The Female Cycle.

As promised, today I'm going to explain the painting I showed yesterday on the blog.  Your guesses were correct: the painting was of the menstrual cycle, but in much more depth.

Painting inspiration here.

A tad overwhelming upon first glance?  Yeah, I got kind of carried away with the doodling... 

Here's another breakdown: 

Yellow: the ovarian cycle, featuring the maturation of the follicle, ovulation at day 14, and formation of the corpus luteum.

Orange: the basal body temperature changes in a menstruating female.  When the body ovulates, the temperature rises about 0.5 to 1 degree Celsius higher and remains elevated for the remainder of the cycle, eventually dropping back to the regular body temperature at the end of the 28 days. Note: the basal body temperature is best measured in the morning, immediately upon waking (don't even get out of bed!), using an oral thermometer.  Measure subsequent temperatures at the same time each morning. 

Green: the anterior pituitary hormones' cycle. FSH = follicle stimulating hormone, and LH = luteinizing hormone.

Blue: the ovarian hormones' cycle. Estrogen and progesterone. 

Red: the uterine cycle. The shedding, then the thickening of the uterus lining.

Black: menstrual bleeding days. Note: the full menstrual cycle begins (i.e. day 0) on the first day of bleeding. Bleeding is not the end, but the beginning of everything you see in the painting above!

Brown: non-bleeding days.  

Note: notice how everything changes on day 14? I call this the 'magic day' because ovulation changes everything cycle-wise.