All about your period.

I've told my husband several times that menstruation is proof that God does exist, and He hates women.  It hurts, it's kinda gross*, and it makes some of us feel absolutely insane for about a week every month.

Seriously, this isn't fun.

Maybe not every girl feels that way about her period, but I do. Mother Nature's a jerk.

Anyway, let's put my opinions aside, and examine the mechanics of this whole thing.

We've talked a bit about hormones and their effects on puberty, and hormones are also the key players in menstruation.  The menstrual cycle ranges from 21-35 days in adult women, with a wider time variation in adolescents - like 20-45 days.  There are 4 stages of the menstrual cycle, of which a woman's period is only part.

1. Follicular phase
During this phase, there's a rise in FSH (follicle stimulating hormone, which we talked about last post), which stimulates follicles in the ovaries - hence the name of this phase.  These follicles secrete increasing amounts of estradiol and estrogen, which cause a new layer of endometrium to develop; the lining of the uterus will grow and thicken, preparing for potential implantation of a fertilized egg.  The estrogen also stimulates your cervix to create a different kind of mucus.  If you're tracking your cycles as a method of birth control or trying to conceive, this change in mucus is a good indicator that ovulation is about to start.

2. Ovulation
During ovulation, one of those follicles that got all stimulated during the follicular phase will rupture and release its egg, around 12 days after the end of your last period.  There is a huge rise in LH (luteinizing hormone) lasting about 48 hours, which is what causes the follicle to burst.  It appears to be random whether the left or right ovary is involved in ovulation, and sometimes both will release an egg.**  After being released from the ovary, the egg gets swept down the fallopian tube by the little cilia inside it.  If the egg isn't fertilized in a day or two, it will disintegrate or dissolve in the fallopian tube.  If it is fertilized, the egg will immediately begin development and continue its journey, reaching the uterus in about 3 days and implanting in about 3 more.

For some of us, ovulation comes alongside a pain called mittelschmerz ("middle pain" in German), which is pain in the lower abdomen and pelvis.  There are many things that can cause this pain: swelling ovarian follicles, the egg breaking through the ovary wall, contraction of the fallopian tubes as they move the egg along, muscle contractions in the ovary and its ligaments, or blood and other fluids released from the egg follicle as it ruptures.  For some women, the pain is so localized that they can tell which ovary is releasing an egg that month.

3.  Luteal phase
After ovulation, FSH and LH cause the ovarian follicle to develop into this structure called the corpus luteum (hence luteal phase), which releases high levels of progesterone that causes the uterine lining or endometrium to thicken.  If the egg is fertilized, the corpus luteum will continue to release progesterone, maintaining the thick lining of the uterus until the placenta grows to take over the job, at which the corpus luteum decays to become a little lump of scar tissue on the follicle (each ovarian follicle only gets to be the star once).

If the egg is not fertilized, the corpus luteum will stop progesterone production and decay after about 14 days, turning into scar tissue.  The sudden drop in progesterone is what causes the uterine lining to slough off during menstruation.

4. Menstruation
I think this tumblr post defines it best:

Seriously though your period is like coming home one day and finding that your spouse has constructed this entire new baby bedroom inside your house and you have to tell them “Sweetie we don’t have a baby” and then your spouse FLIPS THE FUCK OUT like “The FUCK do you mean we don’t have a baby I DID ALL THIS WORK” and then they spend the next week tearing the whole room apart and throwing it out into the street and screaming at you and then finally when the room is completely gutted they calm down and say “It’s okay hon we’ll have a baby next month” and then they start building the room again AND THIS SHIT KEEPS GOING FOR THE REST OF YOUR LIFE UNTIL YOU HIT LIKE 50 AND THEN YOUR SPOUSE LEAVES YOU BUT NOT BEFORE SETTING THE WHOLE HOUSE ON FIRE SO IT’S NEVER THE SAME AGAIN


The average period lasts between 3 to 5 days and the first couple days are often accompanied by painful cramping ... just everywhere.  All those hormones running around your system can make you kind of crazy (I cry at insurance commercials).  Sorry.  Daily Grace has some tips for survival:

That's it for this week. Stay tuned  for more period survival tips.

*I don't mean to say that having a period is gross - it's a natural process that most women experience and it's just something our bodies do.  It's nothing to be ashamed of or repulsed by. It just trips my own personal
"ick factor." I just find blood gross, even when it's my own, and especially when it's leaking from a place in my body that I'd rather only be used for fun things.

** If both of these eggs get fertilized, they result in fraternal twins.  Fun fact: my dad is a fraternal twin.  Identical (or maternal) twins result when a single egg is fertilized and then splits in two during early development.

Puberty and hormones!

Thanks for putting up with my hiatus last week. The move went well, even with an unexpected new kitty to bring along.  Just a reminder that I'm not going to be posting next Friday either, as it's my BFF's wedding.

