Your period, your “time of month,” your “friendyy-whatever you call it, most women experience menstruation for the first time between the ages of nine and sixteen, and every month (twenty-eightdays or so) after that. The funny thing is, although both girls and boys know about it, know that it happens to females, the purpose of menstruation and how it works remain a mystery to most people. This is a sad thing. Knowing how the human body works allows us to appreciate it that much more. Knowing how and why a female menstruates allows people of both genders to unlock the mystery of a woman’s fertility cycle.

The bottom-line purpose of menstruation is so that a woman can get pregnant. Each month, an egg is released by one of a woman’s two ovaries. The egg travels to the uterus by way of the fallopian tubes. The idea here is that once the egg is released, it will be fertilized by a sperm and be on its way to becoming a fetus and ultimately a baby. So, in order for the future baby to be comfortable, the uterus starts to develop a thick, cushy lining made up of blood and nutrients while the egg is making its way down the fallopian tube. In a way, the uterus is getting ready for its “house guest”-one that it thinks will stay for about nine months.

Most of the time, however, the egg is not fertilized and just passes right through the uterus without even stopping to say hello; it simply dissolves instead. Since the uterus has no one staying in it, it doesn’t need all that nutrient-rich lining it created. So, it sheds this lining through the vagina. It is this lining that is the blood of a woman’s period. This cycle of egg release and uterus preparation will happen practically every month until the ovaries stop releasing eggs. Most women have their periods for about
thirty years or more.

But, this description of the menstrual cycle is missing something important-the hormones! In fact, many people associate menstruation with a woman’s hormones being totally out of whack. This is not the case. While it’s true that women’s hormone levels change with the menstrual cycle, they do so for very distinct reasons. These reasons are divided into three phases. will happen practically every month until the ovaries stop releasing eggs. Most women have their periods for about thirty years or more.