Welcome to Girl's Corner

Growing up to become a woman comes with all sorts of things that many women would rather not have. But all of them, like menstruation, is very important because it is your body’s baby-making machine maintaining itself until you are ready to have a baby.

What is menstruation?
Menstruation (periods) is a time in the month when a woman’s body gets rid of tissue it no longer needs.

During or after your puberty stages, you will start seeing some thick, dark stuff in your underwear. This is blood and tissue from your body coming out from down there, and it will come out every month. There is nothing to be worried about, as it is normal for every woman. This discharge is what we call ‘Period’

During the month, your reproductive hormones prepare the womb (uterus) in anticipation of a fertilized egg. Your female sex cells (ova or egg) can only be fertilized if there is a sexual activity. The correct term for a fertilized egg in the womb is ‘Pregnancy’. If there is no pregnancy, the womb will clean itself by shedding the endometrial lining (the lining of the uterus). The womb washes this out of your body through the vagina.

This means each time there is no pregnancy, periods will occur at the end of the month, and if there is a pregnancy, the periods will stop until the baby is born (childbirth). This will happen until you grow much older (about 50 years and over)

The start of periods is known as menarche. Menarche doesn't happen until all the parts of a girl's reproductive system have matured and are working together.

Now we shall learn a bit more details about how this all happens.