...to be amazed by how little some women know about their bodies?

[Celebelly]

Just an idle thought while browsing Conceptions/Pregnancy forums. Every day there seems to be someone asking 'Could I be pregnant?' with seemingly no idea how their cycle works, when you can realistically get pregnant, etc etc. I really find it quite worrying that education is obviously failing women in this way and that all we seem to be taught is how to deal with periods and nothing else. I really find it astounding that so many women don't seem to understand how ovulation works and how conception takes place. It's not even for conception; it's really valuable for contraception too to understand how a menstrual cycle works. Some of the questions are really mind-boggling.

AIBU to wonder why so many women apparently don't know how their body works? And to wonder what can be done to fix it?

*TheShaniaTwainExperience
Am I the only person that doesn’t know my cycle length/ when my period is due? *

Nope, i dont know, dont care
i just know it comes when it wants to, sometimes monthly, sometimes with months in between like it has since the day i started

Before DCs, my body did not do textbook on timings. My periods could turn up at any random point between a month and 3+ months. With hindsight I did get an ovulation pain, but my cycle was so erratic that I'd feel cramps, do a check to see if the appocalypse was turning up. I did cotton on that something might happen in the next couple of weeks or so.

I was astonished that DS1 turned up on the first month of trying. I'd assumed that it would take a while to stumble on a lucky strike as my periods were too spaced out and erratic.

These days I still find it remarkable that I can guess to within a few days when it's likely to come, and get some reliable warning symptoms in the 48 hours before.

Schools and books can't deliver a customised warning about peak times of fertility. To avoid unplanned pregnancies they have to take a line that pregnancy could occur at any point because it's not impossible that it couldn't across the target audience.

I had my tubes tied during my last C section. Since it’s now very unlikely that I will get pregnant, and I’m busy with two DCs, I don’t have the motivation or time to track my cycles.

I haven't a clue about my cycle because I've been on the pill the vast majority of my adult life, so no way of knowing what my 'natural cycle' is. I'm sure if I were to come off it and TTC it'd become apparent. There are some helpful apps out there these days for tracking your periods, estimating ovulation and whatnot!

If you aren't clockwork with your timings and don't have ovulation pain, PMT, spots, discharge that's particularly noticeable or any other hormonal symptoms or issues then how do you know how your cycle works? Mine has varied from something like 12 to 40 days in the last few years. dh has had a vasectomy so for me it's just the nuisance factor of starting to unexpectedly bleed now (just like when I was a teenager with an unforgiving mum really).

you don't have to track them, you don't need to specifically know much about your own, but you should at the very least have a good idea how human bodies in general work.
So any of you "couldn't care less" people have children? Who is going to teach them when you so obviously can't?

flumpybear - "the ins and outs of conception" - classic!

Much as I hated and slag off my RC girls' school education, because we were taught, in RE not biology, the 'natural contraception' methods this is something I do know quite a bit about.

And I have told at least one friend how to maximise her chance of getting pregnant.

If you aren't clockwork with your timings and don't have ovulation pain, PMT, spots, discharge that's particularly noticeable or any other hormonal symptoms or issues then how do you know how your cycle works?

Well you can have a look at your cervical mucus, have you ever noticed at time you get 'gunk' in your pants? Sometimes it is more stringy. You can chart it, look up 'Billings'

You can also chart your temperature, but you have to be accurate, not sure how well electronic thermometers are, you used to use a rectal thermometer.

Same here,sash, product of a catholic 70s upbringing. Learnt billings method info. At the time we were criticised by not knowing about the pill etc (which was much more reliable). Its wierd that this basic info is now so unknown.

Sabistick

And these days you can pee on a stick!

Sash - oh yes, i love new technology.

*Well you can have a look at your cervical mucus, have you ever noticed at time you get 'gunk' in your pants? Sometimes it is more stringy. You can chart it, look up 'Billings'

You can also chart your temperature, but you have to be accurate, not sure how well electronic thermometers are, you used to use a rectal thermometer.*

You just need a basal body temperature thermometer which has a finer scale than normal thermometers and can record smaller changes in temperature

You can use this orally, but has to be taken first thing in the morning at rest, before you get up. Doesn't need to be vaginally or rectally

Not everyone gets EWCM, or if you have irregular cycles you're very likely to not be able to use cervical mucus as a gauge, as if you have anovulatory cycles you may have erratic patterns of CM. Even temping with anovulatory cycles doesn't help you to predict when your period will be. You can only predict when your period will be if you ovulate and get a temp rise, so can see it fall before your period arrives

If you have cycles like mine then temping doesn't help at all - I don't ovulate, so my temps are like a mountain range, and my period could come at any time between 40 days and 4 months, or longer

I've recently started tracking my periods using Natural Cycles (many many discussions on here about that!). Main reason was - I've been on the pill for a good 10 years, I would like to have children one day and my my mum went through early menopause so the likelihood is I will too and therefore gives me a smaller window than most. Add in the 10 years of messing with my hormones and I didn't want to decrease my chances any more!

