Hello everyone Anna English here English like a native and today we're getting personal
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.