How do you calculate your monthly cycle? - Dr. Phani Madhuri

The cycle duration is always calculated from the first day of the period to the next periods first day including the first day of both the cycles. So this is called as cycle duration. Why is it important to know the monthly cycle length? It is very important, because you can probably determine when you will ovulate and then you can try during that fertile period for a pregnancy or you could avoid an intercourse if you are trying to avoid a pregnancy during that fertile period. On an average most of these women will have a cycle duration of about 28 days. However any cycle length of 21 to 35 days is considered as normal. Lot of people also confuse for the number of days bleed as the cycle duration, which is actually not correct. The number of days to bleed is roughly about 3 - 5 days and that is not considered as a cycle length. Why to know the cycle duration is because most of the women feel that their cycle duration is roughly about 14 days or 2 weeks from the last menstrual period. Infact this could be correct in people who are having a 28 day cycle but it is not correct for most of the women who would not be having a cycle duration of 28 to 30 days. It is a retrograde finding wherein the ovulation happens 14 days prior to the next menstrual period and not 14 days after your previous periods. So when you know you cycle duration you will know roughly when you are ovulating and this could benefit most of us in determining the safe period in most of the cycles.