Your cycle is a complete menstrual cycle: start anywhere but end up back at the same place. Textbooks – and many women who chart their cycles while practicing fertility awareness – call the first day of bleeding during their period day 1.

From “A Celebration of Sex” by Dr. Douglas Rosenau: eco meaning “a system” and nomos meaning “regulating guidelines”

An endocrine gland produces hormones that get released into your bloodstream. Hormones are chemical substances that regulate functions in our body.

The dynamic blood and connective tissue lining of the uterus. It has two layers: one grows cyclically as your ovarian hormones go through their rise and fall and it is this layer than is shed at menstruation. The second [under]layer becomes the new cyclically changing layer once menstruation occurs and a new base layer can […]

An adjective to describe the parts of the body sensitive to sexual stimulation

Fertilization is when an egg and sperm form a fertilized egg or zygote (which means “yoked together”). This is the first cell of a new person!

The ring of cells housing an immature egg (or oocyte). It ripens through the follicular phase of your cycle until it bulges from the surface of the ovary, releasing it’s now-matured egg. After ovulation, the ruptured follicle transitions to the corpus luteum.

The first part of your cycle when the follicle housing the egg matures.

The second part of your cycle: the follicle has released it’s egg so it becomes the corpus luteum. This structure of cells releases hormones to keep your endometrium growing in the event of fertilization, in which case there would need to be a nice, plush lining for the zygote (new baby!) to implant and grow.

The microscopic cells and tissues of the ovaries