Every month “normal” takes on a whole new meaning and your body gets a mind of its own. Regardless of how “normal” or not your periods are, here are a few things you should know (from how it affects your head to your sex drive) to help keep your mind at ease whether you find yourself dreading the arrival or fearing the delay of your period.    

Did you know that fifty-nine percent of women suffer from headaches during their periods? Sixty-nine percent of women say they have tenderness or pain in their breasts. If you’re a smoker, you can expect an even bigger pain in the neck and back than the sixty-eight percent of women who report back pain during this time. You are not alone if you gain up to five pounds during your period, in fact eighty-four percent of us experience bloating and eighty-one percent experience cramps every month. And if you can’t get enough chocolate in the week before, during and after your period, you are among friends – sixty-six percent of them to be exact.

Remember back in middle school when you came home wondering if you really could get pregnant from proximity to boys and whether or not you could take a bath during your period? Well myths and misnomers about what’s normal and true continue through the ages. Check your knowledge against these facts: While the average number of days in a cycle is twenty-nine, twenty-one to thirty-one days is also a healthy cycle as long as the number of days remains consistent. Once your period has started, five days is the average length.

Surveys tell us that nineteen percent of women mistakenly believe that they cannot get pregnant during the first days of their period. Careful ladies, that’s just not true. But what is true is that your period affects your sex drive in unexpected ways. Sexual peaks for most women occur between days ten to sixteen of a monthly cycle. That’s not surprising as many women say that every month they feel more attractive around the thirteenth and fourteenth days of their cycle. Take advantage of feeling sexy, studies are showing that having sex at least once a week can help you have more regular periods. If you are one of the women who suffer from monthly cramps, take the advice of thirty-eight percent of the girls who say having sex helps to relieve cramps because of the feel-good chemicals that are released during an orgasm.

Since the average number of periods we girls will have by the time we celebrate our thirtieth birthday is 234, the more normal we can keep them the better.

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