5 things everyone should know about women's cycles

If you are a Creighton charting pro, you may already know all of these. But for those who are new to the concept of charting your biomarkers of fertility and new to the Creighton Model, here are 5 things you should know about menstrual cycles. Actually, I think everyone should know these!

1. Your cycle includes so much more than your period. Whenever I do a first follow up with a new client, I ask them what is the range of the lengths of your menstrual cycles from shortest to longest? I can't tell you the number of the times someone tells me the length of their period. But I'm not surprised. Most of us women have been taught at least something about our periods, but the rest of the cycle is a mystery to many. There's ovulation, the luteal phase, etc. etc. There is so much more going on than just the period of bleeding that kicks off the whole cycle. The menstrual cycle starts with the first day of your period and ends with the last day before your next period begins.

2. Ovulation is a once a cycle event. You only ovulate one time each cycle. The only exception to this is in the case of fraternal twins. In that case, two eggs are released, but it's in the same 24 hour window, so all of the instructions of NFP apply as normal (Introductory Session to the Creighton Model System).

3. You can ovulate before your first period if you are breastfeeding. In fact, 1 in 3 women ovulate before their first period (Creighton Model FertilityCare System: A Standardized Case Management Approach to Teaching Book I). But that doesn't mean women ovulate multiple times before their period shows back up. Once ovulation occurs, it is either followed by a period or the beginning of pregnancy.

4. Some variation between cycles is normal. After a client has been charting for several cycles, I commonly hear them say something like "Now that I know the pattern of my cycles, I know what to expect. Ovulation occurs around this day of my cycle, etc." Cycles should not change dramatically from cycle to cycle, but some variation is to be expected. There are double peaks for example. The number of days before ovulation can also vary. That is normal! That's the major contributing factor to differences in cycle length. Ovulation can occur earlier or later in each cycle.

5. Women are fertile for more than just a couple days each cycle. It would lovely for those trying to avoid pregnancy if fertility was just confined to 1-2 days each cycle. However, that is not the case. While the egg lives only 12-24 hours if it is not fertilized, the window of fertility is expanded by the presence of cervical mucus. Cervical mucus allows sperm to survive for 3-5 days (Introductory Session to the Creighton Model System). That way sperm can be ready for the release of the egg at ovulation.

If you want to learn more about the menstrual cycle and the Creighton Model System, you can register for an Introductory Session! If you are curious what it is like to learn the Creighton Model System, we have a blog post for that, too.