The two aspects we mostly concentrate on as being the signs of puberty – periods in girls and wet dreams in a boy – actually start some one or two years after the real event has got under way. It has been suggested that girls will not begin menstruating until their bodies have a certain proportion of fat to weight. When the time is right, the pituitary gland at the base of the brain starts sending chemical messages – called hormones – into the bloodstream, and internal organs grow as well as external ones. The uterus, or womb, doubles in size to become a pear shaped and sized organ, situated in the pelvic cavity. The best way to visualize its position is to clench your fist, and place it against your lower stomach below the navel. If you could move 4-6 inches (10-15cm) back into your body, you’d be holding your uterus. The ovaries which are suspended on either side of the uterus also begin to work. The ovaries are two plum-shaped and sized glands, situated in the girl’s pelvic cavity on either side of her uterus. Each ovary contains as many as 100,000 microscopic egg cells. Given the proper stimulus, each could grow into an egg or ovum. Each of these, given the optimum conditions, could be fertilized and grow into a baby. In practice, only 400 or so ova are released in any one woman’s lifetime.

On the signal from the pituitary every month, ten to 20 ova will start to mature. As well as bringing eggs up to readiness, the ovaries send out their own chemical messages to the uterus. In response, the endometrial or lining of the uterus starts to thicken and grow, ready for a fertilized egg. The body starts making preparations to increase the chances of sex taking place and conception occurring. The discharge or lubrication present in the vagina becomes more copious, to make sex easier and more pleasant. This liquid will have a musky odor that may not be noticeable on a conscious level but which may affect males in close contact with the woman. This lubrication is also thinner and more slippery in texture than usual, to encourage sperm to swim up through the cervix, the opening to the womb, and on to a rendezvous with an ovum.

When one of the ova is ready, it will burst out of its ovary and start the journey down the fallopian tubes towards the womb. This is called ovulation. Each ovary usually takes it in turns to release an egg, every other month, but this is by no means a rigid pattern. If sperm is encountered on the way, during a journey that can take up to a week, fertilization may occur. A fertilized egg will complete the journey to the womb and attempt to implant itself and establish a pregnancy. Needless to say, this happens only once or a few times in a lifetime and maybe not at all. If you yourself do not frustrate this purpose, the body itself occasionally does, and even in the healthiest women more fertilized eggs are spontaneously discarded than are allowed to develop. Most of the eggs continue down, unfertilized. About 14 days after ovulation, if a fertilized egg has not implanted properly in the endometrial, the lining will come away as blood, water and a very few clots of tissue. This flow of blood is a menstrual period.

In most girls, the first months or even years of periods are ‘an ovular’ – they occur without an egg maturing to the point of bursting out of an ovary. The signal that a first period is about to begin is often the appearance of a white or creamy discharge on the young girl’s pants. This can happen for a few months before a show of blood. Some girls get warning cramps or feel tired and aching – again, sometimes for a few ‘false alarms’ before the first periodi.The actual flow can be a bright red color, but it is just as likely to be brown or black. It can be thin and watery, or thick and full of clots. Periods can be irregular for as long as two years before they settle down to arriving in a fairly routine manner, usually every 26 to 30 days. In most cases, they last for four to five days, and the girl will lose around a half-cupful of blood each month, although it always seems more.

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