The Menstual Cycle Calendar

My GYN had me track my menstrual cycles after I found out I had uterine fibroids. The object of using this menstrual cycle calendar was to see when my menstrual cycle began, when it ended, whether the bleeding was heavy, normal or light, and to see the distance between each cycle.


Growing up I had had painful cramping during that time of the month. Eventually as an adult, my menstrual cycle normalized. My menstrual cycles were always regular in that they came at the same time. From time to time, I'd just put a note on my regular calendar of when my menstrual cycle began and when it ended.



A menstrual cycle calendar is different. The menstrual cycle calendar I used had all twelve months on it lined up in rows with 31 days acting as each month's columns. It looks like that so you can see your cycle's patterns on a monthly basis side by side. Each day of the month was essentially a box. There are instructions on the calendar which tell you to note the day of the month the cycle begins and when you note it, color in the box to denote the extent of the bleeding. The way you colored in the box showed how heavy your menstruation was.



This menstrual cycle calendar helped me and my GYN determine if my menstrual cycle was affected by the uterine fibroids. I'm not a physician but as a patient going through this, I do recommend getting and using a menstrual cycle calendar if you notice that your cycles and/or your bleeding is not normal. In the next blog, I'll tell you the advantages I saw from using a menstrual cycle calendar.

Thedy

The Patch or Uterine Fibroids?

As I said in my previous blog, I was on the Patch. The Patch was my preferred choice of birth control to use so that I could use Accutane, a very strong medication for the treatment of severe acne. I was on the Patch for a couple of months I believe.

I'm not sure how long afterwards that I noticed it but I did notice it: break through bleeding or spotting. When I should have been off my period, I was experiencing spotting. I was told spotting sometimes happens with using the Patch (again, consult YOUR doctor on any of your symptoms and get proper medical advice). Spotting had never before been a problem for me. So it was a good chance that since I also had never used the Patch before, that the two were linked. But my GYN and I weren't sure whether my spotting was from using the Patch, from possibly not putting the Patch on the day I needed to replace it, or whether it was coming from the fibroids. I was hoping that the spotting was from using the Patch and not from the fibroids. My hope was that if I stopped using the Patch, then presumably, the spotting would stop too. So I was advised to temporarily stop using the Patch just to find out. Consequently, I also had to stop using Accutane, which was clearing up my acne. (see my first blog on this story).

The results: The spotting did stop after I temporarily stopped using the Patch so I discontinued using the Patch completely. Though the spotting stopped, my GYN still wanted to make sure that my menstrual cycle was otherwise regular and that the uterine fibroids I had were still asymptomatic, so she gave me a menstrual cycle calendar.

I'll tell you more about the menstrual cycle calendar in future blogs.