Sorry if it’s a stupid question. I’m a boy and I’ve never rlly understood what it is and like exactly what happens. I’m 13 btw if that matters.
In: Biology
In short, a period is what happens when a woman’s body prepares itself to get pregnant, but does not get pregnant.
Pregnancy is a very complex thing — it’s growing an entire person inside another person. Starting from a few cells, moving right up to something that comes out with 4 limbs and screaming. To do that, the mother’s body needs to prepare itself.
It does this by making the inside of her womb (or uterus) nice and ‘comfy’ for the baby, and part of that involves sending lots of new blood vessels to the area. Blood is how the body sends nutrients and oxygen to where it needs to go. It’s how the cornflakes you ate for breakfast end up giving your brain or your muscles energy.
So the womb grows lots of new blood vessels (and other stuff!), getting ready to have the baby. But, if there’s no baby, then all that extra stuff isn’t really needed anymore, so it simply decays. This causes blood to pass out of the woman’s womb, down into her vagina, where it exits her body. These days, most women use products such as tampons, pads, or special cups to prevent the blood from getting everywhere and staining their underpants.
Periods are a natural thing, and part of life for all women. They usually happen every 3-5 weeks, but it’s different for everyone. Sometimes they can be accompanied by pain or other unpleasant symptoms. Some women can take medicine (usually birth control) to stop their periods. This might be because they don’t want to get pregnant, or maybe because their periods are especially painful or otherwise unpleasant.
Most periods last for 3-5 days, maybe a little more or less in some cases. During this time, women will wear tampons or cups to help control the bleeding.
If a woman doesn’t have a period, it can be because she’s pregnant. But it can also be for other reasons, especially early on when her body is first starting to have them. Women will continue to have periods, usually once a month or so, for a large part of their lives. Eventually, usually somewhere around age 50, the periods stop.
The important things to remember are that periods are perfectly natural, and that they affect everyone differently. Some women have really bad ones, some women hardly notice. Some have them often, others less frequently. They’re part of life, but often don’t get talked about because people can be embarrassed about them.
It’s someone’s uterus shedding because they didn’t get pregnant, and it causes bleeding for 3 days to a week, intense cramps, and possibly nausea, headaches, swollen/ sore feet, basically a lot of the stuff you hear about being pregnant but for less time. Then the body gets ready to do it all again, very rudely.
the easiest way to understand it is kinda like the vagina cleaning itself; basically there’s a discharge (or removal) of blood, ovaries, & other stuff in the vagina & uterine lining that needs to leave the body regularly to make sure women’s reproductive organs stay healthy! this process starts when girls hit puberty, & it becomes a monthly (sucky & uncomfortable) process unless they’re pregnant or their birth controls messes with their hormones. it usually stops when women hit menopause age, around 50ish 🙂
Male produces sperm constantly where as females release typical one egg a month, roughly. The female releases an egg from the ovaries. If this egg is not fertilized after 2 days, menstruation is allowed to happen. This is the period. The egg along with the inner lining of the uterus is squeezed out of the body. Accompanied by a decent amount of blood. During this time and leading up to it lots of hormones are at play. Common to experience cramps and other not fun stuff. After the period is over, the body prepares the next egg within the ovaries. All to be repeated over and over waiting for fertilization, or until menopause, around age 40-50… I’m not a doctor. That’s just what I remember from high school. Did I pass?
Women are only born with a certain amount of egg cells. Unlike males, female bodies have to “ration” their reproductive capabilities. Unfortunately for women, it’s fully automatic and rather gruesome.
Roughly once a month an ovary will release an egg to the uterus and the uterus will prepare to potentially hold a fertilized egg as it grows into a baby. If the egg is fertilized (technically this usually happens on the *way* to the uterus and not in it, but for the purpose of this explanation…) it will stick in the uterus until the baby is born. If it is not, it will wait a while and then, as the body realizes it is not pregnant, it will shed the egg and all the extra “stuff” that was put in place to prepare for pregnancy.
This is all controlled via hormones – some hormones are necessary for a healthy pregnancy and some will “signal” the body if pregnancy occurs – this is why women don’t have periods while they are pregnant. If there is no signal, then the shedding of the uterine lining occurs. *Edit: This is how most forms of birth control, like the pill and the implant work, they basically trick the body into thinking it’s pregnant using this hormonal signal. If a woman is already pregnant, their body won’t allow them to become pregnant again. Some women also experience reduced or even no periods on hormonal birth control*
Hormones control a lot of things, and can have an impact on emotion. This is why some women have emotional changes at different times in their menstrual cycle. Also, the menstrual cycle is continuous, not just for one week each month. The hormonal changes and signals are constantly changing on a approximately monthly cycle. A period is just one part of this continuous cycle.
Women are only born with a certain amount of egg cells. Unlike males, female bodies have to “ration” their reproductive capabilities. Unfortunately for women, it’s fully automatic and rather gruesome.
Roughly once a month an ovary will release an egg to the uterus and the uterus will prepare to potentially hold a fertilized egg as it grows into a baby. If the egg is fertilized (technically this usually happens on the *way* to the uterus and not in it, but for the purpose of this explanation…) it will stick in the uterus until the baby is born. If it is not, it will wait a while and then, as the body realizes it is not pregnant, it will shed the egg and all the extra “stuff” that was put in place to prepare for pregnancy.
This is all controlled via hormones – some hormones are necessary for a healthy pregnancy and some will “signal” the body if pregnancy occurs – this is why women don’t have periods while they are pregnant. If there is no signal, then the shedding of the uterine lining occurs.
Hormones control a lot of things, and can have an impact on emotion. This is why some women have emotional changes at different times in their menstrual cycle. Also, the menstrual cycle is continuous, not just for one week each month. The hormonal changes and signals are constantly changing on a approximately monthly cycle. A period is just one part of this continuous cycle.
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