Menstrual cycles can be baffling, and that’s why I really wanted to make this special poster explaining this special time of the month, mostly so I can justify to my poor husband exactly why I am feeling totally insane. “It’s not me, honey, it’s the progesterone spiking,” or, “Can you understand now why I’m being a total bee-yatch? I’ve got at least five different hormones coursing through my body right now. I’m on drugs.” Marvel at the leuteinizing hormone! Be amazed as the estrogen takes a nosedive right before ovulation! Check out the egg as it takes its long journey through your reproductive system! Anyway, check it out and give me feedback — calling all OB/GYNs! Editors! Anatomy nuts! Sex educators! — before I send this thing to the printer. I know it’s a little crazy-looking, design-wise, but then again, so’s the menstrual cycle.
Tags: conceieve, conception, concieve, condoms, contraception, egg, fetus, follicle stimulating hormone, gonadotropin releasing hormone, hormones, how menstrual cycle works, how period works, how pregnancy works, how to get pregnant, i hate my period, intra-uterine device, IUD, IVF, moon cups, OB, ovation, ovulation, ovulation cycle, pads, pill, planned parenthood, pms, safe sex, sponge, tampax, tampons, when do i ovulate, zygote
I love it! So great!
Wendy–it’s amazing. I love it. You’re a genius. xx Beth
This is a serious winner. I think you’ll make a million with this one.
aww, thanks guys! is anything unclear or confusing? or, even worse, factually incorrect?
okay, i found something — i had the ovary and corpus luteum hanging out together, but they separate at ovulation and the ovary heads to the uterus while the CL stays in the ovary. anything else?
This is awesome!! Hateful topic, but very, very cool.
I love it, you must print it!
[...] website (it’s a good benchmark for OUR group project’o) . Make sure to check out the menstrual cycle diagram (It’s the fun way of learning about human body XD …) No, but really, [...]
Great! It’s a shame I can’t read it because of the size… but the graphics are awesome! I’m on number 5…still far to get mad
So cute, & great for learning menstrual physiology! I think there might be a problem with day 13, though.
My understanding is that during the follicular phase (day 1-14), progesterone isn’t really on the scene (it mostly comes from the corpus luteum). The relationship between oestrogen and FSH/LH is a bit messy, but the idea is that oestrogen starts off suppressing them both and then ends up boosting LH at about day 13, which causes ovulation (there’s also a bit of a FSH surge, but it’s not necessary for ovulation).
And you’re right about the location of the corpus luteum: it stays in the ovary and secretes hormones while the egg/ovum makes its way through the repro tract
The rest is spot on, though!
Awesome
[...] Calling All Gynecologists (via Street Anatomy) [...]
[...] i heart guts via nerdcore] Tags: frau, menstruation, [...]
Amazing!!! You should do more like this!! (I would definitely buy a t-shirt or poster of a different bodily process or disease process).
thanks for explaining day 13 better, that really helps! i’ll try to clarify that part on the poster…
I love it! I work at a health ed office in a woman’s college and I SO want to be able to buy this to decorate our walls….while we have a lovely array of “vulva flags” our students made, we have nary an illustrated hormone in site! It’s amazing, and I hope you do print it
I’ll keep checking back!
[...] To get to the point; today in my web scouring I came across her blog and this informative, kooky and gorgeous flowchart. [...]
Cutest menstrual cycle evar! We want one on our wall at Lunapads HQ!
This is so fantastic! I am an acupuncturist who works with lots of reproductive health issues and this chart is great. You have no idea how many women have no idea how their body works. This would be a great educational tool. I think it might be super helpful for health professionals if it came in a notepad/piece of paper size that you could tear off and hand to patients. Just an idea. Thank you SO much
I would love this as a t-shirt!
print it fast! i want to secretly hang it in our middle school girls’ room!!!
Absolutely love it!!!
As you ask for views (I’m not a gyno so won’t offer advice), I was under the impression that ovulation day can vary which is fairly important to know if you are thinking about rhythm method of contraception. I didn’t learn about my cycle until my mid thirties! What did I learn at school?!?!?!?
I will show this to a fertility doctor I know. I think she’d appreciate it and I’ll ask her about accuracy. I wish we could use this in the clinic, but … I don’t think that’d go over well.
[...] love this soon-to-be poster from I Heart Guts so much. I know Always’s current motto is “Have a Happy [...]
When are these going to be available? I’m a health educator for a family planning clinic, and I need this poster now!
Wish we could use this when we teachour kiddos about the human reproductive system-much easier to understand than what we have now! Love it-brilliant!
Very cool indeed. But the small size makes the text unreadable. Could you please post in in a bigger size? That’d be terrific.
[...] The Good Ol’ Menstrual Cycle Posted in daily evil by kevin powers | View commentsComments via iheartguts.com [...]
[...] Heart Guts has a “Menstrual Flow Chart” – an illustrated explanation of the menstrual cycle. On one hand, it’s kind of [...]
