Why You Should Start Tracking Your Period
Hate it or tolerate it, a monthly period is a reality for millions of women around the globe. During your period, you might deal with everything from heavy bleeding and mood swings to back cramps and nausea. Knowing when your period is coming and what it’s saying about your body are essential to taking control of your health. If you’ve never tracked your period before, it’s time to start. Tracking your period has a variety of benefits that are well worth exploring.
Thankfully, keeping track of your cycle is also easy with help from period apps. These apps let you record period dates as well as notes about your bleeding, cramps, and other symptoms. Many women find them helpful because they provide a variety of health insights without a huge time investment.
Tracking Helps You Understand Yourself
Have you ever noticed that you have two or three days a month where you just feel grumpier than others? Have you ever had light cramps that you thought were your period, but it was way too early? Tracking your menstrual cycle can help you understand if these symptoms are related to your period or if you should seek answers elsewhere. For instance, your mood swings might be due to much-dreaded PMS, and light cramps could be related to ovulation.
When you track your period, you get an awesome opportunity to learn more about how your body works. If you have a daughter or other young women in your life, you’ll also be setting a great example for self-care.
It Provides Insights into Your Health
One of the first questions you’re asked when you visit the doctor is when you had your last period. Many women have been caught off guard by this question, but you don’t need to be if you track your period. When your doctor asks about your last period at your next appointment, you’ll be prepared to answer. Your doctor gets vital insights into your health from knowing about your cycle pattern and the symptoms you experience. While it can be embarrassing to share these details with a doctor, remember that giving your care providers the best information possible will empower them to help you.
Monitoring changes in your menstrual cycle can also be an effective way to catch other health problems early on. If you notice significant changes in any aspect of your period, you should have a conversation with your doctor. Changes in the menstrual cycle can help medical professionals pinpoint other health problems that might be troubling you.
You’ll Know if You’re Fertile or Not
Whether you’re dying to have a baby or aren’t ready to get pregnant right now, it’s essential to know when you’re fertile. In general, women are fertile about 14 days before their period starts. There are many tools out there that will help calculate your fertility window, or the days in a month when you are ovulating and are most likely to get pregnant. In order to know when you’re ovulating, though, you need to know when your period starts and stops over the course of several months. Plugging this data into a period-tracking app or your calendar is the easiest way to get more information about your fertility window.
You’ll Never Be Caught Unprepared
Every woman knows the feeling of being out in public when her period starts, and she doesn’t have tampons, pads, or a menstrual cup. There’s nothing worse than being stuck somewhere without an effective and convenient solution to keep blood at bay. If you track your period, it’s highly unlikely that you’ll be caught unprepared again. You’ll know when you need to carry supplies with you, so you don’t have any embarrassing accidents.
Once you’ve used an app for a few months, it will be able to predict your upcoming periods with a high level of accuracy. That means that you can actively plan ahead for social events too. After all, who wants to go on a fabulous vacation or get married in the middle of a painful period? Knowledge is power, and there’s no exception when it comes to preparing for your next period.
Finding Solutions to Common Symptoms Gets Easier
Too many women suffer from symptoms related to their menstrual cycles. Tracking your period is one way that you can better understand and address your symptoms. For instance, maybe you notice that you get bad cramps if you eat a lot of dairy during your period. Perhaps your period-related mood swings seem to get worse when you indulge in too many sugary desserts. Once you understand what’s going on in your body, you can work proactively to keep symptoms at bay.
Of course, you might also experience period-related symptoms that you can’t control on your own. Take all the information you’ve recorded to your doctor and ask for help. Providing as many details as possible will help your doctor find treatment or control strategies that work for your symptoms.
With so many good reasons to track your period, why not start now? It’s as easy as downloading an app or a printable calendar that you can use to record information. Remember that there’s never any reason to be embarrassed or ashamed of tracking your menstrual cycle. Taking control of your own body and health will help you feel strong, empowered and informed no matter what your next period brings.