The Inside Story

First, What's on the Outside?

First menstruation is a great time to learn about your body, inside and out.

As you know, women and men have different genitals – the “private parts” between our legs. Genitals are often called sex organs or reproductive organs because they're the parts of our bodies that we use when we have sex and when we have babies. Men's sex organs hang outside their bodies: the penis and the sac called testicles. Women's sex organs are both inside and outside and are much more complicated.

Women's genital area – the outside sex organs – is also called the vulva. This is the area between your legs; it will change a lot as you go through puberty. The folds and lips of skin called labia will become softer and looser. You'll grow curly pubic hair. And every month or so, menstrual blood will drip out of the special opening between your labia. This opening is the entrance to the vagina. We'll talk more about the vagina later.

Besides the vaginal opening, there are two other openings or holes protected by the folds of your labia and by your buttocks. The first is the urethra. It's from here that you urinate (pee). The other opening is the anus. It's from this hole that you have bowel movements (poo).

The Main Characters

The inside story of menstruation has many characters, like the characters in a play. Each organ or part of your body has a different role to play and must learn to work in harmony with the rest.

An important player in the menstruation story is the vagina. This is the spongy tunnel that leads from the outside of your body to the sex organs inside. Menstrual blood and babies come out through the vagina. During sexual intercourse with a man, a man's penis is slid into a woman's vagina. You can look at the opening of your vagina if you hold a mirror between your legs. Your vaginal opening is protected by the labia and may be damp or slick to the touch.

Another main character maturing in your body right now is your uterus or womb. It's a very strong, muscular organ. The uterus is about the size of your fist and is hollow. When a woman is pregnant, the uterus holds the developing baby and expands like a balloon as the baby grows. Hold your closed fist against your lower stomach right below your belly button to see where your uterus is located.

To the left and right of your uterus are thumbnail-sized organs called ovaries. Ovaries are powerful places. They hold hundreds of thousands of tiny eggs, also known as ova. Even before you were born, you had these eggs in your ovaries.

The cervix is the gate between your vagina and your uterus. You can see your cervix only if you have a speculum (an instrument that opens up your vagina) and mirror to look into. But you can feel your cervix if you carefully push your finger far up into your vagina. It will be the bump your fingertip will meet at the end of your vagina and it may be quite sensitive to your touch, so be sure to try this gently!

In order that all these organs know what role to play in the story of menstruation, your body and brain send messages back and forth. These messages are called hormones. Like actors reading the script for a play, your sex organs read hormones to know what to do next. Hormones are always flowing through your body, but there are many more of them during puberty when your body is maturing and learning new processes and sensations. The hormones estrogen and progesterone are the messages for the process of menstruation.

The Amazing Menstrual Cycle: A Step-By-Step Process

A cycle is a process that repeats itself over and over again. Your first period signals that an amazing cycle has begun. The menstrual cycle is made up of different stages all directed by those busy hormones. Usually when we think of our menstrual cycle, we think only of the time when we're bleeding. But because you can't see things happening doesn't mean your reproductive organs are just sitting around doing nothing!

During the first stage of the menstrual cycle, your uterus grows a blood lining inside itself. The fancy name for this is called the endometrium. The endometrium grows and thickens for a week or so until the next event, ovulation takes place.

Ovulation is the point in your cycle when an egg is squirted out from your ovary. Your ovaries take turns releasing eggs – usually only one ovary lets out one egg per cycle. During the next three to five days, the egg travels down one of the passages called the fallopian tubes on its way from the ovary to the uterus. Some women say that they can tell when they're ovulating because they feel particular things, like a twinge to the right or left of their bellies, rushes of creativity, or strong emotions.

In a regular menstrual cycle, the egg sits around in the uterus for a few days and then is dissolved into the endometrium. When this happens, a new stage in the cycle begins.

Now the uterus must renew its lining. Over the next two to seven days, the endometrium loosens and slips out of the uterus through the cervix, down the vagina and trickles out of our bodies. We call this time of flowing blood menstruation.

Menstrual “blood” is really a mixture of mucus and secretions from your vagina and cervix with the blood and mucus of the endometrium. The blood stains everything so it looks red, brown or pink, but, as you'll see, what comes out of your body during menstruation is sticker and thicker than blood. On that white pad or tampon, it sure looks like a lot! But really you only bleed about 4-6 tablespoons each period.

Even before your first period comes, though, you're bound to find some sticky white or clear stuff in your underwear. This discharge is mucus from your cervix and vagina and is perfectly natural. A woman's vagina produces mucus when she gets sexually excited and the mucus acts as a lubricant during sexual penetration. But our bodies also produce these secretions every day to wash our internal organs, keeping them clean and free of infection. And just like everything else about human bodies, the amount of discharge varies from person to person – some women have more discharge than others.

Watch your discharge carefully so that you'll know what's normal for your body. It'll have a faint smell that's particular to you and will be clear or creamy white in colour, sometime stringy and other times chunky, depending on where you are in your cycle. If your discharge is ever especially strong-smelling or an odd colour, or your vagina is itchy, it may mean that you have an infection and need to visit a doctor or health practitioner for a check-up.

Cycling: How Long? How Often?

Your “menstrual cycle” is the length of time it takes from the beginning of one period to the beginning of the next. Menstruation is often said to happen once every month, but that isn't always the case. The average cycle is about twenty-eight days, but this is just the average. It's just as normal to have twenty days between periods, or as many as forty days for some women.

Some women never have a regular cycle: they'll have a period after twenty days and then they won't have another period for thirty days. Sometimes when a girl first starts menstruating, her period will come once and then not return for a few months or even a year.

Question: Do you all know when you'll get your periods?

Susan: Not really, it varies.

Jeananne: Mind comes between the third and the seventh of every month.

