I get funny looks when I tell people that I track my periods using an online menstrual cycle website and that no, though it’s none of your business (although here I am, writing this blog!) I am not using it to get pregnant. I’m also not using it to coordinate when I should or shouldn’t wear my white pants (although that would be a convenient use of it as well). I simply think it’s interesting and convenient to track my cycles and since doing so I have learned so much about myself and my body.
If you’ve made it through to this paragraph already, I’m going to assume you’ve signed on for all TMI details of what online period trackers might involve. So, let’s delve a bit deeper, shall we?
I started using monthlyinfo.com about 7 years ago (although there are many other trackers, some more focused on fertility and charting for pregnancy), when I decided that I no longer wanted to take birth control pills. Since I could no longer rely on those little green sugar pills at the end of the pack that used to remind me of what was coming, I had to do something else. The information that I’ve gathered since then has been eye opening.
When I first started, wayyy back when I was still young and childless, living a life with an erratic schedule and some questionable habits (jager bombs anyone? ugh) my cycles were all over the map. 24 days, 40 days, 35 days. There was no rhyme or reason to them.
When my husband and I decided to have a baby I had been keeping track of my cycles for a few years already, and the program could tell me approximately what day I would ovulate, so we aimed for as many attempts in the fertile few days as we could. I knew I wanted to be pregnant and give birth in the spring, so I narrowed it down to a couple of months of trying for a baby. Happily, it took one month of trying and we were pregnant!
Once my cycles returned, about 10 months after my son was born (thank you breastfeeding!), I logged back into my monthly tracker to see that it had been 614 days since my last period! Hmm, somehow I hadn’t been feeling nostalgic for old Aunt Flo. But, alas she was back.
After a few months I noticed something really interesting- my cycles had become like clockwork. Almost exactly every 28 days. Sometimes I would be “late” at 30 days or early at 26 or 27, but gone were the days of the erratic cycles. Further to that, I soon realized that my cycles synced up exactly with the moon cycles- the way that women’s cycles used to do. I would ovulate with the full moon and my period would arrive with the new moon. I was floored.
It certainly wasn’t because I was getting more sleep- I wasn’t. It wasn’t because I changed my eating habits- I hadn’t. My bad habits weren’t gone- I had just switched jager for red wine. The only thing that had changed was that my body had gone through the process of pregnancy and birth, followed by months of breastfeeding and of course, I was now a mother. Well, when this idea really sunk in I was practically howling at the moon- that’s how in tune I felt with earth and other women and myself. It was at once hysterical and grounding.
Since then, I will often check in with the moon cycles to make sure that I am still following them the way I should be, earth goddess that I am, right?? It’s something that keeps me feeling connected to everything else, in this age of social disconnect I can always know that my body knows, without being told, that the earth is moving, that the seasons are changing. And I can plan accordingly for those two pre-period days when I become a dark, moody and sometimes, weepy mess. Dark chocolate and Netflix are prepared and my husband knows not to mess with me.
Interested in reading more? Here’s a great blog post I found from a fellow moon cycler about her discoveries on the benefits of being synced with the moon. You’ll also find this moon chart for 2015 helpful to see if your cycles follow the same flow as mine. Maybe they are reversed? I’d love to hear about your experiences with charting, tracking or syncing up with the moon. Let me know in the comments below!
