So I’m at work today and in comes a young lady who’s worried about the possibility of being pregnant after having sex with her boyfriend
As I discussed with her I then realized that a lot of us young women know little to nothing about how our own bodies work ( quite sad if you ask me)
Theres a lot lot to the female body (anatomy, physiology and all) but I want to use this to talk about our menstrual cycle ( ovulation cycle)
Get strapped in because this is about to be a long read 😅😅
So what is the Menstrual cycle
I’ll try to break this down as much as I can so we all understand as much as possible
Basically our bodies prepare for the possibility of pregnancy every month (this happens in the uterus or womb). There are different phases to this preparation and each last for a different amount of days and this goes on and on every month on repeat ( where the cycle come in).
Depending on what phase we are there are diffrent events that can occur.
On average most women have a 28 day cycle during which they menstruate(bleeding period), ovulate( when the egg is released and most likely to get pregnant), and the rest of the cycle is in preparation of both of these events.
From the above pictures the cycle is generally divided into
Day 1-7 -menstrual period
Day6-14 - Folicular period
Day 14-18 - Ovulation period
Day 19-28 -luteal period
Lets keep in mind that we are not all the same and we differ from person to person so this is just a general overview. If yours isn’t this way it doesnt mean its not normal. Also let’s understand that sometimes the days can overlap so the days can get intermingled.
Now let’s discuss what happens in each of the phases
( I really looked for a free picture for this though 😅😅)
The menstrual phase
Here the lining of the uterus is being shed by bleeding. This happens when theres no pregnancy. You can think of it as all the preparations made by the uterus for a pregnancy being washed off. Usually the bleeding can go on for 5-7 days and can vary in quantity from person to person.
Also because there is shedding there can be some abdominal pain or other symptoms ( commonly known as Pre menstrual syndrome)
The follicular phase
Here the uterus gets ready to receive a matured egg that is ready to be fertilized. It usually lasts from Day7-13
The Ovulation phase
This comes usually at the middle day of the cycle so for a 28day cycle that would be the Day 14.
Usually the ovulation window is a few days before and after the Day 14 ( like I said the human body differs from person to person and even from cycle to cycle though the changes might not be so much) so there’s a range of Day 12/13-15/16. it should be known that a released egg is probably only viable for give or take 24hrs
Now if you have sex during this period and semen is deposited inside the vagina its very possible for pregnancy to occur( if you wanted to take a pill this would be the best time)
The Luteal phase
Now this phase could go either of 2 ways
If theres a pregnancy thats a whole different ball game than if theres no pregnancy
I’ll just talk about if there’s no pregnancy (cos this is already a lot longer than i thought 😜)
You can think of it as all the preparations previously made not being necessary anymore and needing to be cleaned out.
So basically you can look at this as a pre cleaning up of the uterus or a preparation for the shedding of the lining of the uterine wall
So in a nutshell that’s basically what happens in the menstrual/Ovulation cycle
I hope I have not gotten you any more confused than before you started 😅😅
Now from all I’ve said I think we can understand that there are safe periods( periods where getting pregnant is least likely) and unsafe periods( where pregnancy is highly likely)
These “unsafe periods”(the ovulation)are when its more necessary to use a pill ( usually the morning after pill)
Now there are more options for contraceptives but thats a whole different discussion 😅😅
I hope I’ve been helpful with this little tidbit
Cheers and always practice safe sex my ladies
