Cycles getting shorter

[Katt2275]

The past few months, I have noticed that my cycles have been getting shorter. June was 29 days, July was 26, and August was only 24. They have always varied some, but never as short as lately. Have any of you had this happen? I'm wondering if it's because of my age.

Atomic, What do you think?


Thanks!

[GirlieCat]

Are you taking any meds or supplements besides folic?

[Girlieplease]

This sort of happened to me, but it was my lp that shortened. So some months I had a long cycle were I did not o until day 22 but then got my period 7 days later. Am either pregnant or have a longer lp this month as am 13 dpo what has made the difference for me is changes to diet, making sure I stuck to the upper limits of the le diet because some days I was barely earing 1000 calories and then exercising. I think I read atomic say, your body shortens your cycles in that case to prevent pregnancy, I probably would have stopped ovulating if I continued, hope you get some answers soon and good luck x o

[atomic sagebrush]

I am having the same thing but I'm several years older than you. The problem is 3 months alone is not enough to draw a conclusion really. If you're not dieting too strictly and are not on any herbs I would assume one of two things - that it is just natural variation and has probably happened before, and since you weren't TTC you just didn't notice, or that it is age related.

If you give me a rundown of everything you're taking (and please include even benign seeming things because even some random things like green tea and B vitamins can mess with cycle) I can tell you if any of them are possibly affecting cycle.

[atomic sagebrush]

This sort of happened to me, but it was my lp that shortened. So some months I had a long cycle were I did not o until day 22 but then got my period 7 days later. Am either pregnant or have a longer lp this month as am 13 dpo what has made the difference for me is changes to diet, making sure I stuck to the upper limits of the le diet because some days I was barely earing 1000 calories and then exercising. I think I read atomic say, your body shortens your cycles in that case to prevent pregnancy, I probably would have stopped ovulating if I continued, hope you get some answers soon and good luck x o

I do want to clarify 2 things.

1)1000 calories is NOT LE Diet. It is a starvation level of cal intake that I have never recommended and is below even the absolute lowest intake (and I realize you know this now Girlieplease but your post may have confused others who read it) The absolute minimum intake is 1200-1500 cals and I think only about 5% of all swayers should go that low (people who are very petite and may only eat 1500 a day normally, people who have lots of weight to lose, and a handful of those with moderate to severe PCOS) I do not want anyone doing exercise to eat 1200-1500 unless they have quite a bit of weight to spare. Most people will be on 1500-1800 cals a day. A larger minority (maybe 25-30%) will need to up this to 1800-2000 (anyone breastfeeding, doing a lot of exercise, those who are losing too much weight or have already lost as much as they can spare, and those who are very tall, like 5-10 and up). 1800-2000 is what I call upper levels. I think it is a good idea for everyone to start off 1800-2000 and see what happens. You can always reduce with time. It's much better to start off eating more than you think you'll need and cut back, then to start too low, lose too much weight, and make your cycle go nuts.

2)Your body shortening your cycle and esp. LP IS a primitive form of birth control. That having been said, as we age many times our cycles get shorter (particularly the follicular phase, from AF-O) for the opposite reason, to give an INCREASED chance of conception since you're rapidfiring more eggs. So just a shorter cycle alone is not necessarily your body dialing it back on fertility, if you go from Oing on CD 16 to CD 11 and you're 45 years old it may be a "last hurrah" of trying to pop out as many eggs as possible. That really is more for everyone's curiosity than any reason, just find it interesting.

[Girlieplease]

I do want to clarify 2 things.

1)1000 calories is NOT LE Diet. It is a starvation level of cal intake that I have never recommended and is below even the absolute lowest intake (and I realize you know this now Girlieplease but your post may have confused others who read it) The absolute minimum intake is 1200-1500 cals and I think only about 5% of all swayers should go that low (people who are very petite and may only eat 1500 a day normally, people who have lots of weight to lose, and a handful of those with moderate to severe PCOS) I do not want anyone doing exercise to eat 1200-1500 unless they have quite a bit of weight to spare. Most people will be on 1500-1800 cals a day. A larger minority (maybe 25-30%) will need to up this to 1800-2000 (anyone breastfeeding, doing a lot of exercise, those who are losing too much weight or have already lost as much as they can spare, and those who are very tall, like 5-10 and up). 1800-2000 is what I call upper levels. I think it is a good idea for everyone to start off 1800-2000 and see what happens. You can always reduce with time. It's much better to start off eating more than you think you'll need and cut back, then to start too low, lose too much weight, and make your cycle go nuts.

2)Your body shortening your cycle and esp. LP IS a primitive form of birth control. That having been said, as we age many times our cycles get shorter (particularly the follicular phase, from AF-O) for the opposite reason, to give an INCREASED chance of conception since you're rapidfiring more eggs. So just a shorter cycle alone is not necessarily your body dialing it back on fertility, if you go from Oing on CD 16 to CD 11 and you're 45 years old it may be a "last hurrah" of trying to pop out as many eggs as possible. That really is more for everyone's curiosity than any reason, just find it interesting.

Thanks atomic, it is very interesting, I had hoped that I would communicate to people who were the above post the importance of sticking to the limits as it might have saved me some months of frustration. Am not great at communicating in these post, but sure at least it afforded you the opportunity to remind people, sorry if my post was misleading, was not my intention!

[atomic sagebrush]

Oh goodness no need to apologize for that - just keep in mind I have seen a jillion people confused over a post they read and so I like to be proactive to head off any possible source of confusion before it causes trouble. We have people here from around the world so there is also the language issue to consider and it occured to me that mentioning upper limits of diet in conjunction with mentioning 1000 cals would possibly cause trouble later on so wanted to go over it for anyone else reading the thread.