every month women from around the age of

13 14 up until their late 40s or early 50s will experience a

Period a bleed from their vagina

now once you hit around late 40 or 50 a woman will enter what's called the menopause and

therefore they will not have this monthly bleed anymore

A bleed which we often refer to as a period comes at the end of your menstrual

cycle now, although we often use the word period

We also have many other terms. So for example, you might hear in medical circles the term

menstruation menstruation and

On the other end of the spectrum we have lots and lots of slang terms

there are so many I can't possibly mention them all but here are just a few

a visit from Aunt Flo

This is a play on words, a pun because the blood flows. It's a flow of menstrual blood

it's a menstrual flow and

Flo is also a name, a female name

short for Florence, perhaps

Got the decorators in or got the painters in

They're painting, making a mess

That time of the month, which is something I often hear

Actually, it's a way to say it without really saying the word period which a lot of people find embarrassing

so they'll say oh

it's that time of the month and

riding the cotton pony

now the cotton pony I assume refers to

The sanitary product that you use in order to soak up

the blow the blood and that brings me on to

Sanitary products. In the UK when you're on your period there are around three types of products that you may use

when you have your period

A sanitary towel

A tampon or a menstrual cup

Firstly, a sanitary towel, also known as a sanitary pad

Now you can get these in all sorts of shapes and sizes

Firstly, some of them come with wings

which are

These extra little bits that fold around

your knickers to hold the sanitary towel in place. So this is a sanitary towel with wings

You can buy sanitary towels without wings and you will buy them depending on their level of

Absorbency, so if you have a lot of blood you will need a very absorbent sanitary towel

for the time when you don't need the full support of a sanitary towel, then you can purchase a panty liner

a panty liner, a much smaller, thinner version just in case

then we have a tampon

a tampon is an absorbent piece of material which you insert into your vagina and it will absorb the

Flow and as it absorbs it expands and it's always on a string

Now in the UK the brand

Tampax is

So famous that a lot of people use the name

Tampax to mean a tampon, very similar to Hoover

We will use the word Hoover to describe most vacuum cleaners when in fact the word Hoover is a brand name

It's the same with tampons. I might say to you. Do you have a Tampax?

And what I'm asking for is a tampon, I don't care whether it's a Tampax brand or not. I just need a tampon

anyway, when you're buying tampons, you will notice they also come in different levels of

Absorbency so you get really big ones and then quite small ones depending on the level of flow

But you can also buy them with an applicator or without an applicator and it really is

personal preference as to which one you prefer

This one is without an applicator

But the applicator is a long plastic tube

Which helps you to insert the tampon correctly

So, when you're buying tampons look out for with applicator or without to make sure you get the right ones

More recently the menstrual cup has become popular

Now the menstrual cup, often in the UK known as a moon cup, which again I think is a brand name

the moon cup or a menstrual cup is basically a

silicone cup which sits inside

The vagina and collects the menstrual flow and you empty it, clean it and reuse it

and I think it's become popular in recent years because of the

Environmental impact as well as the fact that it saves you a lot of money on sanitary products

Now, sometimes we have to talk about our periods whether it's with our friends or with a doctor

So how do we describe the type of period that we're having?

When talking about our period there's normally five categories your period will fall into either your having a heavy

period

This means there is a lot of blood, it's very heavy

on the other hand

You could be having a light period which of course refers to a period where there isn't much blood loss

So you might say to your doctor. I'm a bit concerned

I normally have very heavy periods, but recently I've had light periods

You might have irregular periods. Now, because your period comes the end of a menstrual cycle

you can usually

Accurately predict when your period will start and how long it will last

However, if your period starts at different times every cycle and it's hard to predict

Then you probably have irregular periods

If your period doesn't arrive at all

Then this is called a missed period or you would say I've missed a period

Quite worrying if you're not trying for a baby.

And the period that stresses out most of us, the late period

When you expect your period it's teasing you but it doesn't arrive

exactly when it's supposed to leaves you worrying for a few days and then finally

There it is

Now let's talk about symptoms. Of course, you're bleeding

It's your period so blood and bleeding is one of the symptoms

Sometimes the bleed isn't always

Liquid you might have what's called blood clots, little lumps of blood

Worth noting how big they are because you may want to tell your doctor if you get very big blood clots

now besides the bleeding all the symptoms you experienced before and around your period can be referred to as

PMS

PMS is

premenstrual syndrome

so if you're

experiencing period symptoms you can just say to people look I've got PMS and

They will understand what's happening. So what kind of symptoms are we talking about?

firstly, bloating

bloating is where your stomach, your abdomen feels swollen and

uncomfortable, very very full and tight and you may also get

Abdominal cramps we often just shorten it to cramps

I've got period cramps you might say and this is the pain in the lower abdomen. Oh

And it really really does hurt

Some people experience mood swings, depression, irritability. So it really has an effect on how they feel

You may have sore or tender breasts ouch

some people experience headaches and a few

Unlucky women also get migraines. You may experience bad skin

We sometimes just say I'm getting spotty or I have spots

It's that time of the month

so there you go some very helpful vocabulary to help you at this very special time of the month.

If you did find this helpful please give this video a thumb up and if you have any additional

Vocabulary, I would love you to put it in the comment section below

We shouldn't be embarrassed about this kind of stuff. It's all natural

Until next time, take care and good bye.