How To Track Your Period Cycle

Being Prepared For Hormone Changes

The severity of premenstrual syndrome varies from person to person and some women dont experience it at all in the lead up to their period. Knowing when you may experience PMS can help you understand why youre feeling the way you are and how to potentially manage it. On the plus side, some women feel more energetic or have a higher sex drive at certain stages in their cycle. By keeping a record of how youre feeling and when, you can better understand these changes to your advantage.

Tracking Ovulation With Irregular Periods: Ovulation Predictor Kits

Some people find it cumbersome to manually track ovulation with irregular periods. Ovulation predictor kits and fertility monitors are tools that do the tracking for you. Unfortunately, with irregular periods, particularly those that are longer, you will probably have to do more testing month to month.

The Luteinizing Hormone is consistently detected in your urine. There is an increase in presence 24 to 48 hours prior to ovulation. An ovulation predictor kit detects this increase and lets you know that you are ovulating. As ovulation predictor kits help you identify and confirm when you are ovulating, you should record these dates on your calendar. Whether you look for patterns on the calendar or not, the information will be helpful to a fertility specialist if you find yourself encountering problems when trying to conceive.

Want to Know More?

Best For Athletes: Fitrwoman

iPhone: Free

The FitrWoman app is suitable for those who are physically active. The app provides period tracking in addition to nutrition and fitness tips for each stage of a persons cycle.

Users can:

• input information about their menstrual cycle
• update symptoms
• log physical activity

FitrWoman also provides a FitrCoach app. This feature allows a coach to access their athletes information to manage them accordingly.

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What The Colors Mean

When you open the Health app or Cycle Tracking app, it’s easy to check your period or fertile window at a glance. Here’s what the symbols and colors in the app mean.

A light blue oval marks your predicted six-day fertile window.

Red stripes on a circle mark when your period is predicted to occur.

Solid red circles mark your logged period days.

Purple dots mark days when you logged information.

Q How To Find The Safest Days To Have Sex Based On The Period Calculator To Avoid Pregnancy

Calculating the safe period days is very simple. You have to fill in the dates of your last period, duration of your period and the duration of the menstrual cycle. And your data is ready for the next months! The dates with white spaces in the calendar are the safe day. Generally, one to seven days of the menstrual period, and the days after ovulation are considered safe or infertile.However, remember that the calculator is purely based on the details you give, and can be inaccurate if the data is incorrect.

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Period Tracker Flo App

All women, even those with irregular cycles, can rely on Flo. Log your period days in a handy calendar, schedule menstrual cycle reminders, record moods and pms symptoms, and take full control of your health.

Wondering when you had your last period? Want to know when your next period is coming? With Flo female menstrual calendar its easy to keep track of your cycle.

Why Is Menstrual Period Important To Track

It is important to track menstrual period and the cycle for some reasons. The more you understand about your body and the menstrual cycle, the more quickly you can know if something is amiss. A change in menstrual cycle is often a symptom of a variety of health issues in women.

It is also important to track the menstrual periods if you are planning to conceive or if you are trying to have a safe sex to avoid pregnancy.

The primary goal of tracking your monthly periods is to estimate the length of the menstrual cycle and assume the possible time of ovulation. If you are trying for pregnancy, you can have an intercourse around the ovulation time, and if you want to avoid pregnancy, you should abstain from sex for some days before and after ovulation.

Also when your periods become irregular, it may indicate health conditions such as thyroid issue, hormonal fluctuations, diabetes, liver problems, gaining or losing a significant amount of weight, extreme stress or adopting a new exercise routine. If irregular menstrual periods is coupled with any other symptoms, you should check with your OB-GYN.

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How Can You Start Tracking Your Cycle

In Phase & Function, our experts take the heavy lifting out of tracking on your own. And we do it with a science-backed algorithm that takes you from day one of one period to day one of the next. Well use the information that you input as day one of your last period, plus the length of your complete cycle, to create a routine tailored to your specific needs.

Ready to get in sync with your cycle and feel empowered, period? Join Phase & Function, now on demand.

Is It Normal For Your Cycle To Change Month To Month

The regularity of your menstrual cycle is a good sign of gynaecological health, while non-existent or irregular periods can indicate underlying issues. This also applies to the heaviness of your period. Although its not uncommon for your menstrual cycle to change somewhat month to month, there should not be dramatic changes.

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How Do I Know If Im Ovulating

A few days before you ovulate, your vaginal mucus or discharge changes and becomes more slippery and clear. This type of mucus helps sperm move up into your uterus and into the fallopian tubes where it can fertilize an egg. Some women feel minor cramping on one side of their pelvic area when they ovulate. Some women have other signs of ovulation.

Luteinizing hormone is a hormone released by your brain that tells the ovary to release an egg . LH levels begin to surge upward about 36 hours before ovulation, so some women and their doctors test for LH levels. LH levels peak about 12 hours before ovulation.1 Women who are tracking ovulation to become pregnant will notice a slight rise in their basal temperature around ovulation. Learn more about tracking ovulation to become pregnant.

