In my 40s and have never really tracked my periods

[MrsMaisel]

am i just disorganised? Am I alone? Occasionally when things seem to be going a little awry i will look back at a calendar and try to reverse engineer some semblance of a record... but never really able to pin point days. I feel a bit daft whenever a doctor asks me the date of my last period - i sort of look up to the ceiling and guesstimate. Can I just hide behind the expression, 'going with the flow'?

cardibach Yes I think its every other month, terrible pains and back ache, plus heavy flooding during the night, during the day I'm a bit more on top getting to the loo and changing frequently.

When I was a teen I had terrible PMT, now I get irritable and sometimes really horney. But it still doesn't click, just a "ahhh that makes sense" moment, when I come on.

If your periods aren’t a problem then I guess you have to need to track them. If you’re not having sex or using reliable contraception you’re not worried about conceiving.

I have endometriosis - my periods are excruciating and it’s good to know when they’re coming so I can be prepared, avoid plans for a few days etc. Unfortunately I’m irregular now so I never know.

I’m also trying to track symptoms so I always know what day of my cycle I’m on even when I’m irregular.

That reference in the article you mention is basically a flintstones version of a home pregnancy test - much more important to know then!

I've always tracked mine - because if I take ibuprofen 48h before I'm due it makes them much more bearable!

On the odd occasion I've forgotten I've been in insane amounts of pain!

I’m 48. Never tracked my period. I’ve usually got a vague idea, can usually work out “oh yes, last period started at that day out/meeting etc”. Was a bit more mindful when TTC.

I never tracked mine either as they were very irregular - it just seemed like useless data.

Now that I'm in my 30s, they've settled down to a 28 day cycle, so I do track.

I never tracked as I can always tell a couple of days before they start anyway due to bloating, mild aches in my stomach, low mood and every etc. Means I am always OK to have sanitary products on me and didn't see a need to know more. I think I might track soon as I approach 40s for menopause changes.

At one stage, I always had cramps for a couple of days before, so I didn't really need to track because the cramps pre-warned me. Then things changed a bit and the cramps beforehand stopped, so I'd keep track in case I was caught out suddenly (my period tends to start quite heavily, and quite painfully, so I didn't want to get caught out if I wasn't able to get to the loo straight away - I could wear a towel before it started, and take a couple of painkillers that morning).

Lol. I'm pretty rubbish. Always answer with a panicked expression when asked at my pregnancy booking-in appointments. (Luckily always got pregnant within a couple of months of stopping birth control and got all of the period symptoms minus the bleeding pretty much immediately, which has always prompted me to test - I've always been 5/6 weeks at my early dating scan).

But yeah, generally I just keep a work day's worth of tampons/pads in my bag just in case.

This is interesting. I'm another who thinks "ah, that makes sense" when I start. By chance, I had a good idea when my last period had been with DD as I hadn't had a tampon in my bag and had had to buy one from the vending machine at the theatre but I wasn't sure if that we my last period or the one before. The MW seemed a bit confused that I was so vague.
I have been thinking that I should start tracking them as it seems a grown up thing to do. I also feel quite lethargic and foggy of brain the day I get my period these days and it would probably be easier if I could avoid scheduling a day of meetings for those days. Having said that, I think my period is fairly irregular so I'm not sure that would work.

I'm impressed by a 49 year old with six lovers. I wouldn't even have the energy for two and I'm younger.

I never have either, is it something I'm supposed to do? I'm 50 soon, I don't think I'll bother starting.

Tracking or not is fine obv and up to each woman.

I never did, do a little now.

Whenever I went to the doc and they'd say when was your last period and I'd not know they would be a bit annoyed. I mean I could say roughly

but

the point for me and hard to articulate

is i'm going around living my life when my perdiods came I delat with them and to have the sort of expectation that women for their whole reprodcutive lives are doing the orgnaising and rememberign and what have you I think,

I don't like the idea it's kind of we're so tied to periods anyway with these set periods in time and to add to that it just feels, not free somehow

there, badly articulated i can't quite explain / put my finger on why this expectation on women and girls is off to me

I didn’t until I got a Fitbit (the app has a period tracker function).

They were always regular and I always had cramps hours before the bleeding started so I didn’t worry about being caught out.

If you want to track them there’s lots of apps now that make it really easy. Just take 30 seconds to log when your period starts and ends and you’ll get an alert when the next one is imminent. Most of them predict months ahead if you’re fairly regular, which is useful.

I agree - hard to put a finger on but it’s just the unspoken expectation that we’re keeping track of our reproductive self.

Generally it's a good idea as a drastic change in cycles can be a sign that something is wrong - and obviously the sooner you know there's a problem the better.

It's quite hard work

They're all infrequent though, tbh married women with quite quiet sex lives would be getting more sex than me, though possibly less of it via sexting.

I track mine in the fitbit app. It's just there so it's easy and I open the app every day to check my sleep and so I can see "oh yeah I'm due this week" or whatever. Helpful when I'm going away for a few days - if I'm due I'll take sufficient products for the whole trip, if not I'll generally just take one days worth just in case.

I'm 45 and have been tracking for a year. I think I'm perimenopausal and I keep getting UTIs, which are always better when I get my period. I think I'm the only one who likes having periods. Sometimes I have short 21 day cycles which I like. My longest has been 36 days and I hated it. I dread the menopause.

It's always a surprise when I get a period God, yes and not a nice surprise either! 😮

I've never tracked mine either and it was quite a surprise to realise a few years ago that I'd gone 10 months without one. Not pregnant, not sure what was going on! Absolutely gutted when they returned one day out of the blue 😣

I've got an app as I'm older and want to track.if they become irregular. But only for the last year or two. It's quite useful for predicting when I'll feel like shit!

I also use it to ..

Schedule hot sex with hot lovers
Track my mid cycle randyness
Explain my end of cycle mood swings
Tell gp why I need more hrt

So wait two or three years til perimenopause hits and it might come in handy

I track mine after being ‘told off’ by the GP for not tracking. I started bleeding every two weeks but had no record what so ever

Strangely enough I started tracking and it fixed itself and has never repeated.

I have really very good periods that only last a few days so no reason to track other than my own record.

I’ve always tracked mine since I was a teenager. I just think it’s a good idea to have a record in case the cycle suddenly goes wonky.

I just mark it in my calendar. Speaking of apps though, I was just reading recently about apps sharing information etc, and it ended up with Facebook getting all these women’s period information from health apps

www.theguardian.com/technology/2019/feb/23/facebook-app-data-leaks

Never ever tracked mine, and I have always had very heavy periods. CBA. I have been lectured a few times by GPs though when I have said I had no idea when my last period was.