• Question: why do girls have periods? they don't help anyone at all!

    Asked by to Aimee, Chris, Dave, Greig, Laurence on 16 Jun 2014. This question was also asked by .
    • Photo: Dave Jones

      Dave Jones answered on 16 Jun 2014:

      I know it might seem like that but it’s really all about having babies! Every month a woman’s body prepares itself for having a baby, producing an egg and preparing the womb in case that egg gets fertilised. When that egg doesn’t get fertilised, the body has to find a way to clear away all its preparations in order to start getting ready for the next one. That clearing away is a period. I know it’s pretty unpleasant, but it’s just your bodies was of (repeatedly) getting itself ready to have children!

    • Photo: Laurence Perreault Levasseur

      Laurence Perreault Levasseur answered on 16 Jun 2014:

      That is a really good question.
      Live Dave said, it has to do with reproduction.
      When a girl is born, she has thousands of eggs in her ovaries. Those eggs contain exactly half of the genetic material needed to make a baby (they contain one copy of every gene, but to make a baby, two copies of every gene is needed). The other half comes from the sperm, so from the dad.

      After a girl starts getting their periods, every month an egg pops out from the ovary, and gets ready to become a baby. The whole body actually gets ready in case the eggs gets fertilized. The walls of the womb gets all thick an spongy, so that if the egg gets fertilized it will attach there and start feeding of that spongy material.

      Over the course of about 2 weeks, the egg travels from the ovary through the fallopian tubes until it reaches the womb. If by that time the egg hasn’t been fertilized by a man’s sperm, then it goes bad and has to be ejected, along with all the womb lining that was prepared for an eventual baby. That is the period.

      And the next month, this starts all over again!

    • Photo: Aimee Hopper

      Aimee Hopper answered on 16 Jun 2014:

      periods are a required part of reproduction. The sides of the uterus build up a lovely, squishy, nutritious lining over the month, essentially a blanket for a potential baby, then the ovaries release an egg to get fertilised.
      If it doesn’t get fertilised, then the egg dies, and gets flushed out along with the unneeded blanket.
      Without periods, girls would be at a higher risk of infection because the blanket would be around longer to pick up infections, the baby would be at risk of more harm. (Can you imagine living in a sleeping bag for a month without getting out?! You’d want to get rid of that too!) 😛

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