How To Calculate Your Period Cycle

My Menstrual Cycle Is Still Irregular Has The Pill Affected My Fertility

Its unlikely the pill has caused any fertility problems, but it can sometimes cover up problems you already have, such as missing periods or PCOS .This is because the pill prevents the ovaries from releasing an egg , so although its normal to experience period-type bleeding on the pill, you dont have a real period.

Contact your GP if youre still having irregular periods 3 months after stopping contraception.

Your Due Date Is Only An Estimate

Please remember that your due date is only an estimate. Every pregnancy is unique and your baby will come when it’s ready. Be sure to talk to your health care provider about your due date.

On average only 5% of births take place exactly on the estimated due date. Most are born within a week either side of the estimated due date. A normal pregnancy can last anywhere between 38 and 42 weeks.

Q Difference Between Menstruation And Menstruation Cycle

When a woman menstruates, her body discards the lining of the uterus. The blood flows from the uterus through a tiny opening, passing out the blood through the vagina. This is called menstruation.

A menstrual or period cycle is calculated from the first day of the period to the first day of the next period. An average menstrual cycle is 28 days long, but some women may have longer or shorter cycles. It can range from 21 to 35 days in adults and 21 to 45 days in teens.

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Can I Get Pregnant At Any Time During My Cycle

Yes, but its unlikely youll get pregnant just before or just after your period. You are most fertile when you ovulate, so this is when youre most likely to get pregnant. Understanding your cycle and knowing more about what is happening month during the month, can help you learn the best days to get pregnant.

Find out more about ovulation and fertility, including top tips for finding your fertility window.

How Do I Test My Cervical Mucus

Watching the changes in the amount and consistency of your cervical mucus can help you understand your cycle. Heres how it works: check your secretions before and after urinating by wiping with toilet paper. Alternatively you can insert a clean finger into your vagina to obtain a sample of mucus. Observe the consistency of the mucus, and use this chart to identify where you are in your cycle. Your mucus can be cloudy, white, yellowish, or clear. It can have either a sticky or stretchy consistency. Use your thumb and forefinger to see if the mucus stretches.

You are most fertile on the days when you have abundant, stretchy mucus. This is not a foolproof method to prevent pregnancy.

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What Happens During The Menstrual Cycle

To understand the menstrual cycle, it helps to know about the reproductive organs inside a woman’s body. These are:

• 2 ovaries where eggs are stored, developed and released
• the womb where a fertilised egg implants and a baby develops
• the fallopian tubes two thin tubes that connect the ovaries to the womb
• the cervix the entrance to the womb from the vagina
• the vagina

The menstrual cycle is controlled by hormones. In each cycle, rising levels of the hormone oestrogen cause the ovary to develop and release an egg . The womb lining also starts to thicken.

In the second half of the cycle, the hormone progesterone helps the womb to prepare for implantation of a developing embryo.

The egg travels down the fallopian tubes. If pregnancy doesn’t occur, the egg is reabsorbed into the body. Levels of oestrogen and progesterone fall, and the womb lining comes away and leaves the body as a period .

The time from the release of an egg to the start of a period is around 10 to 16 days.

Watch an animation about how the menstrual cycle works.

How Do I Calculate When My Next Period Will Be

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Should I Track My Period

Tracking your period can help you understand the patterns of symptoms that you experience throughout your menstrual cycleâfrom pain, to cravings, to sex drive. Tracking can give you a better idea of when you are fertile, which may be helpful if youâre trying to become pregnant.

Clue co-founder Ida Tin shares her top 5 reasons to track…

Potential Downsides To Using Period

Some privacy advocates have raised concerns about all the data you input in a period tracker and the potential for that data to be misused.

Consumer Reports notes that period-tracking apps gather a lot of intimate information about your sex life, whether you are trying to have a baby, if you engage in unprotected sex, have experienced a miscarriage, are approaching menopause that could potentially be sold to third parties for marketing or other purposes.

