Home Your Family Women's Health A Woman's Body
Women's Health
A Woman's Body; Photo of a woman.
Female Anatomy Through The Stages of Life
Adolescence
Couple education with your willingness to have an ongoing dialogue with your daughter. "It's not the kind of thing you sit down one time, explain, walk away and never bring up again," says Paula J.A. Hillard, M.D., a professor at the University of Cincinnati and a specialist in adolescent gynecology.
Child-Bearing Years
A woman's menstrual cycle is controlled by changing levels of certain hormones. These hormones travel through the blood. Hormones help prepare the uterus for pregnancy. At the start of the cycle, the two ovaries produce estrogen. This makes one ovary release an egg and signals the production of progesterone. The egg travels through the fallopian tube. Then it enters the uterus. If the egg is fertilized, a woman becomes pregnant.
Menopause and After
Women in their child-bearing years have an edge. Their bodies produce estrogen, a hormone credited with helping women live longer than their male counterparts. But the protection lasts only until the ovaries all but shut down estrogen production at menopause.

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