IT made interesting reading, the story of a man who had a sex swap and then changed back again.

Before he became a woman, he believes he - unknowingly - took his wife for granted. "Women need constant reassurance. Women need to communicate. I'd go home after work, watch television and didn't want to be disturbed. She'd want to talk. She'd say I didn't love her," he told a national newspaper.

"I just thought she was completely irrational. I was married to her, I thought that was enough. I just never realised how insecure women are."

Yet, he admits: "Within a few weeks of taking female hormones, I began to understand."

I cannot begin to understand men - no more than my husband can understand me. That men are purported to be from Mars and women from Venus is so very, very true.

I don't have the slightest inclination to change sex (for one thing I can't afford it) but having spent the best (and on occasion worst) part of my life with a man, yet been unable to work out how he ticks, I would love to be given the chance to step inside the male persona for a while.

Not that I am keen to find out what it's like to sprout facial hair and stand up to go to the toilet.

But I really would like to find out:

- Why men spend so long in the bathroom, yet emerge looking no different from when they went in.

- Why men react to every illness, however trivial, as if they have only days to live.

- Why men are unable to carry out two or more domestic tasks (such as washing-up, cooking and putting away crockery) at the same time.

- Why men pretend not to be interested in soap operas and domestic dramas but suddenly - usually during the last ten minutes - start watching and bombard you with questions along the lines of "who, what, where, when and how?"

- Why men are reluctant to shop for their own underwear.

- Why men make a hasty exit from a room when a woman suggests they "talk."

- Why men appear to believe that organising family holidays and preparing for Christmas is best left to women.

- Why men really hate admitting that they are wrong (particularly when a woman points it out).

Being female came as something of a revelation for the man who changed sex. "Men don't think. They just do. They want space not reassurance."

He said that as a man he thought women had it easy, but now firmly believes that "men have a better life".

I think we would all benefit from experiencing at first hand how the other half ticks. We think men are cold and uncaring, they think we are too emotional and clingy. We think they are too thoughtless and laid-back, they think we are cunning and manipulative.

Whatever sex you happen to be, there are pros and cons. I'm glad I'm a woman. I really couldn't be bothered to shave every morning, and as for using a urinal... ugh.

Updated: 09:26 Tuesday, March 02, 2004