• Question: why do the girls have periods? and not boys?

    Asked by TheBrainyPotatoes to Andy, Chris, Harriet, Jess, Nikki on 17 Mar 2016.
    • Photo: Christopher Blanford

      Christopher Blanford answered on 17 Mar 2016:


      Hey TheBrainyPotatoes

      One idea is that it takes less energy and resources like food for women only to be fertile part of the time. So the lining on a woman’s uterus builds up and gets shed on a regular basis.

      People born with male bits don’t have a uterus, so no need for a period.

      Chris

    • Photo: Harriet Reid

      Harriet Reid answered on 17 Mar 2016:


      Hi TheBrainyPotatoes,
      Periods are the lining of the uterus, being broken down so that a fresh new lining can be made, this happens in time with the release of an egg from the ovaries. Its important to have a fresh lining to the uterus for the fertilised egg to embed into so that a woman can get pregnant.
      So I guess that we have periods because women are the ones who carry the baby. That isn’t always the case in nature, in sea horses the father carries the embryos in a special pouch until he gives birth.

    • Photo: andy chapman

      andy chapman answered on 17 Mar 2016:


      It doesn’t seem fair….poor girls. Boys don’t produce eggs on a monthly basis.

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