Maja: I don't know, mine's sort of whenever it feels like coming, there it is.

Janti: Whenever there's something important happening, I swear.

Susan: Yeah, that's when it is!

Janti: And every once in a while it comes right before something big. Like school. This year I finished it just before school started. I'm like “Yaayyy!”

Jeananne: I started the day school started.

Susan: I got it on a camping trip and I wasn't supposed to get it on the camping trip.

Jeananne: Great.

--Susan, Janti, Jeananne and Maja (age 13-14)

People also bleed for different lengths of time. For some women, the bleeding lasts only one or two days. For others, they can have a period that lasts for a week or more.

My mother thought I was pregnant once because my period didn't come for two months and then it lasted for two whole weeks when it finally came.
--Claudia (17)

If your period lasts longer than two weeks, you should talk to your mom or someone close to you, and see a doctor. It may just be that your body is still figuring out how to menstruate; on the other hand, you might be sick and this is your body's way of telling you that there's a problem.

[See: When your periods stop]

Where Babies Can Come In

If a woman has sexual intercourse, her monthly cycle of menstruation may be interrupted. During sexual intercourse with a man, a woman guides a man's penis into her vagina. Liquid, called semen, which is made up of millions of sperm comes out of the man's penis. Sperm are the male version of a woman's egg.

The sperm in the semen travel along the woman's vagina, through her cervix, uterus and into the fallopian tube. If the woman has recently ovulated, the man's semen and woman's egg may meet up. The egg takes one sperm from the semen into itself and so becomes fertilized. The fertilized egg sticks to the endometrium, or blood lining, of the woman's uterus. It grows into an embryo which matures into a fetus, or a baby. The blood lining protects and cradles the baby and as the baby grows, the uterus expands. This is the process of pregnancy.

When a woman is pregnant, monthly bleeding stops because the blood is needed inside the uterus to cushion the baby until it is born. Then a lot of blood comes out with the baby.

After giving birth, a woman's menstrual cycle takes a few months to get back on track and will often return with a different pattern and with different signals and sensations. While a mother breastfeeds her baby, she probably will not menstruate.

Of course, it kind of hits you sometimes, the shock of it that I can create another human. That was a big thing the first time I got my period. It was like, “Wow! I could make another human being.” With the help of someone else, of course, but that I can do this, I have the power to create. It's kind of a shocking thing, but a good thing.
--Tiffanie (16)

Sex: Proceed with Caution

Just because you may get your period at age twelve doesn't mean that your body is finished growing. Your breasts will get larger and your hips will continue to widen for the next couple of years. You'll also grow a little taller and even in your late teens you'll notice other signs of physical maturity too, like a change in your face's shape, more body hair and clearer skin.

Your body is maturing inside too. Your cervix and vagina will become thick and strong, and develop protective secretions. But your vagina, cervix and uterus still won't be fully mature until you're in your late teens and early twenties!

This is a very important thing to know if you're thinking of having sexual intercourse. Young women who have penetrative sex with a man (where the penis goes into the vagina or anus) before their bodies are fully matured are far more likely to get sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), as well as HIV/AIDS. Signs of STD infection include unusual or heavy cramping. If you are sexually active and experience excessive cramping, be sure to talk to a doctor or health care practitioner.

Girls between the ages of fifteen to nineteen have some of the highest rates for STDs. This isn't because they're having tons of sex, but because young women's sexual organs take a long time to reach full maturity and are vulnerable to disease until then.

Making the decision to have sex is a really serious one. Beside the worries of getting pregnant or catching life-threatening diseases, sex can stir up a lot of mixed emotions. Proceed with caution!

If you are someone you know is planning on having sex, make sure that condoms and plenty of water-based lubricant -- both are available at any drugstore – are used for your protection. Talk about your plans first, then take things slowly and be gentle so that your body has time to relax and to produce the helpful secretions that will act as a natural lubricant.

When Your Periods Stop

Sometimes a woman's periods will stop. If you have had sexual intercourse and your period has stopped, you may be pregnant. It's important to figure this out as soon as possible so that you can have lots of time to plan ahead. You can easily and privately take a pregnancy test (the kits are available at drugstores) or visit a clinic or doctor.

Being a pregnant teenager is a tough situation. But keep in mind that you do have choices: you can have an abortion, give the baby up for adoption, or keep it. Be sure to think ahead to the future and talk with people who are close to you about your concerns and plans.

There are other reasons for the disappearance of menstruation. Some drugs, like the birth control pill, may cause menstruation to stop or the blood flow to become very light. Menstruation also stops when you have too little body fat because you've dieted too much. The fancy name for the disappearance of your period is amenorrhea.

A sign of anorexia (dieting until your body starts to starve to death) is amenorrhea (no periods). Fewer or shorter periods can be an early warning sign of anorexia. Extreme stress or illness can also stop your period.

If your period has disappeared and you know you are not pregnant, make sure that you get to the doctor to find out why. It may be because you're very stressed about school or it might be a serious health condition.

Menopause

Menstruation will stop forever when a woman reaches her early fifties (though the exact time is different for every woman). At this point, her body is no longer interested in having babies and her hormones slow down. This end of menstruation is called menopause.

Menopause is like puberty in reverse. A menopausal woman's periods become irregular and eventually they stop completely. During this time, a woman may experience other thing like sudden changes in body temperature (called “hot flashes”), mood swings and bursts of energy.

Menopause means a woman can no longer get pregnant but it doesn't mean the end of her sex life. After menopause, some women feel very powerful and free, ready for the challenges of a new stage in life. Other women may feel sad because they're no longer fertile and they may feel less feminine and attractive.

Copyright © 1997 by Kathleen O'Grady and Paula Wansbrough