Track With A Spreadsheet

Somewhere between a full-featured app and piece of paper, spreadsheets that are stored on your device and dont link to the cloud are a private option for period-tracking. Spreadsheets can include formulas that do some of the calculations for you.

Any spreadsheet where you can input the dates of the first and last day of your period should do the trick. If youre using the sheet to track ovulation and fertility, leave room to note your temperature and body fluids, as well. Planned Parenthood has a guide for anyone new to these methods of fertility tracking, known as fertility awareness methods .

The Internet has downloadable templates for period-tracking in Excel. The safest way to use one of these spreadsheets is to save it on your computer or phone and make it password protected so that only you can open it.

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Trying To Conceive Check Your Ovulation Day

The days leading up to, including, and immediately after ovulation are the days in your cycle when it is possible to get pregnant. In Clue, the predicted day of ovulation is shown indicated with a star.

Please note that Clue is currently not designed to be a contraceptive. If avoiding pregnancy is important to you, you should never rely on the predicted ovulation day for birth control. Your body is not a clock, and you will not always ovulate at the same time each cycle. The predicted ovulation day is just an estimate and may never be your actual ovulation day. Use birth control to avoid pregnancy.

If you are currently taking hormonal birth control and have entered it in your profile in the Clue app, then your ovulation day will not be displayed. If you’re taking hormonal birth control and haven’t entered it, please do that now, so Clue can give you the best tracking experience possible.

Please note: Clue monitors your cycle using the latest research from our academic and clinical collaborators and our guidelines do not replace the advice of a healthcare provider.

Why Cant I Log Or Edit A Period Or Menstrual Health Details In The Fitbit App

If a period doesnt meet the following requirements, you may receive an error and be unable to log the period:

• You can only add or edit current or past periods and details.
• A period must be at least 1 day.
• You can log a period of up to 60 days . If your period is longer, consider logging flow intensity details.
• A cycle must be at least 11 days, and there must be a gap of at least 1 day between logged periods. If you experience a gap in bleeding during your period, its still 1 period.

Note that If you attempt to log a period in the future or a period with less than a one-day gap between periods, the pencil icon is unavailable. If you dont see the pencil icon, make sure the period youre attempting to log or edit meets all of the requirements.

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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 have irregular periods. For these reasons, it is not recommended as a way of preventing pregnancy, she says.

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How Do You Know When Youre In A New Phase

Your energy levels will be the biggest indicator here, so look out for subtle shifts and allow your workouts to match how you feel. Using the structure and guidance of Phase & Function will serve you in moving from one phase to the next, but soon youll realize that youre simply giving your body the space and time to move with these shifts instead of fighting against them.

When your period begins at the start of your menstrual phase, you may feel more fatigue and crave slower, restorative movement. As your period ends and you move into the follicular phase, you may feel more energy rising, have a more positive outlook, and want to try new things. Next, the ovulatory phase is the height of your energy throughout the cycle, so you may feel slightly more confident, and ready to tackle a harder, sweatier, faster, and more intense workout. And finally, the luteal phase is characterized by PMS, fatigue, and mood swingsbut not for long. Well match that decrease in energy with workouts of the same intensity.

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What Should You Expect And Track During Each Phase Of Your Period

So, youre on board with the idea of tracking your period. But how do you actually do it?

The average menstrual cycle is 21 to 35 days long, Lewis says. During this time, your brain , ovaries and uterus are a part of a hormone feedback loop that controls your menstrual cycle and prepares you to either conceive or menstruate.

You can track your cycle using an app or go the old-fashioned route with a pen and calendar. At bare minimum, youll want to note the day you start your period, but you can also include things like symptoms, cravings and sex drive to give you a fuller picture.

Ready to get started? Heres what to know and track during each phase of your cycle.

Why Do I See A Period I Already Deleted In The Fitbit App

If you delete a confirmed period and you have predictions turned on, youll still see the predicted period for that cycle. For more information about the icons and colors on your menstrual health tracking calendar, see How do I read the menstrual health tracking calendar in the Fitbit app?

View your cycle trends to see your average period and cycle lengths, average estimated ovulation day, and graphs of your past cycles and details. Note that you wont see your average estimated ovulation day if you turned off fertile window predictions. You must log at least 2 periods to see trends.

To see your menstrual health trends:

To see the trends for each detail you logged during a cycle:

If your cycle is longer than 60 days, swipe left and right or tap the arrows to scroll through your cycle calendar.

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Track Every Day To Discover Patterns In Your Symptoms

If you simply track your period in Clue, you will be able to view your cycle averages and future period predictions, but when you track every day of your menstrual cycle, you can gain a whole new understanding of your body. Daily tracking can help you to find out whether the symptoms you experience are related to your individual cycleâfrom headaches, to greasy hair or high sex drive.

It Can Help You Conceive

A woman is the most fertile and therefore most likely to get pregnant the three days leading up to and including ovulation. Ovulation happens around 14 days before your period starts. If you are keeping track of your cycle, then it will be easier to know which days you are most likely to get pregnant.

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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.