Let’s Talk Periods…

For most of us what we know about periods either comes from the puberty talk at school, older sisters, friends or parents.  Periods are this mysterious thing that one day will just arrive…they are often eagerly awaited and feared at the same time.  Periods although very natural and essential to reproductive health, they are often not spoken about, although with various national campaigns such as End Period Poverty, we are beginning to talk about them a little more.

In the work that I do to support Women’s Health and more so Reproductive Health, I am very aware that for women what we understand about our cycles can vary greatly! We are all very aware of when we bleed, we can be acutely aware of cramps, bloating, breast tenderness, mood swings and headaches but our awareness of what’s actually happening during different phases of our cycle maybe not so much.  And as periods tend to be something that we “put up” with on a monthly basis, we don’t talk about them, so we assume our experience is just the norm.

So, a very quick overview of the menstrual cycle, the average cycle lasts 28 days but anything from 21-40 days is considered normal.  Most of us begin our periods before the age of 16, with 12 years old being the average age.  Day 1 of our cycle is the first day of our period. The average period lasts 2-7 days and during this time the average blood loss is 3-5 tablespoons.  This part of our cycle is known as the follicular phase and on average lasts 14 days,during this phase the egg develops in the ovary and is released around day 14, this is what’s known as ovulation.  Once ovulation occurs and the egg is released into the fallopian tube is can survive for approx. 8-12 hours.

Following Ovulation, we enter what is known as the Luteal phase, this phase lasts 10-14 days and finishes the day our period begins.  If we are not pregnant this cycle repeats again, and again and again.  It is thought that on average we have 480 periods this is obviously dependent on pregnancies.

Our menstrual cycle is controlled by fluctuating levels of our female hormones Oestrogen and Progesterone. The rising levels of Oestrogen during the follicular phase of our cycle supports the egg to develop in the ovary and then to be released at ovulation.  Progesterone supports the lining of the uterus (womb) to thicken, supporting implantation if a pregnancy occurs, if not the level of progesterone beings to fall causing the lining of the uterus to breakdown and leave the body as a period.

For many of young women periods can be an inconvenience and often we pay very little attention to them until we are considering trying to conceive or unless we have very painful or very heavy periods, but our cycles are a good indication of our general wellbeing. Although every woman’s menstrual cycle is different, what’s normal for you might not be normal for someone else, getting to know what’s normal for you is important.  Tracking your cycle so that you know length of you period, length of you cycle, signs of ovulation can be very helpful in noticing changes or to support you in trying to conceive. There are a range of apps that are free and help you to track of this information.

As our menstrual cycle is hormone controlled and the female hormones are reliant on the other hormones in the body working efficiently. If there is disruption in the other hormones in the body this can in turn disrupt our menstrual cycle. Other hormones such as Cortisol our Stress Hormone can knock our cycles out of sync.

What supports a healthy menstrual cycle is good nutrition, sleep, healthy levels of stress and exercise. Good physical and mental health and wellbeing are supported by a balance of all the above.