Almost periods

  • About periods
  • Problem periods
  • Premenstrual conditions
  • Bleeding later menopause

In virtually women, the 'menstrual cycle' happens over 28 days, starting with the first twenty-four hour period of your period. With each wheel your body prepares the lining of your uterus to create the platonic environment for a possible pregnancy.

Why practise we have periods?

Your menstrual cycle is the time between ane period and the side by side. Every month in that location is a circuitous interaction betwixt the pituitary gland in the brain, the ovaries and the uterus (or womb). Messages and hormones are being passed around the torso to gear up information technology for a possible pregnancy. An egg is produced, the lining of the uterus thickens up, hormones prepare the vagina and the cervix to accept and support sperm. When pregnancy doesn't occur, the egg is absorbed dorsum into the body and the thick lining in the uterus is shed, this is your menses. Then the cycle begins all once more.

  • Solar day one of your cycle is the first day of your period. This is when your uterus starts shedding the lining it has built up over the last 28 days.
  • Later your period is over, the lining of your uterus starts to build upwardly again to get a thick and spongy 'nest' in preparation for a possible pregnancy.
  • On day 14 (for most women), one of your ovaries will release an egg, which will make its way through a fallopian tube and will eventually make its way to your uterus (called ovulation).
  • On twenty-four hour period 28 (for most women), if yous have not become significant, the lining of your uterus starts to shed. This is your flow. The claret you lose during your period is the lining of your uterus.
diagram of the menstrual cycle

The menstural wheel

If you take sex during a wheel, and your egg meets a sperm, you can go pregnant. When you're pregnant, you don't get your flow.

Is a bike always 28 days?

The average cycle is 28 days but, for some women, information technology is equally short as 21 days, for others it is as long as 35 days. When y'all starting time kickoff having periods, it can also have a while before your periods develop a regular design. Your cycle too changes as yous go older.

Your period cycle (and period) stops temporarily when yous are pregnant. Breastfeeding likewise affects your cycle. At the end of menopause, your cycle stops permanently.

What does a flow feel like?

Some women will accept hurting in their belly (the lower belly). This can be a crampy pain or only a mild ache. Y'all may take lower backache on its own or with the pain in your belly. The pain can frequently be stronger on the showtime day or two of your menstruation and will vary in strength and severity from one women to another. Some women too take a headache or feel very tired just before their period arrives or on the start day. Mood changes, teariness and hands losing your temper can sometimes be an indicator that you lot are getting your menstruation, this is referred to equally premenstrual syndrome (PMS) or premenstrual tension (PMT). For some women this can be then overwhelming that they are unable to go about their normal lives. Any symptoms that you find hard to manage should be investigated with your GP.

Many women take no symptoms at all. It is not uncommon for women to notice that they have their menstruation just afterwards they have gone to the toilet and plant that there is blood on their underpants or on their toilet paper.

Even without overwhelming symptoms, some women all the same find information technology comforting to simply take time out when they get their period, and caress upwards with a hot water bottle.

Adolescent girls and women can both experience skin changes and pimples with their periods.

What to do when yous become your period

Before yous start getting periods information technology is practiced to be prepared for when it eventually comes. Hopefully you volition have an opportunity to talk with your mother or sister or someone else in your family who tin can assistance you to prepare. Meanwhile here are some tips for when you practice beginning bleeding.

  • Use catamenia products similar a pad, tampon, menstrual cup or catamenia underwear to blot the bleeding. Pads and liners are longs strips of cotton fiber that you stick to your underwear. Tampons are sparse cylinders of dense cotton attached to a string that you lot put inside your vagina. Pads, liners and tampons come in different shapes and sizes. Pads should be changed every four to five hours to finish leakage. You can use a tampon whenever you want, you don't have to wait until you get-go having sex activity earlier a tampon will go in. It may exist a little hard to get it in to begin with, but yous will get used to information technology very speedily. Tampons should be inverse every three to 4 hours. Menstrual cups should be changed near every eight hours and catamenia underwear can exist washed out at the cease of the mean solar day.
  • Continue a 'period kit' somewhere handy. This is because you might become your menstruation unexpectedly or forget it'due south due. Keeping some painkillers, period products and a spare pair of underpants in your pocketbook, at school or at work can be a lifesaver.
  • Bask life as much every bit possible. It'south safety and often possible to practise all the things you would commonly practise. Information technology's too okay to accept sex when y'all have your menses, only if you're using a tampon y'all'll need to take it out outset.

If you lot have period pain yous can take painkillers that you tin can buy over the counter at the pharmacist. If your pain isn't relieved with regular painkillers, visit your GP (your local medico).

Disclaimer

The Women's does not accept any liability to any person for the information or advice (or utilise of such information or advice) which is provided on the Website or incorporated into it by reference. The Women's provide this information on the understanding that all persons accessing it take responsibleness for assessing its relevance and accuracy. Women are encouraged to discuss their wellness needs with a wellness practitioner. If yous have concerns near your wellness, you should seek advice from your wellness care provider or if you require urgent care you should go to the nearest Emergency Dept.