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TOKYO — Close to 90% of women in Japan want their partners to “know and understand” changes in their physical condition due to menstruation and attempts to conceive, but only nearly 66% of them actually share such information with their significant others, a survey by a Japanese private company has shown.
When those who do not share information on female-specific health issues were asked for their reasons, with multiple answers permitted, nearly 40% of respondents said their partners “appeared to be uninterested” in the matter, forming the largest group.
Female-specific health issues induce huge economic loss
Health issues unique to women, including premenstrual syndrome and various other conditions entailing menstruation, as well as menopausal disorders, have become national agenda. The Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry estimates that the economic loss caused to society by these issues reaches some 3.4 trillion yen (approx. $23 billion) per year, prompting the ministry to promote measures to resolve the challenges.
Medley Inc., a developer of apps for managing menstrual cycles and attempts to conceive, conducted the survey in April targeting users of its apps, receiving valid responses from 14,723 individuals with partners.
The questionnaire found that 86.3% of women want their partners to “know and understand” changes in their physical condition, but a mere 65.9% of them share such information with their partners.
When those who do not share such information were asked for their reasons, 38.8% said their partners “appeared uninterested” in those issues, forming the largest group, followed by 38.1% who replied they were not sure what to say and when, 21.1% who were “not confident in communicating issues to partners effectively” and 20.9% who were worried if their partners would understand them.
Of those who do share information, those who said their partners had “no understanding” or “little understanding” of their issues totaled a combined 18.0% — suggesting that just sharing information does not necessarily lead to understanding depending on how the issues are communicated to or perceived by their partners.
Info-sharing a key to relationship building
Regardless, sharing information can be an important key to establishing relationships with partners.
Of those who shared such health information with their partners, 50.2% said they saw “positive changes” in their relationships, while hardly any respondents said they saw changes for the worse in their relations.
In an open-answer section, examples of positive relationship changes cited by respondents included: “My partner cares about me more than before I communicated my issues”; “My partner now studies about and takes an interest in menstruation and physical conditions”; and, “I could tell my partner that he was not the cause of my irritation, which made me feel more at ease.”
In regard to the findings, Medley noted, “To share an understanding about female-specific health issues with partners, women face barriers in communicating their issues, while men face barriers in understanding those issues.”
Specifically, the company pointed out that women feel worried about how to communicate their issues to partners, and commented, “There may be a need for indirect communication tools, such as app-sharing features.”
(Japanese original by Atsuko Ota, Digital News Group)
AloJapan.com