Charting and long cycles

[annakiss]

Hi, I'm starting to chart tomorrow. I made my charts, ordered TCOYF, and have my thermometer all set. I'm also about to start the first day of a new cycle, which I can tell by light cramping the last few days. I have a paraguard IUD, so my periods are heavy and ridiculously long. I also know by looking at my calendar that my cycles seem to run at least closer to 30 days. I'm on day 29 (I think) now and haven't started a new cycle. Anyone ever chart with really long cycles? Does it effect anything? I thought that charting wouldn't be right for me because I seem to have irregular cycles, but I've decided to give it a go and see if maybe they just run a little long but still with some regularity.

I've always been underweight, which is something I can't help, so I've thought that maybe that has something to do with the apparent irregularity of my cycles. I was on the pill for 4 1/2 years and I went off thinking that my cycle might regulate itself now that I was older, but in the 9 month period after quitting, I'd only had four periods. Of course, thinking that I wasn't ovulating, I skipped using my diaphragm and wound up with DS. : SO anyone ever have irregular cycles, or think they do only to chart and realize they were wrong? I guess I just don't know how to do this yet, so I'm wondering how it works. Thanks if you can draw out some clear point from my babbling and give some info!

[Mavournin]

I'm also fairly new to charting, and in the past have had very irregular and very long cycles. I figured this might be a good way to keep tabs on what my body is doing. I think that there really isn't a problem with having long cycles other than it gets a little tedious to chart if you don't have much day to day change. (Like long anovulatory cycles from exclusive bfing.) But 30 days isn't terribly long. I think the range considered "normal" is 26-34 days.

I think charting is a learning process. I wish I would have done this when I was a teenager and bleed for 12 days a month, or right before I got pg with dd and only bled every 4 months. Maybe I wouldn't have questioned what was *wrong* with me so much. So much of what docs tell us about the way our bodies are *supposed* to work is bull. I'm sure that within a few months you'll discover some patterns in your cycle and it'll seem much less confusing.