What is Menstrual Cycle Awareness and why should you care?

*hint* it's the magic key you've been looking for

If you were born into a body with a womb, you will have (or already have had) a menstrual cycle. This cycle is as old as humanity itself (older, if we count other mammals too) and affects half of the world’s population. Yet for a lot of women, it’s simply something that happens. Once a month, we get a period and the only time it has any meaning at all, is when sickness, disease or children come into the equation. Given that without a menstrual cycle, humanity would not be here, it boggles the mind that so few understand what it’s all about and, worse, that it’s something we’ve learned to be ashamed of. My work as a Menstrual Cycle Awareness Coach and Menstruality Mentor is to help turn that around.

So, what is menstrual cycle awareness?
Plainly put, menstrual cycle awareness (MCA) is the practice of learning about and monitoring your menstrual cycle. It’s a daily, self-led practice where you monitor which day and phase of your cycle you’re currently in, as well as your lived experience. It allows you to understand the fluctuations of your hormones, as well as the impact it has on your life that you can use to empower yourself in all sorts of ways from your professional to your personal life.

Is menstrual cycle awareness just about tracking your period?
There is so, so much more to your cycle than your bleed. It’s called a ‘cycle’ for a reason, because it’s a continuum that revolves around two main events: ovulation and menstruation. Tracking your period is a great start, but it doesn’t take the whole picture into account, and you cannot - repeat, cannot - accurately predict your period without knowing when you’ve ovulated (and even then, it’s never 100% accurate).

Why you should track ovulation, even if you’re not trying to get pregnant
For most women, ovulation only becomes important in the quest to have children. But knowing when you’re ovulating is equally as important if you’re trying to avoid getting pregnant and aren’t using birth control, as well as being a good indicator of how your cycle is going as a whole. A lot of women think they can fall pregnant on any given day because of the fact that we take contraception pills on a daily basis. In actual fact, you’re normally only fertile for a few days each cycle - around your ovulation (this does vary woman to woman, though). Your pill/hormonal contraception interrupts the process to fool your body and stops ovulation from happening.

So what happens during an average cycle?
The average cycle is around 28 days long (with day 1 being the first day of your period), but it can vary from 21-35 is considered normal, and the length of your cycle may change now and then throughout your life. Your cycle starts with menstruation, after which you enter your pre-ovulatory phase. Ovulation is the peak of your cycle, and the pre-menstrual phase comes before your next period, where the cycle starts again. These are four distinct, and different, phases of the cycle with different hormonal fluctuations and lived experiences.

What are the benefits of Menstrual Cycle Awareness?
At the minimum, understanding where you are in your cycle means you can have an overview of ovulation and menstruation, and the cycle of body signs that happen around these times. This can be really helpful if you’ve always thought you get yeast infections every month (which might actually just be your cervical mucus thickening around ovulation) or wondering why you get a monthly mini-depression right before your period starts. With each phase of the cycle having a different play on hormones, your entire system can be affected, from digestion to mindset. The reward of tracking your cycle means you can start to figure out when you’re more prone to bloating, for example (and give pasta a miss), or when you feel more confident and able to communicate clearly (and slay your work meetings).

Really, the benefits of MCA are endless, from being able to schedule your life to fit your energy levels, to highlighting and even dealing with issues like PCOS and endemetriosis. So much of MCA is about empowering yourself to know your body, inside and out, in a world where the intricacies of the female reproductive system have been largely ignored. Once you start to dig deeper, you’ll enter the realms of Menstruality - using your cycle as an innate spiritual practice.

Is it complicated and hard to do?
A daily check in to track your cycle can take as little as 1 minute and can be done anywhere, with just a pen and paper or your phone.

Simply make a note of:
- which day of your cycle you’re on
- how your body has felt that day - digestion, energy levels etc
- how your mental/emotional state has been

Where can I find out more?
You can get started with tracking your cycle by getting my step-by-step guide along with a free, printable tracker along with a toolkit of practices to help you find balance in your life, from yoga, to breathwork to journalling prompts. Sound good?

And if you haven’t already, don’t forget to subscribe for more!