So, now, onto today's post topic: puberty and the hormones that cause it.

Hormones are, at their most basic level, chemical signals from one part of your body that tell another part of your body to do something. Organs, glands, and even individual cells can produce hormones, and these hormones can have any effect from changing your metabolism to signalling fight-or-flight response to causing mood swings.  They're the little buggers responsible for PMS (and the menstrual cycle in general), growth spurts, and of course puberty.

Puberty is a progression of physical changes in which a child's body matures into an adult body, capable of reproduction.  Most girls hit puberty between ages 10 and 12, and finish it between 15 and 17.  Within this window, a girl will start menstruating and develop breasts and pubic hair, as well as experience growth spurts and the hardening of the long bones (like the femur in your thigh).

The onset of puberty is signaled by an increased production of a hormone called gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH), which is responsible for the release of follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) and luteinizing hormone (LH) from the pituitary gland.

Basically, a part of your brain called the hypothalamus releases a hormone (GnRH) that tells your pituitary gland to make other hormones (FSH and LH).  These two hormones zip straight to your ovaries and tell them to get started producing estrogen and progesterone.  A specific form of estrogen called estradiol is the dominant hormone in female puberty, and it promotes the growth of the breasts and utuerus.  FSH also tells your ovaries to kick it into gear, causing the maturation of the little follicles inside that will eventually release ovum during ovulation.

The first sign that puberty has started is breast development, which starts around 10.5 years old on average. A hard, tender lump will develop right under the areola and over the next 1.5-2 years will slowly approach their mature size and shape; that starter lump will generally fade back into the rest of the breast tissue at the end of this development.  The areola will also grow in size and darken in color, and the nipple - which is typically an "innie" in children - will change to an "outie."

Another early sign of puberty is the development of pubic hair, which occurs right around the same time, or sometimes even slightly before, the breasts start to grow.  The first pubic hairs usually grow on the labia and then spread up and over the mons pubis, eventually forming the "pubic triangle," and often grows on the top of the inner thighs and close to the abdomen as well.

Next, your lady bits start changing.  The walls of your vagina will go from a bright red to a duller pink, and will also thicken a bit.  Vaginal secretions will change in order to maintain the pH balance - which keeps all the naturally occurring microbes there happy and healthy and fighting infections.  The labia majora and minora will also grow and change in color; the clitoris will grow as well. Shortly after breast development begins, the uterus, ovaries, and ovary follicles increase in size as they prepare to start menstruation.  They reach full functioning size in about 2 years, which is when a girl will typically experience menarchy - that is, her first period... which is fun.

What, wasn't everyone's like this? No? Okay then...

Anywhere between ages 8 and 16 is normal for a girl to start her period, and the length of the menstrual cycle will be unpredictable for the first few years.  Just because you start having your period doesn't necessarily mean you're ovulating - 80% of girls don't actually ovulate for the first year of cycles, 50% for the first three years, and 10% for the first 6 years.  The full nitty-gritty details of menstruation will be covered in the next post (June 7).

Another delightful change in puberty is the shift in body proportion and body fat distribution.  Rising levels of estrogen cause the shape of the pelvic bone to change, widening the hips (which makes a wider birth canal).  Fat tissue rises to a higher percentage than that of males (about 6% more), popping up in the breasts, thighs, hips, butt, pubic mound, and upper arms. This higher level of fat is essential for maintaining and regulating the amounts of hormones needed for the menstrual cycle, which is why girls with low body fat and low weight tend to have more irregular periods.  Those same hormones that regulate the mentsrual cycle are also necessary for bone development, which is why irregular periods correlate highly with osteoporosis (weak and brittle bones).

Self-disclosure time: I'm in recovery from anorexia nervosa.  From age 16 to about 23, I was deeply engrossed in my eating disorder and greatly underweight.  Even on birth control, I had extremely irregular periods, often going 6 months or more without one.  Because of this, I have osteoporosis and osteopenia (which is basically pre-osteoporisis) despite being only in my late 20s.  I've been in recovery for about 4 years now, at a healthy weight and with regular periods (still on birth control) and my bone health is slowly improving, but the damage I did to myself is very real.  Not just to my bones, but to my heart, reproductive system, and other vital organs, which all suffered due to prolonged malnutrition.  I guess what I'm trying to say with this is... be good to yourselves, ladies.

Okay, where was I? Right. The many wonderful changes caused by puberty.

All those hormones running through your body will also change the composition of your sweat, which can make it smell different... which is why oh so many teenagers really can benefit from proper use of soap and deodorant.  These hormones can also cause your skin to produce more oil, leading to zits and full-on acne.  For some of us, these zits and BO will mostly go away as puberty ends, but many times some degree of body odor and break-out will continue into adulthood. Thanks, hormones. Really, you shouldn't have.

Tune in in two weeks for a roadmap of menstruation.ho