For any woman, no matter the age, there is so much knowledge you can gain from learning to track your menstrual cycle, especially as you lean into your 30s. Understanding and charting your hormone cycle while tracking your menstrual cycle can be incredibly empowering for your health and well-being. As a naturopathic practitioner, I cannot stress enough the importance of tracking your menstrual cycle. Here are eight compelling reasons why charting your hormone cycle and tracking menstruation can be so beneficial:
- Hormonal Balance: By charting your hormone cycle, you gain valuable insights into your body's hormonal patterns. This understanding allows you to identify any imbalances or irregularities, providing a foundation for targeted interventions to promote hormone equilibrium.
- Fertility Awareness: Charting your hormone cycle and menstrual cycle offers valuable information about your fertile window. This knowledge is essential whether you're trying to conceive or practicing natural family planning methods to avoid pregnancy.
- Personalised Health Tracking: As a woman in her 30s, your body goes through unique changes. Charting your cycle enables you to personalise your health tracking and make informed decisions based on your body's specific needs at various stages of your menstrual cycle.
- Identifying Menstrual Irregularities: By tracking your menstruation, you can promptly identify any irregularities, such as changes in cycle length, abnormal bleeding, or PMS symptoms. Early detection allows for timely intervention and a proactive approach to your reproductive health.
- Natural Contraception: If you prefer a hormone-free contraceptive approach, tracking your menstrual cycle and using fertility awareness methods can be an effective, safe, and empowering way to prevent pregnancy.
- Uncovering Underlying Health Issues: Irregularities in your menstrual cycle can be indicative of underlying health issues. Charting your cycle can help identify potential concerns, prompting you to seek timely medical attention if necessary.
- Enhanced Self-Awareness: Monitoring your hormone cycle fosters a deep connection with your body and its natural rhythms. This self-awareness empowers you to embrace self-care practices aligned with your body's unique needs at different phases of your cycle.
- Holistic Approach to Wellness: As a naturopathic practitioner, I advocate for holistic well-being. Charting your hormone cycle and tracking menstruation aligns with this philosophy, allowing you to address your health from a whole-body perspective, considering the interplay between hormones, nutrition, lifestyle, and emotional well-being.
I encourage you to start charting your hormone cycle and tracking your menstrual cycle. It can be an enlightening and transformative journey, empowering you to take charge of your reproductive health and overall wellness.
So how do you do this, I usually recommend either the app FLO or Natural Cycles, especially the latter if used as part of natural contraception, as you can be checking your temperature every morning as part of tracking your basal body temperature. This gives us an accurate picture of your health as your morning temperature fluctuates with your fluctuating hormones (wild). To do this properly you need an ovulation thermometer which has 2 decimal points, I would suggest putting it right beside your head on a bedside table so that when you first wake, before you even get out of bed you check your temperature and put it into the app. Natural cycles will actually be able to tell you if you are in the danger zone for conception or not, or the other way around if you are trying to conceive. Knowledge is power ladies, it really is.
With this data if you have been noticing anything abnormal, basically anything other than slight discomfort, you can bring that info to your consultation with me and I can then base my treatment plan on what your hormones are doing.
I promise you the more you know about your body and your health the more empowered you will feel.