Tracking Your Menstrual Cycle: How To Do It And Why It Matters

At Lena, we believe that tracking our cycles can give us an incredible insight into our bodies, it brings us closer to ourselves and encourages compassion for when we need it the most. It's a valuable tool that can be used at any stage of life to make sense of our experience through the month. We wanted to highlight the different methods, why it's important and how to track your cycle when it's irregular or you're on birth control.

Do I Really Need To Track My Cycle?

The short answer is yes! Tracking your cycle means that you have an understanding of where you are in the month and when you have the knowledge of your hormonal changes at this point, you know roughly what you can expect from your mood, energy levels, sex drive, productivity, interest in social engagements and so much more. For more on what to expect during each phase, check out this article on the Lena blog.

I encourage cycle tracking to my clients and friends because it also improves body literacy, and being able to describe your bodily experience to others (partners, friends, family and even co-workers) will help them to understand - and it will also encourage others to do the same.

Tracking your cycle is imperative if you are experiencing any symptoms. Even if you do not think they are related to your menstrual cycle, you might begin to notice patterns once you have the physical data in front of you. This data will be invaluable to you at a doctor's appointment as they will typically ask you to track your cycle for 2 months to be able to identify a pattern - if you have this already, you're ahead of the game!

How Do I Track My Cycle Manually?

Below is an example template for tracking your cycle, together with some prompts that you can use to remind yourself of the important questions to ask at this time.

Monday 21st - Day 9 - (Follicular Phase)

Any symptoms I experienced:
My mood/energy/libido:
Food cravings:
Exercise: Did I exercise today? What kind of exercise did I feel like doing today? Did I feel I performed well today?
Cervical mucus: Was it clear, stretchy, egg-white, pasty, creamy, abundant or did my vagina feel dry?
Basal body temperature (BBT): see below
Period: On period days, state colour of the blood, any smell, how many cups/tampon/pad changes you did, if there were any large clots, if anything concerned you.
Life stressors: Did anything happen that upset me today? Is anything stressful happening in my life right now?

If you are using cycle-tracking to plan around or prevent pregnancy, I recommend using your cervical mucus and basal body temperature (BBT). We'll be covering this on the blog soon, but for now we recommend reading this article: The Rhythm Method.

Tracking BBT can be used to confirm ovulation, the reason for this is because following the release of an egg, progesterone is produced in high quantities. Progesterone is a thermogenic hormone, meaning it causes a rise in body temperature. This change in body temperature can be measured, and when the level has risen consistently over several days, you know you have ovulated.

Tracking Your Cycle For Pregnancy

Tracking your cycle helps you to identify your fertile window. Despite what you might have been led to believe by your Sex Ed teacher at school, you cannot get pregnant every day of the month, in fact you're only fertile for around 6 days each month. For the 5 days before ovulation, and up to 24 hours after it, having sex can lead to pregnancy. This is because a sperm cell can survive up to 5 days in your uterus and the egg cell can only survive up to 24 hours in the fallopian tube. So the sperm can hang around for up to 5 days and once the egg is released, there is a chance of fertilisation.

This means that tracking your cycle can be used if you are trying to get pregnant and if you're trying not to. During this fertile window, if you have sex with a male partner, you will need to use a barrier method of contraception (a condom or femidom) to ensure sperm does not enter your vaginal cavity.

Of course, barrier methods of contraception can fail (splitting of the condom!) and so you may also choose to avoid sex during this period altogether. However, rising levels of oestrogen during this period means that it is often when we feel our greatest libido surge, so skipping sex with your partner may not be the desired option. The important thing is that now you know when your fertile window is, you can plan around it and discuss your options.

Can I Track My Cycle On An App?

There are a ton of cycle-tracking apps out there, it's important to find the one that works for you. Some are more simple calendars where you can see when your period is expected to arrive, when your fertile window is or which phase of the cycle you're in. The space has really boomed in the last 2-3 years and so cycle-tracking apps now offer more information, with some even offering hormone-testing strips (brands like Hormona) so you can get a more accurate picture of your current hormonal health.

It's really important to find the app that works for you, I find Hormona's interface really easy to use and they have phase-specific recommendations for nutrition, exercise and overall lifestyle, which are written by doctors and nutritionists.