[...] Heart Guts has a “Menstrual Flow Chart” – an with pictures reason of a menstrual cycle. On a single hand, it’s kind of [...]
I’m a midwife and the suggestions that have already been made (the presence of progesterone and the corpus luteum/egg thing) are my only suggestions.
It’s so perfect – I cannot wait for it to be made available in a poster so I can hang one in my office. I also know a few docs that would love them as gifts. Please hurry! Hurry! I was just going to email you about when this will be in a poster!
xoxo
(Just ordered a uterus plushie for my office!)
Absolutely positively the very best explanation ever! Cute drawings, easy to understand…love it!
I think it’s great I have a soon to be 11 y/o boy and a 7 1/2 y/o girl. I want to do a better job of explaining the menses to my daughter than my mother did. Great work, can’t wait to see it on a poster or better yet. write a bathroom book.
Nice bit of design work.
put it on a poster! it’s the perfect holiday present!
wow thats great… yea put it on a poster…i’d buy it. so show and explain it to the giirls.
[...] from i heart guts. [...]
I’m missing the times egen you feel normal and happy, for me the poster make me feel like I’m always a monster… Egen are you the most sexual and so on?
[...] nunca serà tan divertido y claro de apender gracias al diseño que ha hecho la responsable de I Heart Guts.Una sencilla manera de enseñar a las adolescentes què es lo que ocurre en el interior de su [...]
[...] Enlace: Mundochica, I Heart Guts [...]
[...] Y vos, tonta… que nunca lo entendiste: El ciclo menstrual de la mano de I Heart Guts [...]
[...] I Heart Guts has created a wonderful illustrated guide to The Good Ol’ Menstrual Cycle. [...]
OMG this is so cute and awesome. I definitely want to buy 2 posters when you get this printed!! one for me, and one for my girlfriend. I bought her the little uterus toy awhile ago (we named her Uti) and this poster would be the perfect gift!
Wow, this the the best poster. I would buy one, frame it and put it up proudly in the bathroom. I love it!
good news peeps, the poster will be here thursdee! check our shop then and thank you SO MUCH for all the great feedback.
oh no! i wish i would have seen this earlier!
technically, the split should happen around 3 DPO (days past ovulation).
if the egg isn’t fertilized within 2 days of being released from the ovary, that’s when the unfertilized egg really breaks. (so the egg breaking title at day 25 is quite a bit confusing, since egg and corpus luteum are completely different things.)
if the egg IS fertilized, around 7 DPO, there’s a dip in your temps indicating that the egg is implanting itself in the walls of the uterus. (i don’t remember which hormones cause it. though)
ladies practicing FAM (fertility awareness) can often assume they’re pregnant when they see the implantation dip at 7 DPO, and is confirmed with sustained high temps through 16 days past ovulation (when in non-pregnant individuals the temps will drop and you start sloughing around 14 DPO)
also, not to mention the variable length of time between day 1 and ovulation. for example, i’m ovulating either today and/or yesterday (i could be releasing 2 eggs. i still felt the mittelschmerz aka ovulatory pain on my right hand side after i woke up this morning.) and today is day 26! anyone not practicing FAM would be freaking out in a few days, whereas i know i still have 2 good weeks to go. often, it’s stress that delays ovulation.
but i’m sure the poster looks better with one lane all the way up to day 27. artistic license and all.
it’s still adorable! congrats! i’ll spread the word about the poster.
Wow! Very cool. Here’s to making periods more fun! I’d love to carry them on my website. Do you wholesale them? For more menstrual fun, please visit http://www.mymoondays.com.
i would like to tape this poster to my fridge an have a little icon magnet that i could move with the day like the old time xmas calenders
[...] This isn’t related to anything, but I thought it was funny. And oddly informative. [...]
Very cute poster. I’m used to seeing the hormonal levels depicted in graphic form, so this is a fun way to look at things.
1. re: “hormone hell”- typically, and it can be different for everyone, PMS/PMDD symptoms, at least in my patients, tend to start later in the cycle. you may want to consider a different label- (hormonal uprising? hormone conference?)
2. re: progesterone. I don’t know that I would describe it as being responsible for producing mucus in the uterine lining- its purpose is more to stabilize the endometrial lining that has been built up by the estrogen. Estrogen stacks the blocks, progesterone stabilizes it. hence, the withdrawel bleed that occurs naturally or at the end of the pill pack when you take away the progesterone.
3. final thought: i realize that your purpose in creating this graphic is to educate and inform, and try to help your husband understand, but the one thing that I worry about when we women use our hormonal fluctuations (which are natural) to explain our moods, actions, thoughts and behaviors (our brains are way more powerful than that!) is that it gives some legitimacy to us (women) being more easily dismissed, discriminated against, and not taken seriously. (everyone has tons of hormones coursing through their systems every day- thyroid, adrenals, pancreas, etc. reproductive hormones shouldn’t be any different!) Just a philosophical thought…
That having been said, I do think the poster looks great and would be a wonderful educational tool. Nice job!
please make another one about peeing/pooping so i can hang them all in my bathroom