Having your personal health information out there may have serious repercussions, Consumer Reports cautions, such as whether and how much you pay for life insurance, or whether your employer discriminates against you.

If an app lets you opt out of sharing your data , always do so, Consumer Reports says.

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What Is The Luteal Phase

The luteal phase usually lasts 12-16 days. It is the time following ovulation until the next menstrual period. Following ovulation, the follicle that ruptured and released the egg closes and becomes a corpus luteum. The corpus luteum produces increasing levels of progesterone, preparing the endometrium for the implantation of a fertilized egg. If pregnancy does not occur, the corpus luteum breaks down and the levels of progesterone and estrogen decline. This results in the breakdown of the endometrium and menstrual bleeding occurs. If pregnancy does occur, the placenta begins to produce human chorionic gonadotropin . It is the top and middle endometrial layers that are shed during the menstrual period. The bottom layer remains, and prepares once again for implantation in the next cycle.

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Keep Your Data Safe By Creating An Account

When you have a Clue account and you are logged in, your data is stored safely on our EU-based servers. Youâll be able to re-login from any device. This means you can easily recover everything youâve tracked in Clue if you get a new phone, or if your phone is lost or broken.

Creating a Clue account is easy as 1, 2, 3. And we…

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Q How To Track Your Period Manually

• Note the first day of your last menstrual period as day One.
• Count the days in between before you start another period. Or you can just count 28 days.
• After a couple of months of marking likewise, you will be then able to figure out the actual menstrual cycle length, and you can calculate accordingly.

Another way is to keep track of the physical signs you experience in a period. Cramping, breast tenderness, white discharge are some of the common symptoms. The next time, when you start to experience such symptoms, you should be aware that your next period is going to start.

Emotional changes is another way to track your period manually. The fluctuating hormones alter your emotions such as feeling depressed, anxious or irritable for no apparent reason.

Trackers Are Not A Foolproof Way Of Preventing Pregnancy

As the technology stands now, tracking should never be used as a sole method of birth control, Weschler says, including with her own app, OvaGraph.

This is because so many factors influence ovulation from one month to the next.

A study published online in July 2019 in the journal Nature Digital Medicine found that women using tracking apps find they often do not ovulate at the exact midpoint of their cycle.

Other research presented at a technology conference in May 2017 found that, when writing their reviews of the tracking app they used, women often cited unhappiness with inaccurate predictions. The scientists speculate this may be because the app didnt account for factors that can throw off your cycle, like recently giving birth or approaching menopause.

So while an article published in March 2016 in Global Health: Science and Practice called FAM an effective modern contraceptive, other experts point out that the method has a much lower effectiveness rate than the most reliable methods, such as intrauterine devices or contraceptive implants. In fact, the Department of Health and Human Services says about 25 percent of couples who use FAM may become pregnant.

Because it is difficult to know exactly when you ovulate, to most successfully prevent pregnancy it is best to use an additional type of birth control, even if you are closely monitoring your periods.

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How Tracking Helps You Avoid Pregnancy

For women trying to avoid pregnancy who have very regular cycles, the fertility awareness method is used by some women as a means of birth control. The idea is to avoid sex during the time in your cycle when you are most likely to conceive.

However, Attaran cautions, this isnt foolproof and will definitely not work for people who haveirregular periods. For these reasons, it is not recommended as a way of preventing pregnancy, she says.

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Understand Your Fertile Days

The fertility period, that is to say, is the most favourable time to conceive. This phase is spread over five days on average . Here again, it remains theoretical. A woman may sometimes become pregnant outside the fertile period too, which can be triggered at an unexpected date. This is known as spontaneous ovulation.

