Your Period and What you Should Know

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• 0:04What a normal cycle is
• 0:49Counting cycle days
• 1:33Hormones through the cycle
• 3:27The lining and your period
• 4:36How fertility works
• 5:43The rhythm method

Full transcript

1. 0:04What a normal cycle is

   Hi guys, welcome to GynoTalks. Today I decided I want to take a step back and teach you all about a normal function of your body, which is periods. Now, in medicine we call them menstrual cycles, so you may hear me throw that term in, but basically the menses is the same thing as a period. So what's normal? Well, a woman's menstrual cycle on average lasts about 28 days.

2. 0:27

   What does that mean? That means from the first day of one period to the first day of the next is a 28-day interval. So some women might be a little longer or a little shorter than this. The normal variance is about seven days, so if your periods actually come every 21 days or every 24 days or every 33 days, that's still in the range of normal, because it's plus or minus seven days of that 28-day average I mentioned.

3. 0:49Counting cycle days

   And the way that we refer to a woman's period or menstrual cycle is by counting the first day of her bleed as day one. So we'll say day one of a menstrual cycle, day two, day 14, day 27, and so on.

4. 1:10

   And this is important terminology or verbiage to understand as a woman, because when you read things online or even if you're talking to your doctor, they're gonna refer to the menstrual cycle in terms of the days of the cycle. So I think it's really important that you all understand that basic terminology.

5. 1:33Hormones through the cycle

   So I want to show you, I actually made a little graph to show you guys the hormonal changes that occur in a normal menstrual cycle, because I think it'll help you to understand. So here's a little diagram I did ahead of time for you guys, and it's a graph that shows a couple of hormone changes. So this is day 1 of your menstrual cycle, as I just explained.

6. 1:56

   We're going all the way to day 14 and then to day 28, so here is one menstrual cycle, and theoretically the next period or menstrual cycle would start right here. This blue line is showing us estrogen, okay? So I'm gonna write that just like this, E, S, T backwards, and that's the blue line, estrogen.

7. 2:19

   And what happens with estrogen is it starts off low at the beginning of your menstrual cycle, climbs, and it peaks right before day 14. And the reason it's peaking is because there is another hormone called the LH hormone that's secreted by the brain and sent to the ovary, which makes estrogen, and that triggers ovulation.

8. 2:42

   So day 14, if a woman has 28-day menstrual cycles, is usually where she ovulates, and that's why we get this big spike in estrogen levels. Once the woman ovulates, again that's at day 14, then the ovary, after it releases the egg, starts to make more of progesterone, and that's this red line.

9. 3:05

   So PROG, okay? So the first half of your cycle, the first two weeks, first 14 days, are estrogen dominant, and the second half progesterone dominates, and this helps to dictate what you see with your period.

10. 3:27The lining and your period

    So what happens? This is all showing what the ovary is doing, because the ovaries what makes estrogen and progesterone, but these hormones then go to your uterus and cause the lining to thicken. So here the estrogen is starting to cause a buildup in the lining in the uterus, which is what your period is, the shedding of that lining. When you ovulate, progesterone is built, it's starting to stabilize that lining in preparation for the egg and sperm to meet and an embryo to implant in the uterus.

11. 3:51

    But if there's no fertilization, if the egg and the sperm don't meet and the woman doesn't get pregnant, both of these levels drop down to zero, and when they hit zero, guess what happens right here? You have a period. So this is where your period starts, when your estrogen and progesterone levels go down to zero.

12. 4:13

    So during the whole month you have fluctuations in your estrogen, in your progesterone level. This is what we feel as women. You know, sometimes women will get acne changes, or they'll get spotting, or they'll have longer periods. Oftentimes that's in response to hormone changes. We're going to talk about that in the subsequent videos this week, but I basically just wanted you to understand that.

13. 4:36How fertility works

    Another really important thing I need you to understand about this whole ovulation process and the menstrual cycle is the way fertility actually works. So when a woman drops her egg, as I said, that's almost always around day 14 here, but most people don't understand that egg only lasts for 24 hours in the female body.

14. 4:59

    So you should think to yourself, wow, it's a wonder I even could get pregnant if the egg is only lasting for 24 hours. How in the world do we, isn't that people get pregnant so easily? So the reason for that is the sperm is made constantly, and the man can make sperm anytime, and the sperm can live in the female body for up to 2 or 3 days.

15. 5:21

    So let's say a couple has sex right here on day 12, but her egg isn't gonna drop till day 14. So the couple has sex, the guy leaves town, but guess what, the sperm is still floating around for a couple days. So when she drops that egg, BAM, the sperm can still fertilize it.

16. 5:43The rhythm method

    So that's why we actually have a week of fertility, a couple of days before and a couple days after ovulation, where a couple can conceive. So this is when people try to rely on the rhythm method, we call it. In other words, they try to rely on natural methods to avoid pregnancy. What they're doing is they're having sex here and here but avoiding the most fertile time.

17. 6:04

    The reason that doesn't work 100% of the time, we don't all always ovulate on day 14. What if your cycles are 21-day cycles, okay, instead of 28, they're 21? Well, then you may be ovulating as early as day 7. So that means that you're relying on this method, or the rhythm method, you're thinking you're not going to ovulate until day 14, but you actually ovulated a week early, or maybe the sperm lasted in the body another couple days longer than we expected.

18. 6:28

    So that's why this rhythm method isn't foolproof. But this is generally when couples start if they're trying to get pregnant, this is when they're trying, in this window. And if you're trying to avoid it, you want to avoid this time.

19. 6:49

    So this is the basics. I hope this was helpful. Like I said, in future videos I'm going to talk more about the period characteristics, heaviness, and what happens if you're skipping it, but I wanted you to understand these basics. And as I always say, this is not a comprehensive information session, I'm not covering everything. Please go into your doctor and ask questions or come in to me if you're my patient.

20. 7:13

    Thanks for tuning in, and don't forget to subscribe.