Bloated. Irritated. Tired. Chocolate-craved. Cramping. Aching... just a few ways to describe what it's like to have a period for some women. Does it sound horrible? Sometimes it is. But a period can be so much more than that; it can be feminine, empowering, and special. The period is a beautiful thing because it is one of the indications that a woman's reproductive health is running smoothly, and that she is capable of facilitating life.

Often times we hear the word menstruation, or periods, talked about in women's health. According to Merriam Webster's online dictionary, menstruation is "a discharging of blood, secretions, and tissue debris from the uterus that recurs in nonpregnant breeding-age primate females at approximately monthly intervals and that is considered to represent a readjustment of the uterus to the nonpregnant state following proliferative changes accompanying the preceding ovulation." But what does that mean? Simply stated, menstruation is a part of  a monthly menstrual cycle in which the reproductive organs create and then rid the body of the lush lining of the uterus in the event that the woman is not pregnant. The body creates this lining so it can be used if conception occurs between a sperm and an egg. The fertilized egg would become an embryo, and that embryo would implant itself onto the nutrient-rich lining. This lining isn't needed if there is no embryo. That is why every month when the ovaries release an egg, if it is not met with a sperm, then it will not attach itself to the lining. the lining is rendered useless and therefore is disposed.

So, how does the menstrual cycle work? A menstrual cycle is approximately 22 to 28 days, but it differs from person to person. Scientists have labeled the first day of a period as the first day of  the menstrual cycle. The period, as stated before, is the disintegration of the egg and the endometrium, the lining of the uterus, that is shed as menstrual blood. The period part of the cycle usually lasts about five days, but can be a few more or less depending on the person.

In the first half of the menstrual cycle, the follicular phase, also called the proliferative phase, occurs; it is the second official phase of the menstrual cycle. In this phase, pituitary glands in the brain produce significant amounts of follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH). These hormones travel through the body to the ovaries where they aid the development of follicles containing eggs. The follicles are stimulated until one of them reaches maturity. During the end of the  follicular phase, the ovaries emit increasing levels of estrogen. Estrogen  is a hormone that is responsible for many physical feminine traits, but during the follicular phase, it thickens the endometrium.

The next phase of the menstrual cycle is called the ovulatory phase.