How irregular counts as irregular periods?

[StarJasmine]

Question as the title says! I never felt my periods were particularly irregular but I’ve been tracking them for 4 years on an app now (not on any regular hormonal contraception) and looking through, there actually seems like quite a range.

Taking out a few outliers that I either haven’t recorded properly or were altered by medication, I get a mean average 31 days, mode 29, median 30 from 41 cycles that range from 28-36 days. They can vary so for example 32 days, next 28, next 33 etc.

Are ‘most’ people so regular that they know they have an exact day length they usually are?

It’s not massively critical, I’m not TTC at the moment but about to have some bloods done to investigate fatigue/exhaustion and depression which include assessment for PCOS, I have gained a lot of weight as well, so am just assessing my health generally and always thought my periods were normal, but perhaps they are slightly irregular.

From what I've read, most women have periods that vary by anything from 2-4 days each cycle . The 28-day thing is an average.

Irregular is more like you go 3 weeks, 6 weeks, 8 weeks, 4 weeks, 6 weeks, and endless variations. In other words, either far more or far fewer cycles per year.

Thanks for the reply. I’ve been doing some more reading online and there seems to be a surprising lack of proper evidence/research into menstrual cycle variability in women, perhaps it shouldn’t be that surprising given the general lack of interest the medical establishment has in women’s health though. The main study that a lot of sites reference is a single study from Denmark in 1992. (abstract here) that found nearly 30% of women has a variation of cycle length of >14 days, and that this was more common in lower social classes as well. One more recent study from USA in 2004 (abstract here) reports 46% of women have a cycle variation of >7 days and 20% of >14 days.

Both studies look like they probably have flaws but I’ve only read the abstracts. There seems a paucity if published data, but at least from these it seems my 8 day variation is not unusual at all which is reassuring. When reading people talking about being 1/2 days late it makes it sound like the norm is having cycles that run like clockwork, clearly that’s not the case!

I'm post meno now but did have 40 yrs of periods. They were always what I'd call regular but that was always 2-4 days either side of what was normal for me. Yes, some were bang on 30 days at times, but other months could be 29, 31, 32, and so on. I tended to have longer cycles right up to my late 40s. Usually never under 30 days and sometimes 35 days in my late teens and early 20s.

I've always had what I would call irregular periods. When I was last tracking them they were anything from 31 days to 58 days. 31 being an unusually short cycle for me and 58 being long, but not excessively so. There was not real norm as such and they could be anywhere in between those numbers. However I am also perfectly healthy and have managed to conceive very easily 6 times.

I think there is an issue with the so called average, because for many women that isn't the case, and it doesn't mean there is something wrong with them.

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

I could go months without a period and infact have never had a regular cycle. This all started from onset of menses and in my case there was a cause - polycystic ovarian syndrome. This caused me problems in conceiving.

A "normal" cycle is a cycle....with less than 4 days of variation from month to month.
What are you basing that statement on though? That is what I found repeated over and over from a lot of sources, which is why I tried to find the research it is based on, and there seems to be a distinct lack of it (evidence/research).

If (at least) 1 in 5 women have cycle variations of >14 days, and nearly half of all women have variations of >7days, should we really be stating that ‘normal’ is a variation of

@StarJasmine

and there seems to be a distinct lack of it (evidence/research)

Well, that's because most research is funded by a) drug companies and b) to find a cure/ treatment.

If a woman has irregular periods, it's not an illness or something that needs treating unless it's PCOS.

If you want to conceive there are various ways to check your ovulation timing but most experts would suggest lots of sex, every other day throughout the cycle.

Anything after 35 days apparently but I think it's more if that is irregular for you. For example, mine used to be every 37 days up until I was 21 and went on the pill and that was just the norm for me. Just came off the pill at 30 - hoping I have 37 day cycles again xD no periods for 5 weeks n 2 days would be fecken awesome! xD

Yours sound regular to me. Not many people will have them to the exact day. I call mine pretty regular and they range from around 30-45 days. Before kids, I could go up to 60 odd days etc. I got pregnant first cycle of trying with both of my kids so at least it was never an issue