All females should be tracking their menses, whether you want to fall pregnant now or not. If you on the Pill however, it is not accurate as it is in fact not a true reflection of your natural cycle. Educating my patients on the physiology of their body is just as important to me. For starters, by tracking your cycles, you become more aware of your body. Signs and symptoms throughout the cycle helps me understand what your hormones are doing. If one is more dominant than the other; if you are deficient or they are just simply out of balance.

How should you track your cycles?⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
I recommend to all my female patients to either track their data on their phone calendar or in a diary. Some Apps are not accurate. One problem I have found is that many do not consider that Day 1 and Day 28 are the same day. In other words Day 1 is the day you start bleeding and Day 28 is the day you’re expected to start bleeding therefore it is the same day.

A healthy cycle ranges from 27 – 29 days. Anything shorter or longer indicates an imbalance. Your period shouldn’t fall on the same calendar date every month as each month has a different amount of days. So where do you start? Count 28 days from Day 1 of your last period. On the 28th day circle that date in pencil. This is the day you’re expected to start your next period. The day you start bleeding should be circled in red pen. So essentially when you start you next period the date circled in pencil and pen should be the same day. If you cycles are longer we can track by how many days you were late. This also gives me an idea of approximately when you are ovulating, which is beneficial when I am treating infertility.

I ask my patient to also make note of premenstrual symptoms such as lower back pain, breakouts, headaches, bloating.. the list goes on. As treatment begins we can track healing by the change in symptoms and focus on the outcome whether it be reversing PCOS, treating acne, or falling pregnant.