Is This Considered Irregular?
QUESTION
Dear Midwife,
They say a cycle is 28 days. Do you calculate the first day you get your period to first day of the next month's period to get this number? If I sometimes get my period one or two days earlier, is that considered irregular? Thanks.
ANSWER
Yes, you calculate from the first day of one period to the first day of the next to determine cycle length. A couple of days either way is not considered irregular.
-- Cynthia, CNM
Cynthia Flynn
Cynthia Flynn, CNM. PhD, is the General Director of the Family Health and Birth Center which provides prenatal, birth, postnatal, gynecological and primary health care to underserved women and their families in Washington, D.C. Recently Cynthia served as Associate Professor of Nursing at Seattle University. There she not only taught, but remained in full scope clinical midwifery practice at Valley Medical Center where she cared for pregnant and birthing women, and practices well-woman gynecology, family planning, and treatment of sexually transmitted diseases.
Cynthia founded Columbia Women's Clinic and Birth Center, where she took care of pregnant women and infants up to two weeks of age and attended both birth center and hospital births. Before Cynthia earned her CNM, she worked as a registered nurse in labor and delivery and postpartum and is a certified Doula and Doula trainer.