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Q Can You Speed Up Your Menstrual Cycle

• Take contraceptives on a regular basis. It can effectively regulate your menstrual cycle.
• Some doctors recommend hormone injection to stimulate your menstrual cycle.
• Sexual activity increases the blood flow to the genitals, stimulating the uterus to contract.
• Eat high levels of vitamin C rich food. Vitamin C rich foods produce estrogen in the body and build the uterine lining, contracting the uterus and causing menstruation.

How Do I Use The Calendar Method

Before you can use the calendar method as birth control, you need to keep track of the length of your menstrual cycles for at least 6 periods. You can do this with a regular calendar or our period tracking app.

Heres how you do it: Mark the first day of your period . Then mark the first day of your next period. Count the total number of days between each cycle .

You must chart at least 6 cycles, but charting a few more months is even better. Heres an example:

If all of your cycles are shorter than 27 days, the calendar method wont be accurate for you.

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How Does The Menstrual Cycle Work

The menstrual cycle is controlled by a complex orchestra of hormones, produced by two structures in the brain, the pituitary gland and the hypothalamus along with the ovaries.

If you just want a quick, general overview of the menstrual cycle, read this description.

For a more detailed review of the physical and hormonal changes that happen over the menstrual cycle, .

How To Use It For Pregnancy Planning

Using an ovulation calendar calculator can be a great tool for women who are not on birth control. Depending on whether you want to conceive or avoid a pregnancy, it can help you figure out the best time to have sex.

Other methods can also help you figure out if youre ovulating:

• Check your basal body temperature. Ovulation can cause a slight increase in your basal body temperature. Use a thermometer that displays decimal points to take your bodys temperature at the same time each day. You want to look for your temperature to increase between 0.4- and 1-degree Fahrenheit.
• Examine your cervical mucus. During your menstrual cycle, your cervical mucus or vaginal discharge changes in color, texture and amount. You can use your fingers or a cotton swab to collect and observe your mucus. If it looks like raw egg whites, you might be ovulating.
• Use an ovulation prediction kit. Like a pregnancy test, you will need to pee on a stick. The results will show if you have an increase in hormones, meaning you are ovulating.

Using these methods or an ovulation schedule for getting pregnant can narrow down the window of opportunity.

A lot of people want that very specific detail so they can have timed intercourse, says Dr. Higgins.

Having as much information as possible when it comes to your ovulation can help reduce stress whether youre hoping to start or grow a family now or sometime later or if you dont envision children in your future.

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Do You Know These Facts About Menstruation

• Most women bleed only about 80 ml or less during their periods.
• At the time of ovulation you may have slight spotting and /or pain.
• Do you know why women don’t get periods during pregnancy? When you get pregnant, hormones released in the body prevent endometrium from shedding off as bleeding and ensure thick lining of the uterus, which provides protection and nourishment to the fetus.
• Menstrual cycle starts with menarche and ends with menopause.

Three Methods To Determine The Ovulation Date:

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• The temperature curve: Keep a chart and record your temperature every morning when you wake up, before getting out of bed or even moving around or eating anything. Usually, your temperature will vary between 36 and 36.5 degrees Celsius from the first day of menstruation until the date of ovulation and then after that, it would slightly rise to about 37 to 37.2 degrees Celsius and remain constant until the following period occurs. The time of ovulation is positioned just before the temperature increases so, for the first month, you know the ovulation date after it has occurred. By keeping track of your temperature for several months, you will be able to determine an average and estimate the date of ovulation in the next cycle
• Cervical mucus: Testing your cervical mucus is an important fertility indicator. Mucus is the liquid that comes from your cervix. Because its texture varies throughout the cycle, you can use it to help to determine when you ovulate. After your period, it is white and creamy. Towards ovulation, it will become more watery and transparent, similar to egg white. After ovulation, the amount of discharge decreases, it gets sticky again, and doesn’t stretch well
• The LH peak: At the time of ovulation, the luteinizing hormone, which is a hormone found in both men and women, is at its peak and triggers ovulation. You can measure the LH level in your urine at home, using an ovulation test kit found at a local pharmacy

References:

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