Other popular apps include Flo, Clue and Natural Cycles

How Do I Track An Irregular Cycle?

An irregular cycle is defined as one that deviates more than 3-4 days in length each month. For example, one month it is 24 days long and the next it is 30, the following month it's 35, the following 28 and so on. If this sounds like you, don't panic, you can still track your cycle and in fact it is even more important for you to do so, because we need to get to the bottom of these runaway cycles!

Note that if you're using an app, none of them are really advanced enough to predict your cycles if they are irregular, they are programmed to think of your period as arriving around the same time each month. For this reason, don't be surprised when the app gets it wrong and your period arrives earlier or later than usual.

If your cycles are irregular, I recommend using a paper chart/physical diary, because you become more connected to the data rather than relying on an app - just for it to give you an inaccurate representation of where you are in your cycle.

How to track:

Checking your cervical mucus: as you approach ovulation, your cervical mucus levels will increase and the consistency becomes more like egg-white - it's stretchy, clear and slippery.
Checking your BBT*: your temperature will typically rise by around 0.3C degrees after ovulation. You'll typically know you've ovulated when this temperature rise lasts for 3 days in a row.
Checking your Luteinizing Hormone (LH) levels: If you use a hormone monitor, levels of LH will rise just before ovulation. If you have the monitor connected to an app, it should tell you if the level has risen enough to confirm ovulation.

*To do this successfully, make sure you check your temperature as soon as you wake up, before getting out of bed and before doing anything else. This is because when we start moving around, our body temperature will rise and so any reading later in the morning or day will not be accurate.

How Do I Track My Cycle If I'm On Birth Control?

Hormonal birth control (HBC) works by preventing ovulation and preventing the conditions needed to support a developing follicle. For this reason, you don't experience the same hormonal rhythms as those who naturally cycle. Taking progestin (the synthetic form of progesterone that is found in contraceptives) throughout the month will effectively keep your body in a perpetual luteal phase (sort of), your body thinks you have already ovulated so your brain switches off the ovulation cascade.

For those on the combined oral contraceptive pill (COCP), where you take the pill for 3 weeks then pause for a week, it is possible to have more of an idea about where you are in the cycle. When you stop taking the pills for a week, the levels of your hormones drop significantly and you have a breakthrough bleed. This is not really a period because it isn't preceded by ovulation, but it is your endometrium shedding nonetheless.

If you still bleed on your HBC, you can use Day 1 of your withdrawal bleed as Day 1 of the cycle. During this time, you know that your hormone levels are low and so you may experience fatigue, tiredness, mood changes, cramping or feeling more sensitive/low. When the bleed is over, and you begin taking the pills again, you may notice your energy and/or mood shift.

You can find more information about how different contraceptives work here.

How Do I Track My Cycle If I Have The Copper IUD?

The Copper Intrauterine Device (IUD) does not interfere with ovulation, instead it works by creating a hostile environment for sperm and reducing their motility, so they cannot survive and reach the egg cell. The fact it is non-hormonal means you still ovulate and you can still get your period. Many women report heavier periods with the copper IUD, which is due to the action of unbound copper in the body (more on this in a separate article!).

If you have the copper IUD and you get your period, use the framework above to track your symptoms, mood and energy across the cycle. Due to the IUD's mild inflammatory effect, many women also report worse cramps.

Why You Should Still Track Your Mood And Energy Across The Month

If you no longer menstruate, or perhaps you take the continuous pill so you don't have a bleed to track from, I still recommend following the framework above if you are experiencing any symptoms that are concerning you. I also recommend it if you're wanting to connect more to your body and mind.

Having a reflective moment each day of how you're feeling, your exercise, libido, any cravings and any life stressors is helpful for everyone - not just those who menstruate! It's incredibly powerful for your mental health to have a visual tool in front of you that is making sense of your experience.

Written and edited by Dr Rachel Denham, a trained medic and Women's Health Practitioner, who has worked across the charity and humanitarian sector and now specialises in women's health. Rachel is the creator of Bloody Nora, a women's health and wellbeing zine that fuses storytelling, art and science.

Resources:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK430882/
https://americanpregnancy.org/getting-pregnant/track-ovulation-irregular-periods/