I know it's not for everyone - seriously, no contraceptive is size fits all and same applies to Natural Cycles but I have found it absolutely fascinating. I have a highly irregular cycle at the moment, probably due to coming off the pill recently but I can't wait til it settles down and I can track it properly (I'm a bit of a number nerd so I love looking at all the data).

I've only been using it for a couple of months and learnt so much about my cycle since!

@everday
It’s weirdly addictive isn’t it?

@coolgirls I am obsessed, best decision I ever made. I only went on the pill because I had irregular periods and hated being caught by surprise and even thought they're still irregular I do have some warning of when it's going to happen.

if you have irregular cycles you're very likely to not be able to use cervical mucus as a gauge, as if you have anovulatory cycles you may have erratic patterns of CM

Of course you can, if you have ovulated you can tell by the mucus, if you have not ovulated you won't get that change and you won't get a period.

Of course you can, if you have ovulated you can tell by the mucus, if you have not ovulated you won't get that change and you won't get a period.

You do know that the endometrium does break down and you get sporadic periods and anovulatory cycles, right?

Women who don't ovulate will still have a period at some point, you just won't be able to predict when

I have PCOS, I don't ovulate, I get periods sometimes after a 40 day cycle, sometimes a 70 day cycle, once I even went 10 months between periods

I don't ovulate but the endometrium doesn't stay intact indefinitely. It will shed at some point, but with anovulatory cycles there's no way to predict when that will be

Of course you can, if you have ovulated you can tell by the mucus, if you have not ovulated you won't get that change and you won't get a period.

Also re CM that's my entire point. You don't ovulate and don't get the change in cervical mucus or a temp shift, but a period will still come at some point. You just can't predict when that will be.

I think the ‘am I pregnant’ threads are just a useful place to obsess because when you are ttc there’s no one you can really talk to irl... but agreed, it’s strange to think how people’s knowledge reflects on the sex education they had years ago!

This whole thread has just made me dredge up a memory from donkey’s years ago about Gareth Gates sleeping with Katie Price when she was already pregnant and him thinking that now her baby might be his....

I have PCOS, I don't ovulate

If you don't ovulate at all then surely you don't have a cycle or a fertile period.

You do know that the endometrium does break down and you get sporadic periods and anovulatory cycles, right?

I know the endometrium breaks down, I know you get bleeding when it does but a) it is not a period and b) this discussion was about knowing when you are fertile in order to conceive and how your body works.

If you don't ovulate at all then surely you don't have a cycle or a fertile period.

Precisely

And plenty of women on the infertility boards had fairly regular or only moderately irregular periods, but didn't know they weren't ovulating until they had investigations after TTC unsuccessfully and going to see a Dr

That's the whole point. They were having bleeds that they didn't know weren't true menstrual periods, because they didn't know they weren't ovulating and didn't have a fertile period, and thus weren't conceiving

So knowing that you don't ovulate is as important for TTC as knowing when you ovulate

If you don't track your cycles, you're unlikely to be aware there may be an issue

When I was nursing, I was amazed at how many women thought they peed out of their vaginas. They were genuinely staggered when I explained that there was a different hole down there for peeing! Also, many women who did not know where/what the clitoris was.

Once, we had to do surgery on a 10-year old girl; her mother/grandmother were in floods of tears post-op at her bedside. I reassured them that the surgery had gone well and she would soon be waking up. The mum pointed to the urinary catheter and explained that they were not crying because of the op, but because of the catheter. She said that she realised it was necessary, but that in their culture (Iranian muslim) virginity was highly-prized and now the girl was no longer a virgin. I had to fetch diagrams to explain exactly where the catheter was located and that she was still virgo intacta! Wreaths of smiles all around and much happiness! [Confused]

I had no idea how my cycle worked before TTC. I went on the pill at 14, didn't have another period from that day so put it out if mind until me and DP decided to TTC when I was 23. I had no idea you could only conceive during ovulation and when that would be.

Like to think I'm pretty clued up now though! We do NFP as contraception now but I'm still not convinced DP really gets it so I take all the responsibility and tell him when we need condoms

I had a midwife tell me that of course I was 12 weeks pregnant and could have the dating scan and blood tests. She was not amused when the scan said, not it was too early for the blood tests, just like I'd been telling her. Mind you, even that was out, as my EDD kept on being revised later and later.

With DD2, I hadn't had a period for about a year (PCOS), had started Clomid, and was paying attention to timings of everything. Firstly the midwife refused to understand how anyone could not have had a period for a year, then gave me a random EDD which didn't take into account the Clomid (consultant had said "just start it whenever, we could be here this time next year if you wait for a period"), which caused problems when I was trying to get the registrar to book my CS.

A colleague (in a vaguely fertility related area) was talking to a mid 30s lesbian couple who were trying to work out how they couldn't get pregnant, despite not using contraception, and having regular sex. She had to sit down and do a "birds and bees" talk with them, it seemed they genuinely didn't realise that two women might need some extra input to the process. We couldn't work out if they'd never had proper sex ed at school, or had just not taken it in.