Why is menstruation important?

Every month a woman of reproductive age (including girls going through puberty) shed bloood from their reproductive organs.

For many, it is a disconcerting phenomenon. It can be painful or at least uncomfortable.

However, you have every reason to be happy when you shed this blood. That time of the month should be a celebration. Ok, maybe not quite.

The point is that there is every reason to welcome and grace menstruation. According to Dr John Ongech, the head of reproductive health at kenyatta National Hospital (KNH), regular menstruation is a woman's body's way of saying that there is hormonal balance within the body.

"If a woman is not having regular menstruation there must be an explanation for that. When a lady who is at least 18 is not menstruating it is a pointer to a problem - especially if she hopes to have children in future," Ongech says.

A woman's womb gets ready to carry pregnancy by filling up with blood, rich in nutrients, to nurture the early stages of life.

The shedding of blood is a biological process of getting rid of what the womb no longer needs. Medically, menstruation is the sloughing of the womb walls. It marks the start of a new cycle in the run to get it ready for fertilization and pregnancy.

The menstrual cycle lasts within a month. However, every woman has their own unique cycle. One woman's cycle could be as little as 20 days while another's could be 28 days. The difference in the number of days is not a pointer to an abnormality.

However, the cycle has to be regular. Meaning that if a woman's cycle is 20 days then the pattern should be within 20 days.

If the cycle comes irregularly, sometimes within 20 days and sometimes within 31 days or such kind of variation you would need to check with your doctor.