Irregular Period

How much have you thought about your periods? When you are trying to get pregnant, your period can turn from a monthly nuisance to the focus of your concentration. Having an irregular period can cause frustration when you are trying to get pregnant because understanding your cycle is an integral part of your future success with conception!

In order to define an irregular period, you should know what a regular cycle is first. Many women do not have a cycle that lasts 28 days even though this is considered the “perfect cycle.” Some women see a 20-day period, while others have one every 35 days. Each woman is unique, so the best way to tell your cycle is to keep a chart.

Roughly 30 % of women experience an irregular period on average. An irregular period is anything from a shorter or longer menstrual cycle to late or early periods, bleeding between periods, missed periods, continuous periods or having two periods in one cycle. As you can see, all of these different possibilities can make getting pregnant a little trickier than you might have first thought!

So what are the factors that can cause an irregular period? Irregular periods are essentially the result of hormones that have been thrown out of balance for whatever reason. If you are stressed, have anxiety or have changed your typical routine, your hormones can get out of sync and cause a late or missed period. Some other common problems might include:

* Exercise – Everything in moderation is the saying and it’s very true with exercise. If you have been intensely exercising, the result may be an irregular period
* Menarche – defined as a girl’s first period, menarche is the stage when your body is just starting to menstruate. It can take up to 3 years before the body settles down into a normal pattern.
* Diet – if you are losing weight rapidly or have lost too much weight, you can struggle with an irregular period. If you have anorexia or bulimia, you will frequently not have a period at all.

If you have PCOS or polycystic ovarian syndrome, you will also have irregular periods. The periods that do occur will have heavy bleeding. If you are trying to get pregnant with PCOS, this situation can make your attempts to conceive even more troublesome and can lead to complications. For this reason, most women with PCOS will receive medication in order to induce their ovulation and put them on a regular cycle schedule. If you want to try a more “natural” approach, check out this program: PCOS Help

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