Menstrual Cycle / Fertility Tracking Calendar Tips

  • MyMonthlyCycles automatically calculates your average cycle length based on your menstrual cycle tracking history. Your average is shown on the menstrual calendar's Cycle Dashboard. If you think your average is not correct, there are several possible reasons, and solutions, as outlined below.
  • If you occasionally have irregular cycles, you can exclude these irregular cycles from your average cycle length calculation. Use My Preferences to setup your exclusion rules. See the help file on the My Preferences page for complete details.
  • On the calendar, CD means Cycle Day: where you are in your menstrual cycle. So, for instance, if you are viewing your current cycle and CD 20 displays, it's been 20 days since the first day of your last period, and this is the 20th day of your cycle.
  • To quickly goto a past menstrual cycle, use the Past Cycles dropdown box, to the right of the tracking calendar, which lists the first day of each of your past cycles.
  • You can setup MyMonthlyCycles reminders (Remind Me! from left menu) to receive personal monthly alerts about your cycles!
  • Use MyMonthlyCycles to track your period each time you get it. That way, your average cycle length calculation will be accurate, and your reminders will be sent since they will be triggered off your last period! An easy way to remember to track is to use the email reminder Forgot to Track.
  • MyMonthlyCycles supports tracking perimenopause symptoms. This feature is initially disabled. To enable perimenopause symptom tracking, use My Preferences and set Show Perimenopause Symtoms to Yes. Once enabled, you can track perimenopause symptoms on the Track Event Main page.

Possible Reasons Your Average Cycle Length (acl) is not Correct.

Below we outline the most common issues why acl is incorrect, and how to identify where the problem(s) are. Solutions for resovling, whether due to data entry error or cycle activity, are located at the end of this section.

But first, definitions: Cycle length is the number of days from the first day of your period up to and including the day before your next period starts. Average cycle length (acl) is the average of all the cycles* you've tracked in MyMonthlyCycles. Because all of your cycles factor into your acl, if you have one or more cycle that is significantly longer or shorter than usual, it can affect your acl.

*If you setup exclusion rules on My Preferences, cycles that satisfy your exclusion rules are not included when average cycle length is calculated.

  1. If your acl is longer than it should be, you likely didn't track several periods, and that large gap of several months (or years!) is causing the problem.

    Example: you tracked your periods for March and April 2004. Then the next period you tracked was in September 2004 onward. The "cycle" bewtween your April and September period would be taken into account when calculating your acl, thereby causing the problem.

    Recording your last period before pregnancy and then the next period which was after childbirth can also cause problems with your acl.

    You may have had one or more irregular cycles that were longer than your usual length.

  2. If your acl is shorter than it should be, you may have tracked some periods by tracking just the first and last day of your period. Because MyMonthlyCycles auto-detects the first day of your period, MyMonthlyCycles will assume your last day is actually a new period, and this causes short cycles to be factored into your acl.

    Example: Your last period started October 9 and went til October 12 . You entered a period event record for October 9th and then again for October 12th. You didn't enter a period event for October 10th or 11th. MyMonthlyCycles assumed that October 12th was a new period and therefore a new cycle. The previous "cycle" (Oct 9-11) was just 3 days. It will most definitely cause acl to be wrong.

    Another reason is that you may have had one or more irregular cycles that were shorter than your usual cycle length.

  3. Average Cycle Length can only be calculated if you have put in at least the first day of 2 menstrual periods. If you've only tracked 2 periods, acl is actually just that 1 cycle's length as there's not enough information to create an average. If you've only tracked 1 period, there's not enough information to calculate acl. Your average cycle can not be calculated if all of your cycles are excluded due to your min/max exclusion rules (on My Preferences).

If the problem is due to data entry, you need to identify where your cycle tracking went astray. There are several ways to do so:

  • You can quickly review all periods entered by viewing the Past Cycles dropdown box on the tracking calendar, which lists the first day of each of your periods.

  • Or, use MyMonthlyCharts Menstrual Cycle Chart & Report which provides a very detailed report of all your cycles and will easily show which cycles are causing the problems.

  • You can use the Period Tracker Calendar. Switch to 12 month view so you can see many menstrual cycles at once. Note the cycle day count, which will enable you to easily see the length of each menstrual cycle.

  • On either the Period Calendar or the Menstrual Calendar, make note of the Cycle Day, particularly the cycle day number on the day before the first day of any period. That tells you the cycle's length, so if it doesn't look right to you, look at the adjacent periods.

Solutions to correct ACL:

  • If the acl inaccuracy is due to cycle activity such as occasional irregularity or pregnancy, you can use Exclusion Rules on the My Preferences screen to exclude cycles that are longer or shorter than usual from your Average Cycle Length calculation.

    If you recorded the last period before you were pregnant, and then your next period after your baby was born, you should use the exclusion rule "Exclude menstrual cycles that are greater than {you fill in} days". You'll want to select a value that's greater than your usual cycle length. So, if your cycle is generally 25-29 days, you might select 35 or 40. That will not only exclude from your acl the time when you were pregnant, but if you occasionally have a longer than usual cycle.

  • If acl is wrong because you have several months where you skipped tracking your periods, either track those periods in MyMonthlyCycles, or remove the earlier period prior to the gap. If you prefer to keep those periods, then you need to use Exclusion Rules on the My Preferences page.

  • If you tracked some periods by adding the first and last day of some periods, you need to fix this by either tracking just the first day of your period, or by filling in all days of your period. You can do this easily on MyMonthlyCycles Period Calendar.

    For complete details, refer to Can I track just the first day and last day of my period?, (quick answer - No!). Please click to that document, where you'll find lots of details and examples!