Do you count spotting/very light menses as day one of your cycle?

[Jackietreehorn]

Do most women (those for whom this occurs anyway), when tracking their cycles, count the day they had some spotting or pinkish CM as the first day of their period? Or would you only count the first day you see proper "red" bleeding?

Example: if today was day 27 of my cycle, but tonight I noticed some pinkish cervical fluid or light spotting, do I then mark this in as day 1 of my new cycle? Or do I wait until things are in full swing tomorrow and call that day 1?

I am trying to track my cycles at present and am unsure about this. Threw the question into google and there was just a lot of conflicting information. I'm due to see my gp in the morning so will ask while I'm there but just wondering what those of you keeping track usually do?
(Im aware that other women go from 0 - full on period with no "is it/isn't it?" in between)

You're supposed to start counting from proper bleeding, not spotting. I sometimes have trouble working out if I'm spotting or not though!

I agree. Day 1 is the day you wake up bleeding red blood. So if it starts afternoon/evening, the next day is day 1.

I have this every time! I've been advised to go from first day of full red flow so beendoing that. I did track last cycle on 2 diff apps with one starting at full flow and the other starting at the spotting. I think the full flow app was more accurate but that was just one cycle and a fair amount of guesswork! It is sometimes tricky when spotting transitions into heavy flow! Will be interesting so hear what your gp says.

Proper bleeding.

Proper bleeding.

Hey, glad you asked this as it was confusing me too. AF started yesterday late afternoon, was quite a lot of bleeding over night (sorry if tmi) so wasn't sure if i should count yesterday or today as 1st cycle day.
But I'm using CBFM, entered that started bleeding yesterday 4pm and it's counting today as CD 1

Thanks everyone. I was supposed to ask my gp about that this morning and when I got there it was my usual gp who saw me. Was there for something not period related. Kinda threw me a bit and I forgot to ask them about this!

I think I'll count the first proper bleeding day as day 1 until I speak with them again. Dr Google seems to swing in favour of that.

Blah. Typo. It wasn't mt usual gp

Day 1 is most definitely the day you wake up bleeding. Most GPs aren't specialists in fertility so probably won't know the answer.

Im 11 weeks and my scan date is 2 days out from my period date. I spot and cramp about 48hrs before proper flow always have done. By cramping date my due date is spot on. So I do wonder if you know you always spot a certain amount pre AF then you could count as D1.

This is key for me as well as I have short cycles and if I count from spotting they're even shorter..

Hmm I didn't know about the day 1 being the day you wake up bleeding. Mine usually doesn't start overnight, and I have several days worth of spotting before it comes on properly, it's very confusing.

Also the proper breeding usually only lasts two days, so technically I have a one day period

Yes I was the same as op counting from light P M Blood, so I've found this useful.

My period was 4 days late this month (I'm never late ever and I was almost certain I was pregnant after 9 months of trying I then started spotted for 2 days ( both days was about an hour each day of a bit of blood) then I had 2 days of proper bleeding (still not heavy ) where normally I bleed really heavy for 5 days. Then I spotted for 2 days ( each day about an hour a day then it nothing ).
Do I class this as a 2 day period ??

I wouldn't say when you wake up. I was told that if it started in the morning at some point then that's CD1, but if it starts in the afternoon then the next day is.

I used to get to work at 7.30 and sometimes didn't start til 8am ish. I still counted that as CD1 as it was before 12.

I know this is an old thread buuut I am pregnant and I went for an early scan at 6 weeks and 5 days and they measured the fetus as 8.3mm they said I measured bigger for my dates but just left it at that.. I'm frantic and just have to research everything so I was looking online to see if how much bigger it was at that age than average, turns out it was slightly too big.. about 1.2mm too big for that age.. I contacted the clinic where I had the scan and they told me that it was because my dates were off ..when I calculated in the spotting I had before my full bleed it made sense and it added on three days and made it all ok, baby is the right size and I'm in fact 7 weeks not 6 weeks and 5 days ...those few days actually make a huge difference in growth at this stage and it panicked me but add it in the few days of spotting as my actual period makes it right ....I will be speaking to my midwife in two days about it to get a better understanding but to me right now and to my baby growth it's the only thing that adds up and also coincides with my ovulation date as I was tracking it all

When doing a pregnancy calculator online do I count from my full flow

Hi can anyone help I done a clear blue test in the 26 March 2020 and said I was 1-2 week I done one the next day on the 27 said I was 2-3 could anyone explain and help me understand how this works
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