What’s menstruation about?
Menstruation is when blood and tissue from your uterus falls out of your vagina, aka getting your period. Typically, it occurs every month.
What’s the cycle of menstruation?
Each month, your menstrual cycle helps your body prepare for pregnancy. If you’re not pregnant, it also helps you to have a period. Hormones like estrogen and progesterone regulate the menstrual cycle and duration. Here’s how it goes down:
You’ve got 2 ovaries, and they each contain a bunch of eggs. The eggs are super tiny, too small for the naked eye to see.
Hormones make the eggs in your ovaries mature during your menstrual period, when an egg is mature, which means it is ready to be fertilized by a sperm cell. The lining of your uterus also makes these hormones thick and spongy. So, if it fertilizes your egg, it has a nice cushy place to land and start a pregnancy. As almost everything else inside our bodies, this padding is made from tissue and blood. To help a pregnancy develop, it has loads of nutrients.
Your hormones tell one of your ovaries to release a mature egg about halfway through your menstrual cycle; this is called ovulation. When they ovulate, most women don’t notice it, but certain signs of ovulation are bloating, spotting, or a little pain in your lower abdomen that you can only feel on one hand. It passes through one of your fallopian tubes into your uterus until the egg leaves your ovary.
Your body does not need the thick lining in your uterus if pregnancy does not happen. The lining breaks down, and through your vagina, blood, nutrients, and tissue flow out of your body. Voilà, this time is yours!
If you get pregnant, the lining is needed by your body, which is why your period stops during pregnancy. Your cycle comes back when you are no longer pregnant.
When in life do periods start and stop?
At some point during puberty, blood comes out of your vagina, and that is your playing period. most of the people get their playing period between ages 12 and 14, but some people get them earlier or later than that. there is no thanks to know exactly when you’ll catch on, but you’ll feel some PMS symptoms (link to PMS section) a couple of days before it happens.
If you do not get your period by the time, you’re 16, it’s an honest idea to go to a doctor or nurse. Read more about getting your playing period.
Most people stop getting their period when they’re between 45 and 55 years old — this is often called menopause. Menopause can take a couple of years, and periods usually change gradually during this point. After menopause is completely complete, you can’t get pregnant anymore. Read more about menopause. Your period may start and stop round the time it did for people you’re associated with, like your mom or sisters.
Do transgender guys get a period?
Not everybody who gets a period identifies as a woman or woman. Transgender men and genderqueer people that have uteruses, vaginas, fallopian tubes, and ovaries also get their periods.
Having a period are often a stressful experience for a few trans folks because it is a reminder that their bodies don’t match their true identity — this discomfort and anxiety is usually called gender dysphoria. Other trans people won’t be too bothered by their periods. Either reaction is normal and okay.
Sometimes trans people that haven’t reached puberty yet take hormones (called puberty blockers) to stop all of the gendered body changes that happen during puberty, including periods. and other people who already get periods can use certain sorts of contraception (like the implant or hormonal IUD) that help lighten or stop their periods. Hormone replacement therapy, like taking testosterone, can also stop your period.
If you begin taking testosterone, your period will get away. But this is often reversible — if you stop taking testosterone, your period will come. There are often some changes in your cycle before it stops permanently. Periods get lighter and shorter over time, or come once you don’t expect it. you’ll have spotting or cramping every once during a while until you stop getting your period, and sometimes even after it seems to possess stopped — this is often normal. Testosterone injections make your periods get away faster than testosterone cream.
If you experience gender dysphoria once you get your period, know that you are not alone. it’s going to be helpful to see out our resources and find a trans-friendly doctor in your area that you simply can ask.
When am i able to get pregnant during my menstrual cycle?
You have the very best chance of getting pregnant on the times leading up to ovulation (when your ovary releases a mature egg) — these are called fertile days. Ovulation usually happens about 14 days before your period starts — but everyone’s body is different. you’ll ovulate earlier or later, counting on the length of your cycle.
Your egg lives for about 1 day after it’s released from your ovary, and sperm can sleep in your uterus and fallopian tubes for about 6 days after sex. So, you’ll usually get pregnant for around 6 days of each menstrual cycle: the 5 days before you ovulate, and therefore the day you ovulate. you’ll also get pregnant each day approximately after ovulation, but it’s less likely.
Many people track their menstrual cycles and other fertility signs to assist them find out when they’re ovulating. this is often called fertility awareness — some people use it to stop pregnancy, et al. use it to undertake to urge pregnant. inspect our app, which makes it easy to chart your cycle and find out your fertile days. Some people have very regular cycles, and other people’s cycles vary from month to month. It’s really common for children to possess irregular periods. Since your period are often unpredictable, it’s hard to understand needless to say when you’ll ovulate (even if you’re carefully tracking your menstrual cycle). So, if you don’t want to urge pregnant, use contraception whenever you’ve got vaginal sex.