Question

Give an account of the secretory phase of the menstrual cycle.

Answer 1

In the life of humans, adolescence is the age which is nothing but a transition from childhood to adult, which means that attaining puberty or maturity, in girls, the maturity is obtained at age, which is in the range of 10 to 15 years, it is the age where ovum or eggs present in the ovaries attain maturation.

Complete answer:
- Generally in females eggs are formed at the age of embryonic stage itself, but they attain maturity at puberty.
- The one of the matured eggs released from the ovary during puberty and this is called ovulation.
- The released egg waits for sperm for a few days in the fallopian tube, if fusion with sperm does not happen then the egg along with an endometrial wall of the uterus sheds, which leads to bleeding.
- Obtaining first bleeding at puberty is called Menarche and each menstrual cycle occurs for every 28 to 30 days, and this menstruation ceases mostly by the age of range 50 years, and this is called menopause.
- There are four phases in the menstrual cycle, which includes, Menstrual phase, follicular phase, ovulatory phase, and luteal phase.
- Among all phases, the luteal phase is also called a secretory phase.

Luteal or secretory phase:
Generally, this phase occurs in the range of 14th day to 28th day, in this phase corpus luteum secretes luteinizing hormone, which further increases the progesterone and estradiol, and in this phase, endometrial changes occur where the uterus is preparing for the pregnancy, so a lot of endometrial changes such as an increase in bloody supply, and lining of uterus wall increases, and glycogen content of cell increases, If fertilization not happened, then the corpus luteum starts degenerating so the progesterone and estrogen levels fall off, and uterine endometrial lining start shed off, and bleeding starts appearing, and again preparation for other menstrual cycle begins.

Note: Menses is one of the uterine cycles, which women start bleeding, eumenorrhea is a normal menstrual cycle, last for 3 to 5 or sometimes 7 days is normal, on average women lost 35ml of blood per one menstrual cycle, it is not same for all it ranges from 10 to 80 ml which is considered as normal.