5 Things Every Woman Needs To Know About Her Cycle
We’ve all been there…Furiously googling “Can I get pregnant on my period????”
Taking the pill for the 1000th day in a row and wondering, “Is this sh*t good for me?”
Dying of cramps on the couch and questioning “surelyyyyyyy it shouldn’t be this bad?!”
For all our wild and wonderful differences as women, there is one thing we have in common - our period.
…And the fact that despite it being something we all go through every month, we’re still not all that clued in about what’s actually going on!
So here’s 5 answers to some of the questions you might already be asking, and some cycle-savvy facts that might seriously surprise you!
YOU CAN ONLY GET PREGNANT ON 6 DAYS OF YOUR MENSTRUAL CYCLE!
For pregnancy to occur, an egg needs to be met by a sperm.
Every month, an egg gets released from your ovary in an event called Ovulation, which happens around the midpoint of your cycle (though NOT necessarily on cycle day 14, which many women have been led to believe!)
Well, after the egg gets released from your ovary, it can only survive for 12-14 hours, max!
Sperm, on the other hand, can survive inside our bodies for up to 5 days, in the presence of something called Cervical Mucus (a fluid that is only present when you are fertile and creates an alkaline environment that sperm can survive in, and which makes it easier for them to ‘swim’ to the egg)
1 day of egg survival + 5 days of sperm survival = 6 days in which you can get pregnant!
That means, if you have an *average* cycle of 28 days, that leaves 22 days where you can’t get pregnant!
If you’re trying to achieve pregnancy, you want to get sperm INSIDE your vagina during those 6 days, and if you’re trying to avoid pregnant, you want to keep sperm OUTSIDE your vagina during those 6 days!
You can track these “fertile days” and “infertile days” by practising something called The Fertility Awareness Method - if you’re looking for a rad teacher, I recommend @chloeskerlak.
2. YOU CAN GET PREGNANT ON YOUR PERIOD!
Following on from fact #1, remember how I said ovulation happens *around* the mid-point of your cycle, but not necessarily exactly on cycle day 14 as many women think?
Well, if you have shorter menstrual cycles, you could be ovulating earlier in your cycle.
If cervical mucus (that stuff that keeps sperm alive) is present during your period, and you have unprotected sex during that time, AND then ovulate earlier in your cycle, there’s a chance that egg could be met by a sperm!
So for example…
Say you have a 6 day period, and on day 6 you have unprotected sex…
If cervical mucus was there, that sperm could survive from day 6, all the way through to day 10, and if you ovulated on day 10, it could fertilise that egg that gets released!
So even though fertilisation occurs after your period is long finished, the act that resulted in pregnancy actually happened on your period!
Maybe read that one again to fully wrap your head around it!
3. A HEALTHY WOMAN IS A FERTILE WOMAN (AND NOT JUST IF YOU’RE TRYING TO GET PREGNANT!)
If I asked you, “What’s the main event of your menstrual cycle?” you’d probably respond with, “My period, duh.”
Makes sense, since it’s the thing that demands so much of our attention. But your period is actually NOT the star of the show, ovulation is!
Even though your cycle “begins” on day 1 of your period, menstruation actually follows ovulation, not the other way around.
Ovulation *literally* equals fertility, because this is when the egg gets released.
And whilst it might seem like a good idea to avoid ovulating if you’re trying to avoid getting pregnant, it’s actually really not.
Ovulation is actually how we make some of our most important hormones, especially Progesterone, which is soooooooo important for our mental + emotional health, our sleep, our breast health, our brain health, our bone health, our heart heart, and more!!
So if you’re someone who values your health & wellness, direct your attention to supporting your fertility!
4. THE “PERIOD” YOU GET WHEN YOU’RE ON THE PILL? NOT A PERIOD.
This one is a bit of a part 2 to how ovulation is actually the main event of your cycle.
Your period basically happens because the egg that was released at ovulation didn’t get fertilised (you didn’t get pregnant), and after a series of hormone shifts, your reproductive system basically hits the reset button, to start a whole new cycle and try again.
So if you’re not ovulating, you’re not menstruating.
Because The Pill works by stopping you from ovulating, that bleed that you get roughly every month isn’t actually a true period, but actually something called a “withdrawal bleed”.
This happens because of the drop in/withdrawal from synthetic hormones when you take that “week off” or 7 days of placebo (sugar) pills.
Ready for the part of this that will really blow your mind???
That week off, which causes the withdrawal bleed, was actually created on purpose to make women feel more comfortable with being on the pill, because it was thought that they might find it too “unnatural” if they weren’t getting their period.
Wild, right?!
5. PERIOD PAIN IS COMMON BUT NOT NORMAL
And finally, let’s talk about those debilitating cramps you get every month.
Let’s be real here - you are literalllyyyyy shedding the inside of one of your organs every month, so experiencing some discomfort is totally normal and to be expected.
But debilitating pain that disrupts your life, has you on painkillers for 2 days, and is making you low-key hate your period, is NOT - even if all your girlfriends go through the same. Period pain has been so normalised because so many women experience it, but that just makes it common, NOT normal.
Rather than treating it like the enemy, get curious about what might be going on, because it’s actually your body talking to you (or screaming at you in some cases!).
Whether it’s caused by a hormonal imbalance, a nutritional deficiency, or a deeper emotional cause, it doesn’t have to be something you continue to suffer through every month!
And while we’re at it, that pre-menstrual acne, bloating, irregular cycles and mood swings?
Same deal.
Remember, just because your friends say “me too!” doesn’t make it normal!
And that’s a wrap on 5 Things Every Woman Needs To Know About Her Cycle!
Whether you’ve been curious about continuing with birth control, suffering through period pain, or wanting to take better care of your health, hopefully this has given you a little bit more insight into what it is to be a cyclical being!
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