How regular is regular? Silly question!!

[sammysam]

I'm just wandering when people talk of a regular cycle what they actually mean? Is it exactly on x day every month or is +/-1 or 2 regular. What about more than that?

Sorry for the stupid question-i'm between 30 and 34 days I think so is that regular enough to be regular iyswim?! Can't believe i'm actually posting this!

[Playingthewaitinggame]

I'm not actually sure, I think when most people use it they mean that their cycle is pretty much the same length every month.

However, it really isn't always as simple as that. On the face of it I have a very irregular cycle (CD31-CD38), however, I always have the same length LP (thats the phase between ovulation and your period) every cycle so i can always predict my period to the exact day as long as I know when I ovulated. So, my cycle is not nec regular but it is very predicatable as long as I know what to look for.

Sorry, that might not be too much help, someone who knows a bit more is sure to post soon!

[hattyyellow]

I wondered this when we were trying to conceive again. I found several articles along these lines..

"A textbook period happens every 24-29 days, but in truth what is ?regular? covers a wide range. Cycles between 23?35 days are very common. A woman may get her period only one to four times a year. Or she might have periods that occur two to three times in a month and involve spotting or extremely heavy flow. Alternatively, she may have heavy episodes of bleeding every two to three months. Irregular periods are simply what is irregular for you".

My cycles were between 28 and 35 days and the doctor didn't class them as irregular. I think the main thing is whether you are ovulating or not which they can do blood test to determine after you've been trying for a while.

My cycles used to be 28 days before my first pregnancy and this just made life easier because I was pretty sure I ovulated around day 14.

[sammysam]

Thank you! I'm not sure when I ovulate-we are only just ttc and with dd it was a big surprise so i'm all new to this! I'm going to actually do some homework if we are unsucessful this month (v. likely!) the only thing that may put a spanner in the works with trying to figure it all out is that i'm still breastfeeding dd (22 months) so I had thought that this would not give acurate test results atc, plus the fact that I may not even be ovulating at all

[mibbes]

I agree with hatty - I have similar cycles 28-38 days (with a random 45-dayer thrown in just to confuse matters when I started TTC !) I took my temp each morning to work out if I was ovulating and I was (fell PG after 3 cycles). Log onto www.fertilityfriend.co.uk if you are unsure about how to chart temps. My GP wasn't concerned about me having irregular cycles either. There are a few ladies on my AN thread who are BFing so it is clearly possible to ovulate and get PG while BFing
good luck xx

[AttilaTheMeerkat]

A "normal" cycle is a cycle length of between 21 and 35 days OR with 4 days or less of variation from month to month.

[sammysam]

Thanks mibbles-just trying to get it all sorted in my head! Will have a look at that site