When most people hear the word “Ovatel,” they think about getting pregnant or TTCing. The truth is that Ovatel in conjunction with MyCycleDiary can tell you so much more about your overall health. There are many reasons you would want to track your cycles. The most important is disease. There are many disorders that can throw off your cycle and you want to catch them early.
Using Ovatel and MyCycleDiary to track your cycles each month is very easy and will allow you to spot any changes that could mean that you are in need of medical treatment.
How to Chart Your Monthly Cycles
Charting your monthly menstrual cycles is actually very easy. There are many ways to do it, but there is a minimum amount of information you will definitely need. The more you have, the more complete your chart will be.
You need to know the first day of your period. This is the first day of real bleeding. This means that you actually have more than just spotting and it has to be before 5 PM your time. If you begin to bleed after 5 PM, then you will count your first day – cycle day 1 – as the next day. This is important, as it will tell you how long each of your cycles are. They should be relatively equal in length. While you may vary by 1-2 days, it should not be too much more or less.
Using your MyCycleDiary chart, you will want to mark down your period. You will also want to use the Ovatel to keep track of not only your fertility, but your estrogen. There are many types of disorders and diseases that will cause a surge in estrogen at odd times, or not allow you to have any surge at all. Mark down on your chart when you get ferning and when you do not. This will be very handy if you ever have to bring your charts to your doctor.
Another great charting tool is basal body temping – BBT. How this works is you get a special thermometer called a basal body thermometer and you will take your temperature each morning the moment you wake up. You need to be sure that you do not do anything at all before you take your temperature. This is the only way to get accurate results. Chart the resulting temperature on your MyCycleDiary and that will tell you if you ovulated and got a progesterone surge.
What Charting Will Tell You
There are so many things that charting can tell you, depending on what you chart. The more information you put into your chart, the more information you will gain from it. You can put in your cervical position and mucus, mood, symptoms, and sleep deprivation. This will allow you to know what effects your cycles and what does not.
Charting long term tells you many things. It can let you know if your thyroid is low or high, whether you have PCOS or Endo, if your hormones are off, and if your cycles are regular. When something suddenly changes in your cycle and you see it repeat for more than 3 cycles, you will want to take your charts to your doctor and have testing done. This will help you determine what is wrong and what the best course of action is to fix it fast.
Charting while on birth control can also tell you if you are breaking through. Often times you will release an egg on birth control, this can be very disturbing. If you see that you have a ferning pattern on your Ovatel, you can avoid sex to be sure you do not get pregnant. This can be very helpful if you are not choosing to get pregnant.