This will be a brief overview because if we covered everything now, this would be an insanely long blog post! The standard that we have been taught is that we, as women, ovulate exactly on day 14 of every month. This is not true by far and turns out our cycles can range anywhere between 21-35 days! Not any of us have the same body types and our bodies work differently, some women will have a 30 day cycle while her best friend may have a 23 day cycle and to be completely honest, even these number range sometimes. For example, my cycle typically ranges between 27-29 days and that's totally okay. Also, because each of our cycles range differently so does our ovulation! The female reproductive system is insanely complex and incredible.
Here we go! Let's go over the 3 phases of your menstrual cycle!
Stage 1: Follicular Phase
The Follicular phase begins with menstruation! Menstruation is the other term for period and this is day 1 of your cycle. Literally just means that you have gotten your period and you are bleeding. When you are menstruating, your woman dominating hormones, estrogen and progesterone levels, are decreasing within your body and the bleeding should last anywhere between 3-5 days. This is because your body discovered that that month, sperm did not reach your egg and in turn, you aren't pregnant. Your endometrial lining that is built up during your luteal phase is now shedding and that is what is coming out and is called your period; Fully releasing those built up hormones for you!
Furthermore, in your follicular phase, your body is producing the Follicle Stimulating Hormone (FSH) which also helps promote the hormone estrogen. This phase can last anywhere between 8-21 days (including bleeding days) and helps develop an that is within each ovary to prepare for ovulation. When you are getting closer to the next stage, ovulation, the high levels estrogen are beginning to trigger the luteinising hormone (LH) that is so important for ovulation and the third part of your cycle.
Stage 2: Ovulation
Ovulation is another way of saying your body is releasing an egg or sometimes, eggs. Your estrogen levels are dropping and your progesterone hormone has officially arisen. Say your follicular phase lasts 17 days, that means on the 18th day is your ovulation day when your egg is finally released from the ovary and making its way into your fallopian tube. Only one ovary will release an egg and your body decides which one egg developed the most during your follicular phase. This egg will only live between 12-24 hours in there so that myth you were told in sex ed that women can always get pregnant is not true and please, lets end that horrible myth that was told to us.
Here is where things might get a bit more complex but bare with me. Okay, we now know that an egg can only live for 12-24 hours however, sperm is very different. Sperm can live for almost 5 days within a women's body. This means that if you were to have unprotected sex within 5-6 days (I've noticed many women's doctors range within these 2 days) before you ovulate there is a greater chance that you could be become pregnant because the sperm survival rate is much longer than an eggs. If there happens to still be viable sperm when you ovulate, the egg and sperm will meet and make its way into the uterus where it will attempt to implant in the uterine wall (endometrial lining). That is where the very beginning of an embryo begins! If there is no sperm, then you are on into your luteal phase!
Stage 3: Luteal Phase
The luteal phase is also the power house for the luteinising hormone which influences the progesterone hormone. This phase should last anywhere between 10-14 days and either is preparing your body for a baby (if an embryo successfully implanted into the lining) or your body is preparing for menstruation. During this time, you might be used to hearing the term or even experiencing Premenstrual Symptoms aka PMS, which can consist of symptoms such as tender breasts, spotting, moodiness, cramps, etc. This is incredibly common however, not entirely normal for our bodies to experience PMS. We should actually be able to get through our entire luteal phase without any issues and enter into our menstrual cycles that may give us a little tiny bit of cramping yet, anymore than that there may be an underlining cause that you should talk to your doctor about. Once you have reached the end day of your luteal phase that makes your next day your menstrual cycle and that last day will let you know how long your cycle was. If you started your period on day 30 then your cycle that month was 29 days long. Woah!
There is so much more to the phases than just this 'tidbit' but I wanted to provide you all with a little background into your menstrual cycle because let's face it, many of us are completely confused what is going on with our bodies, homones and emotions.
I hope that this clarifies things a little bit and I really want to dedicate 3 blog posts going into the depth of each phase! Talking about the hormones, the moon cycles, seed cycling, emotionally how we would be feeling, etc.
I'm excited to be sharing this and thanks for reading!
Xoxo,
Moonli
Weschler, T. (2015) Taking Charge of Your Fertility 20th Edition. New York City, New York: HarperCollins Publishers.
Comentarios