Women are calling for a menstrual cramp simulator to be a “mandatory” part of health class for men after a TikTok video showing a group of friends shocked by the pain went viral.
Last week, the group of friends who run the TikTok account @benztraphouse uploaded a video to the platform in which they attempted the simulator, with the men in the video seen struggling to handle the feelings produced by the electrode pads.
The video, which is captioned: “The boys try a period simulator,” began with a “test run,” which saw one of the women in the friend group trying the machine.
In the clip, the group can be seen looking impressed as the woman appears unbothered by the effects of the electronic pulse simulator, with one person in attendance calling out: “You’re already at [level] 10,” which is reportedly the highest level the machine can reach.
The video then sees the TikTok users apply the simulator pads to one of the males in the friend group, who can be seen immediately jolting from the pain and yelling: “Stop” to laughter from the group.
A second man, who was unable to stop himself from making various yelps from the sensations, questioned whether the pain is “supposed to hurt like that” when he was attached to the simulator, with the group laughing while admitting that the pain makes it difficult to breathe.
According to the third man who tried the simulator, he immediately felt the pain in his “kneecaps,” with another friend agreeing that he also felt the effects radiating down his leg.
At one point, the friends attached the simulator to one of their female friends and one of their male friends at the same time, with the man clearly in distress while the woman stood still as she claimed that the feelings created by the machine are “not even as bad as a cramp”.
“Yeah, my cramps hurt worse than this,” she added as her friend, who was only on level four, doubled over from the pain. When the group eventually took the pads off their friend, the video saw him crawling to the ground to recover.
As of Tuesday, the video, which has been viewed more than 1.4m times, has prompted hundreds of comments from viewers suggesting it is proof that most men do not understand the pain associated with menstruation cycles.
“When he said: ‘It’s stabbing me, what do I do?!’ You go to work, clean the house and continue on baby,” one person commented.
Another said: “Seeing this makes me feel invincible.”
“Can you imagine if women went around making some of these sounds and movements,” someone else added along with a laughing face emoji.
Others described the video as “validating,” with another person writing: “The one talking about how the pain shooting down the leg is so validating.”
Ultimately, many viewers felt that all men should have to try the simulator “at least once,” as one person noted that it would give them a better understanding of the pain that many women experience each month.
“Please this needs to be added to every high school health class because some guys really don’t understand the pain,” another person added.
