females only???
Well, like I always say to myself:
"Blessed are thou among women..."
BTW, there aren't enought women in technology to make this even a huge discussion,
and since I didn't want any ladies to get too lonely I decided to stop in and help any "damsels in distress"...
Platonically of course, as I have been and remain a devoted husband. (but do see my great book suggestion, below)
Why all females I can think about are perfectly understandable without any calendar calculations... Cause your an
Alpha-Femaleand the ladies know not to step out of line, in your presence.
In addition: It is proven that women will change there menstrual
patterns to coincide with one another when they are placed together for extended periods of time.
Menstrual Cycle Synchronization(i.e. dormitories, sports teams, or close-knit groups of friends)
How COOL is this!!!??? So ~MAYBE~ - and it is just a hypothesis, (but a good one too) - maybe all the women around you are PMS-ing together, as per
your (Map's) schedule and no one notices anything, cause you all in tune and on the same page???
There are large portions devoted to menstruation in Natilie Angier's book:
Woman, an intimate geography You can read it if it gets too boring in here... (Angier, is a Pulitzer Prize winning author.) This mouth-watering book goes the various parts of a woman's body in very poetic, clever and entertaining ways. She is very "Maureen Dowd-esque", so its kind of fun & wise-assy.

She devotes entire chapters to the ovary, the egg, the clitoris, the breast, breast milk, hormones, estrogen, periods, the uterus. Each chapter is pretty mutually exclusive of the others and are about 15-30 pages long, so the book is a good 'tweener'. (I tend to read a couple of chapters here and there between the other books, as a break.)
I haven't read the chapter on hormones yet, so I may be back.
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Get this: when women breast-feed after giving birth there is a hormone that causes the uterus to contract so it stops bleeding and heals faster.
(Amazing, huh?)
Angiers writes about studies done to understand just
why women bleed and why women go through a menstrual cycle. For our ancient relatives, it was actually not so advantageous, from first looks, to be bleeding each month. So the question is 'why' was this happening. Why not dislodge the 'unused egg', etc as a solid?? Why is the uterus the only self-cleaning organ that must bleed?? Studies look into whether or not the bleeding was some sort of cleansing or if it was some sort of cleaning mechanism to rid the body of potential illnesses to such a delicate organ. ETC, ETC. I don't think they know yet.
As for menstrual synchronization, apparently there are pheromones that are emitted that cause females to give off signals to either speed up her cycle or hold it off. >>>For some animals it is better for them to all raise their young at the same time so they can pool their resources.
She talks about the breast and how humans are the only member of the primate family whose breast are enlarged outside of lactating. So the question begs: Is this a genetic abnormality that made it into the species?? Bigger breasts don't produce more milk then smaller ones. Larger breasts serve no specific use biologically over smaller breasts. But she does admit that everyone loves 'em and enjoys 'em, so maybe that is a big reason they are around.
She talks about the condition where women are born genetically male, but have the anatomy of a woman. AND because they are missing some enzyme or some hormone, they end up with larger breasts, more height, and often are found working as models. So here they are: models of female perfection, yet they can't menstrate. Go figure! (no pun intended.)
Is it that PMS makes females particularly aggressive toward males (only), so we (girlfriends) cannot even notice anything??? The above book has a chapter on female aggession too. (I haven't gotten to that one, yet)
By this point of my life, I accumulated significant experience in dealing with females, uhh, so have most of the men...
I would believe women are more open to each other? And sometimes meaner too.

Men tend to be more direct in their conflicts/battles with one another and when its over its over. So its not uncommon for guys to punch one another in the nose and then go out for a beer afterwards and get back onto to business as usual. Woman on the other hand tend to be more subversive and cunningly ruthless in their battles. I bet there is something on this in that book you mentioned about how Men & Women communicate.
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Oh yeah, as for my original claim: you would not believe how many times guys have come to me, (or me to them), and said something to the effect:
"She was being SOOO unreasonable that I was getting ready to can her and then realize that it was only pms. GOOD THING I DIDN'T DITCH HER!!! whew!!"
And my strategy: >>>> Figure out when the next period comes and 'Suck it up' and treat her like a queen anyway. It's not always easy, but more often than not, she'll LOVE you for it. IMO, it works, man"
"Good Idea! Thanks, Dude!!"
You see Map, the ends justify the means. Everyone is happy!!!