A healthy menstrual cycle can last anywhere from 21-34 days, and actually only about 18% of people who menstruate have a 28-day cycle.

It is important to highlight that while everybody’s cycle is unique, your cycle should always be regular for you. A menstrual cycle that fluctuates massively in length from cycle to cycle or causes unnatural pain is not healthy and should be looked into further to consider the possibility of PCOS or other conditions such as endometriosis.

Your pregnancy window is about 5 days; ovulation lasts for 24 hours and sperm can survive for up to 5 days, so you absolutely cannot get pregnant on every day of your cycle. Once ovulation is finished, it’s done. Shop is shut for another however many days.

If you have a shorter cycle, then of course you may have more opportunities to ovulate and therefore conceive across a calendar month.

Hormonal birth control has various ways of preventing pregnancy, either through preventing ovulation or reducing the likelihood of sperm reaching the egg. It does not regulate your menstrual cycle, because it contains synthetic versions of the real hormones your body produces, and therefore your so-called “period” is actually a withdrawal bleed that occurs when you take a break from the hormones.

Since this is controlled by the number of pills you take, that bleed with become extremely regular and line up with the conventional “28-day rule”. In many cases, semi-permanent controls like the implant or coil completely remove bleeds.

Periods don’t have to be painful, but if they are it can be a useful symptom!

Cramps are a result of uterine muscles contracting to shed the lining; depending on the levels of inflammation within the uterus this may be more or less painful, and it can change from cycle to cycle for the same person. A particularly late period caused by illness or high stress levels could be more painful as the lining may have built up more than usual. If you consistently have extremely painful cramps that render you unable to perform day to day activities, it’s time to chat to a specialist.

Conditions like PCOS or endometriosis inflame the local area in and around the uterus, so periods are typically more painful for people who suffer with these conditions than for those that don’t.

Do you find you often spend a few days highly strung and irritable AF, before your period arrives and the penny drops? Imagine being able to predict that.

You need to track your full menstrual cycle for it to have a meaningful impact.

Incorrect - they are very much affected by your cycle. Most modern training information we have (especially most of what is touted on social media) has been designed for, and by, men. Which means that in a biological sense, it just doesn’t make sense for women to train 5 days out of 7, have two rest days, and eat the same foods every day. More than boring, it’s not suitable for most people’s lives.

Just because we are able to do everything that men can do, doesn’t mean we should do it in the same way. We operate on a separate clock, with our restful and energetic periods woven naturally into our menstrual cycles.

Your body has two key functions:

1. Survival

2. Reproduction

If your body is not in a fit state to reproduce or survive pregnancy (possibly due to a low body fat percentage) then your body shuts off the gateway to reproduction by eliminating the possibility of pregnancy and suppressing ovulation. Your menstrual cycle is considered one of the vital signs of good health. Visible abdominals are not; in fact, athletes who train and compete at high levels will often experience amenorrhea (the loss of menstruation), because while they are excellent examples of optimal performance, that does not necessarily imply optimal health.

**exemptions from this include specific types of birth control that eliminate periods altogether