I’ve never known anyone track their periods

[Forestgreenblue]

I had thyroid cancer 6 years ago. Had half of it removed. Then I had the Covid jab and had a severe hemorrhagic bleed as a side effect. I ended up in hospital and on tablets to stol the bleeding afterwards.

I have ended up in early peri menopause as a combined effort from both. It’s bloody awful but mid month, I get severe ovulation pain and I know it’s that mainly from tracking my symptoms on my Garmin watch, I know my pain is from my body attempting ovulation, and end of the month I get a vague 12-24 hour period. I barely bleed anymore. I mainly use pantyliners now as there is no need for anything else

DP said it’s ‘weird’ that I am tracking my symptoms with my body and Garmin calendar. Does anyone else do this or am I indeed a bit weird?

I thought all women did?
Note on a calendar from age 11 to age 52 even though it was 28 days every time.

Does your husband have or has he ever experienced a menstrual cycle? No? His opinion is as useful as a dry mop.

Urgh. What gives a middle-aged man the qualifications or experience to decide that period-tracking is weird? And why do we allow them to make us doubt our perfectly normal behaviour? Bloody men.

I've always tracked mine one way or another. When I started my periods at 12, my mum gave me calendar and told me to write a P inside a circle on the days that I bleed. When I asked why, she said it would come in handy for various different reasons. I did that for about 20 years, and for the last 9 years I've tracked them via a phone app.

If you don’t track, how do you have any idea when it’s due? Every period would be a surprise.

I don’t track symptoms because I don’t really have any.

I track mine with the IPhone health app. It’s got a period tracker function which should tell you how common it is!

We’ve really got to stop listening to men’s opinions about our own bodies. Of course it’s not weird OP. There is a reason the functions exists. I also track it as I’m Peri and it’s all over the place

Tracked mine since my teens and I’m 41 now it’s very normal

I've tracked mine since they got heavier in my mid twenties. So over twenty years 😄

It is completely standard to track periods. It’s obviously expected too, because if you go to the GP for as much as an ear ache and you are female their first question is “when was your last period?”

Oh, DP, are you not tracking your periods?
Of course not, I don't have periods
Well, there you are, you are tracking them to know you don't have them. You'd track them more closely if you had them 🥰

I only tracked mine when I was trying to fall pregnant. I don't really have a need to now. It's not weird though.

On track mine, they are all over the place but it’s handy to know when it may make an appearance if I have a holiday etc booked.

started tracking mine late 30s as I got horrendous pain and heavy bleeding. Would dread my cycle every month.

When I was 11 I used to put a red dot in my homework diary to log when my next period was due

When I tried to conceive I tracked my periods in more detail and was very fortunate to conceive very quickly.

Despite having regular periods, until I started tracking just over a decade ago. I would regularly be caught by surprise by my period (despite getting emotional over running out of butter and such trivial things in the days before). I absolutely track now.

I track mine and have for a few years. First started it when I was trying to get
pregnant and now I do it as I’m nearly at perimenopause age and also because I have PMDD- I like to know in advance where possible, when I’m due to lose my fucking mind.

Your DP’s opinion is so unimportant regarding this. I don’t know why they’d bother to voice it.

Sounds like your partner has no idea of the range of symptoms experienced. Wouldn't he like to know which days in the month he would be bleeding, have diarrhoea, feel overly hot, understand why they feel so snappy, want to curl in a ball and scream?

I know they have all those inspiring ads about not letting your period stop you from being a strong woman {sigh} but I like to know that I won't be doing anything at least physically strenuous when I am in my first day heavily bleeding out the wazoo.

I did when I was trying to get pregnant, did the thing with tracking g my morning temperature an everything. Also in peri and did track for a spell last year just to try and identify if there was any kind of pattern at all to when I could expect my period these days. Have gone from olid 28 day cycle to every erratic cycle anything from 3 to 5 weeks. Often can tell when I ovulate but got caught out on holiday recently after having had a run of regular ish monthly cycles the last one was less than 3 weeks.....why won't they just stop!!🙄

I track mine now I’m in menopause. The only time I didn’t was when I was on contraception that pre determined when my periods would be

I record mine in the health app on my phone

I think most people do

useful for all kinds of things

I hope you’ve had words with him about making random pronouncements on things women have been managing since time began and he has zero experience of! How dos he think a woman has any idea if she’s pregnant or not if she doesn’t know when she’s due? Not to mention the inconvenience of not being prepared with sanpro when out and about.

I imagine he’s had the luxury of never having had to give it any thought (if only we had the same luxury!) and so came out with a load of codswallop instead of respecting the actual person in the house with some experience in the matter! 🙄

Just started tracking mine due to being at least peri-menopause.

I use the ClearBlue app.

I've always tracked my periods. I used to do it in my diary, and then when smartphones came along I started using an app and like you I now use my Garmin. It's a totally normal and healthy thing to do.

And yes I track mine. Have done since I first started. Now I’m hopefully moving towards the end of peri it’s a bit of a fool’s errand because it seems to appear whenever it feels like it and just when I think I’ve found a pattern it flipping well changes it but there you go, that’s the stage I’m at!