The basic facts
Menstruation happens for between 3-7 days on average once every 28 days. From the onset of puberty, a woman may go through this cycle 450 times in her life, so it’s important to understand the physical and psychological changes that are going on which in turn, can have a huge effect on your day-to-day mood and general wellbeing.
Behind the scenes are a series of hormonal controls that finetune the bodies internal working. This includes two ovaries which are stocked with thousands of tiny sacks called follicles each containing an unfertilised egg cell or “oocyte”. At puberty, your ovaries on avaerga, hold over 400,000 egg cells but release only one each month, leading to either a period or – if the egg gets fertilised – a pregnancy.