People (especially girls) talk a lot about periods. But what exactly is a period and what makes it happen?
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A girl's first period, called menarche (say: MEH-nar-kee), signals that she is growing up and her body is preparing so that she might have a baby someday. A period is the 2 to 7 days that a girl or woman experiences menstrual flow — blood and tissue that leaves the body through the vagina.
For most girls, it amounts to about 2 tablespoons (30 milliliters). To catch the blood and prevent stains on her clothes, a girl can wear a pad, which sticks to her underwear, or a tampon, which is inserted into the vagina.
What's Going On Inside?
The blood and tissue leaves the body because it's no longer needed. It comes from the uterus, the organ inside a woman's body where a baby grows. Each month, blood and tissue build up in the uterus in case the woman becomes pregnant. That lining would be needed if the woman's egg was fertilized by a man's sperm cell. A fertilized egg attaches to that cushiony lining and begins growing into a baby.
But most of the time, the egg does not get fertilized, the lining is shed, and the girl or woman has her period.
Let's talk for a minute about eggs. They're not the kind you buy in a carton at the store! Girls and women have two ovaries. Each of these ovaries holds thousands of eggs, which are tiny (each no bigger than the tip of a pin). During the menstrual cycle, an egg is released from one of the ovaries and begins a trip down one of the fallopian (say: fuh-LO-pee-un) tubes to the uterus, also called the womb.
If a sperm cell does not fertilize the egg, the unfertilized egg and the lining from the uterus leave the body. In other words, a girl has her period. The cycle then begins again. The lining of the uterus will start building up, and about 2 weeks after the last period, another egg will be released.
