CD39.

And no AF.

I have an appt. with my doctor now (in a couple weeks). This is just unreal. I spent last week dealing with EVERY AF symptom in the world except actual AF. The bloating, cramps, nausea, lightheadedness and fatigue all stopped yesterday. Just like my period would have had I had one.

I made the appt. Friday after I was officially late even for me and 3 BFNs.

Something strange occurred to me though. Hear me out and I hope the doctor will as well because I think it makes a difference for me anyway...

I do not associate with any ovulating women in my day to day life. There are 5 women in my office. 1 is post menopausal, 1 is peri-menopausal, 1 is pregnant (so not ovulating anymore) and 1 is likely peri-menopausal as she is nearing 50 herself and then me.

Me and the pregnant girl ended up with synched up cycles (we were within a 2-3 day window of each other). Now she's pregnant and I have been having longer and longer cycles since!

My MIL is probably beginning menopause as well (though she would never speak to me about it). After that, all my other friends are either pregnant or about to hit menopause. Not a single woman I regularly see is ovulating/having a period!



I've always been sensitive to other women's cycles and recall that when I first became pregnant with both DCs, all the younger female coworkers also experienced a missed or long cycle as well. It sounds a little odd, but maybe the dr. can do something to help.

Anyone else notice or experience this?

Re: CD39.

Hmmm..interesting theory. I would assume your body would know what to do regardless, but I would be curious to know what the doc would say.
Did you recently come off BCP? I'm on my 2nd cycle after the pill. My first cycle was 51 days. Now I'm on CD35.
Last week, I could've sworn I was getting AF at any minute but she never came. Then the symptoms went away.
Today I'm feeling a little crampy. SO frustrating! I would've stopped the pill earlier if I knew it would take this long to go back to normal.

Re: CD39.

I found this article that relates to your theory.

"I know this sounds crazy but I know when my menstrual period is going to start because when my girlfriend at the office starts her period mine will always come the next day." Sound familiar? First of all, no, you are not crazy, and without a doubt this is exactly what is happening. Second, with a little bit of knowledge about menstrual cycles you can understand exactly how this works. Just like every magic trick has a logical explanation, this common phenomenon can also be understood.

Knowledge of the Menstrual Cycle

To begin with, menstrual cycles do not have to be 28 days to be normal. In fact, in a series of classic studies by Vollman in 1977 on more than 31,000 menstrual cycles, fewer than 13% were exactly 28 days. Normal menstrual cycles are thought to fall between 24 and 38 days with greater instability being noted as a woman ages.

There are two phases of the menstrual cycle: pre-ovulation, and post-ovulation. Starting with the first day of the menstrual period, everything that happens up to ovulation (the release of the egg) is part of the pre-ovulation phase. Therefore, everything that happens after ovulation up to the beginning of the next menstrual period is part of the post-ovulation phase. The most important thing to remember is this: whereas the number of days AFTER ovulation is relatively constant (approximately 2 weeks), the number of days BEFORE ovulation is highly variable.

What does this mean? This means that if the menstrual cycle was short, then the pre-ovulation phase was short. For example, ovulation occurred 8 days after the menstrual cycle started (pre-ovulation phase = 8), the next menstrual period was 14 days later (post-ovulation phase = 14), and the total length of the cycle was 22 days (8 + 14). Likewise, if a menstrual cycle became really long, then it just took longer to ovulate. For example, pre-ovulation 26 + post-ovulation 14 = a cycle length of 40 days.

The most amazing thing about all of this is that if a woman can learn when she becomes fertile and when she ovulates (something that is easy to learn how to observe) then she can PREDICT the exact day that the next menstrual period is going to start – two weeks in advance!

What Makes Cycles Vary?

The winner is… STRESS! There are many things that can cause menstrual cycle variation such as medication, hormones, weight loss, weight gain, etc., but by far, the major influence is stress. The main effect of all of these things is that it takes longer to reach ovulation. Stress delays ovulation! The creator of the female body was a genius because if you think about it, the woman's body will naturally delay ovulation if a she has way too much stress, becomes ill, or chemically imbalanced-not a good idea to get pregnant under these circumstances!

Putting it All Together

So what do women who menstruate at the same time every month have in common? The stress pattern. In the above example, these two women both work in the same environment. As such, they have common stressors such as project deadlines, renewal of contracts, etc. The same story is frequently heard among women who live in a dorm together in a university. Once again, the stress environment is the common factor such as, quarterly exams, midterms, finals, etc. During times of stress, ovulation is delayed. When the stressors disappear, ovulation occurs and the menstrual periods begin approximately 2 weeks later.

When it comes to the menstrual cycle, there is no shortage of myths. There are so many, in fact, that writing articles such as this one could easily become a full time job!





Very interesting.....

Re: CD39.

I have been off BC for 7 months. My periods were never "regular" then either. I was on Nuvaring and the darn thing fell out all the time (either from BD or it would just come out) and my cycles were always screwed up from it. The cycles it did stay in, I still wasn't having 28 day cycles. I was having 29-31 day cycles. But since coming off the ring, they have been 33-35...and now, 39 days.

They have been increasingly longer since my coworker became pregnant.

I have always conformed to the office/workplace cycle. When I started at this office, the pregnant co-worker and I were off by about 2 weeks. Slowly the two of us became within a couple of days.

Whether it's all just some phenomenon or coincidence, it happens to me for sure and it's apparently altering my cycles in a lousy way now. And it isn't even a mental thing because she told us all late because she found out really late that she is pregnant and my cycles were already off.