffered because I couldn't hardly do it without being in real pain. Now it's better, but it's not the blood part that would gross me out or bother me--it's the pain and just extreme symptoms I have during that time.

As for the blood part, my partner never cared to do ANYTHING while I was. He was still just as happy. I tend to start a mini period every time we get rough so blood happens a lot, only a small amount, but he doesn't care. He says there's no reason to be disgusted by it, which makes me happy because I hate when men freak over the word period or tampon. He's not that way.

I understand the messyness being a pain, and if a woman feels badly or has periods accompanied with pain, I don't think she should ever feel that her own period is gross. It's not. It's not like your pooping! Lol. I think we should be more comfortable with the the reality here that females do go through not-so-gorgeous things. I think too many people view the vagina as less than clean and that should change. If you simply just don't like the blood or feel it's too messy or you don't want to feel like you're causing the female pain, that's totally understandable. I get that. I ust don't think anybody should see it as unclean.

Since I don't have a real period (thank you Jesus!) this doesn't affect my sex life anymore, besides the symptoms around that time. However, since my partner doesn't view me as unclean or gross while I'm menstruating (or when I USED to) I was fine as long as there was no pain. I don't love it or the mess, but it wouldnt deter me from gettin' some! LOL less