What your period can tell you about your fertility
Whether you've been trying to conceive (TTC) for 1 month or 1 year or even 10 years, it's important to start right at the beginning. It's far too easy to start down the rabbit hole of research of “what should I eat, what shouldn't I eat, where to put my feet on the wall after sex” and before you know it, you are blowing through home pregnancy and ovulation tests yet you haven't mastered the basics.
Your cycle!
More often than not, your menstrual cycle can tell me more about your fertility than an expensive saliva test can.
So let's look at what’s "normal".
Cycle length: 27-35 days - although for fertility I love seeing 28-32 days
Luteal phase: 10-16 days - Ideally 12-14 days. It’s important to note that shorter phases can impact implantation, longer phases can indicate that your estimated ovulation may have been wrongfully identified or something could be impacting your cycle.
Bleed: 5- 7 days - that's right, a short bleed isn't necessarily a great thing. You need the bleed to be enough to clear the uterus of the debris, to be ready and refreshed for the next cycle.
Heaviness: This is the goldilocks of periods. Not too much, not too little, just right. Too heavy risks iron loss, and may be painful. Too little can indicate stagnation.
Colour: Normal should be a bright red, often with lighter to start or finish. Dark red to brown can indicate stagnation or in lighter quantities can be indicative of implantation bleeding. Light pink could indicate normal blood, iron deficiency/anaemia. Then some more red flag colours - orange/green can be infections or grey in some cases of bacterial vaginosis and these should be investigated with your health practitioner.
Clotting: Small dots may be considered completely "normal", however, if there are large quantities of these, or clots are larger than 5-10 Cent pieces, it should be discussed with your health practitioner
Pain: Is not normal, it is common but not normal. I'll dive deeper into this soon, however, if you experience anything more than mild discomfort, especially if it occurs with symptoms such as heavy flow/blood loss, nausea, migraines, changes to bowel habits, bloating, painful sex is a sign to chat to your health practitioner. I'm always happy to discuss these concerns should you have them, and whilst as a Nature path I can't diagnose, I can help identify red flag symptoms and refer you to your GP for investigations.
By tuning into your body, we can observe what is normal, and what might be suboptimal and hone in on what we need to investigate further.
One relatively inexpensive way I love to do this is cycle tracking with temperature charting, specifically the sympto-thermo method.
Over the next few blogs I’ll be helping you understand more about your cycle and important aspects. So before we dive into the rabbit hole of research on that temperature charting, let's look more at your ovulation or potential lack of it and why that is key for fertility!
To keep up to date with my blogs please subscribe below. Or if you'd like to know more about how we can work together book a free chat with me here.
