Let’s break the silence and talk about it.

Do females have eggs? Have these eggs always been there or have they been produced at some stage in her life or during puberty? How are these eggs related to them bleeding every month throughout the year? Understanding the menstrual cycle can help you to improve your menstrual health. Let’s get all your questions cleared through this basic post  about the reproductive cycle in females.

Are you born with eggs?

The female reproductive cycle refers to maturation of eggs inside the ovaries. When a baby girl is in her mother’s womb, her entire egg supply (which is about 2 to 4 million, 1 to 2 million per ovary) will be created but all of it will remain in an inactive state. This egg creation process within the mother’s womb is called as oogenesis.

What is a menstrual cycle?

Did you know that your body prepares yourself to be pregnant every month? So, your menstrual cycle and your menstruation (period) are controlled by hormones called estrogen and progesterone produced by a pair of ovaries. Let’s break it down a bit and make it easier to understand.

When a baby girl grows up and reaches puberty the eggs start becoming active wherein her reproductive cycle would start. During this cycle, one egg each month goes through a series of stages to get matured and activated each month. Once an egg matures, it is pushed out of the ovary towards the uterus where it could either be fused with a sperm after fertilizing it or could just remain there unfertilized and be discharged by a process of menstruation. The uterus consists  of a thick lining of tissues and blood which provides a good atmosphere for the fertilized egg to grow and lead to pregnancy. If there is no pregnancy, the uterus doesn’t need the thick lining of tissues and blood. This lining of the tissues break down and flows out of your body through the vagina. This process of shedding out the tissues, is called menstruation. When a female gets pregnant, the uterus needs the thick lining and hence you don’t have your periods while you are pregnant.

Fertility awareness (FA) is basically a method which is used to avoid pregnancy, to achieve pregnancy and most importantly it is a way to monitor your gynecological health. There are various methods of FA one of the most commonly used being the calendar method. A Calendar method involves a chart to store and track your cycles.

There are various tracking apps available online. Some of the good ones are:

• Clue: Simple, easy to use, informative, a fantastic app with a great interface.
• Period Tracker: A user friendly app with really good levels of accuracy when it comes to predicting your cycles.

Hope this post was useful for some of you guys!Let us know in the comments if you would like us to do an in-depth post about the same.

PS: Fall in love with taking care of your body! ❤