What Is the Actual Average?

Mine are always 29 or 30 days. I think like once it went 32 days but thats the longest my cycle has ever lasted. Stress is one thing that extends my cycle.

I'm a between 35 and 40 day'er right now, but it's been as much as months! It's my weight. It just seems to slow things down! All three of my babies have been birth control but just started working out, loosing weight (thus re-regulating my hormones) babies.

Just an fyi...tests at the Dollar Store are exactly the same as the expensive ones.

Knowing about other women s average cycles has nothing to do about your own cycles - and yours is what counts when you are trying to conceive.
Start charting your basal temperature changes - it will give you clues as to what's going on and when.
It wouldn't hurt to have a check up and have your thyroid checked.
If you are trying to conceive, start taking prenatal vitamins now.

You really need to keep track of whats going on some how. I would recommend an ovulation kit, even though your cycle is so variable. Actually because it is! You will just have to wait until your next period to start. They give you a ton of test sticks, so you should be fine. It was the only way I was able to figure it out for me! Now, after having my two children, I always know when I'm ovulating, w/o any test! Go figure! Wish I had known then! You may have to test more than one month to get an average, but there should be enough sticks in one kit to last you two months (or more) depending one when you do actually Ovulate. But, on the good side, you can try each time the test says yes! So you may not need too long! If you don't conceive the first time, I would keep testing, only b/c w/different amount of days, you may ovulate at different times each month. I know nothing about the whole basel temp. thing, so can't comment on that. Good luck! :)

You can get both pregnancy and ovulation test kits at the dollar store, so stock up! If I were you, I'd just do the ovulation kit for the whole cycle, every day, since your cycles seem to be out of whack. Also, pay attention to your body. When you are ovulating or about to ovulate, your cervical mucus will be slippery and stretchy, like egg white. It's only like that for the few days prior to ovulation, so when that shows up it's time to have sex!

Since you are so irregular right now, and I agree all the conception tools are ridiculously expensive, except the dollar store variety, which BTW work just as well....

I would suggest you go on-line and use an ovulation predictor with ALL the lengths you mention.

An important time frame to keep in mind is that it takes approximately, or some will suggest exactly, 2 weeks for the egg to release from the ovaries and travel down the fallopian tubes for before implantation or the start of menses.

The sure bet approach is to start having sex every other day starting 1 week after the start of your period and continue that for 10 days. That is only having sex 5x.

P.S. my cycles are only 21 days...my entire life it's been that way....i just hate it.

My cycle was like yours when on the pill, now it comes every 26 days or so. A good resource for tracking your cycle is fertilityfriend.com. They have a little tutorial and then you can track your temp. cervical mucus. etc. Just use the free version. I never really got into the habit of temping but it's pretty easy to observe cm. Good luck!

there are a lot of different things that can change a cycle. I am 30 years old with 2 kids. I have not been on any kind of birth control in about 7 years. Up until about a year ago I was exactally 28 days almost down to the hour! Now I am anywhere from 28-34 days. I am hypothyroid though too and I have been told that it can mess with my cycle. So, that and my age I guess is messing it up.

After either being on birth control, being pregnant or breastfeeding for 16 years, my body has finally gotten about a year & a half to just do its own thing. I am definitely right between the 27-29 day cycle mark.

With that being said, what anyone else's average is has absolutely no bearing on you trying to conceive it it's not YOUR average. Talk to your OBGYN & he/she should be able to explain when & how to begin using an ovulation kit based on your irregular cycles.

That is the average, nothing to do with birth control - birth control is trying to mimic that average. However, an average has nothing to do with you personally. Average is not another word that means typical. There is a wide range of average on either side of normal. If you have a 26 day cycle, a 26 day cycle, a 28 day cycle and then a 32 day cycle, you'll have an average of 28, which doesn't mean that your periods are regular, but your average for those 4 months is 28 days. Most women do not have absolutely regular periods, but most women also don't have cycles as irregular as yours.

Just wanted to let you know that in the over two years between my first baby being born and my second one being conceived I had a TOTAL of 4 periods, with absolutely no rhyme or reason. I know you are trying to plan, but I'm convinced these critters come on their own schedule :) Your hormones are probably a bit out of whack with all the changes, totally normal. If you are getting concerned, you could ask your doc about going on the pill for a few months to get back on schedule? I would just focus on "quality adult time" starting about a week after your period ends, whenever you have it. Best of luck!!

I've never had a regular cycle. Mine range from 32-45 days, with the occasional 60 day one thrown in for good measure. :\

When I had a really irregular cycle it was because my thyroid was low. You might want to have that checked.

Keep in mind that when one takes the pill their cycle isn't necessarily regulated. Their cycle is influenced by 21 days of either estrogen/progesterone or progesterone-only and then the last 7 days are typically placebo pills. This withdrawal of the progesterone from the body initiates the menstrual cycle.

I highly recommend reading Toni Weschler's Taking Charge of Your Fertility book and also www.fertilityfriend.com. Both will help answer your questions about why your period is the way it is along with how you can maximize your chances to recognize ovulation before it happens and attempt to conceive.

I have PCOS and conceived my second child doing basal body temperature and cervical mucus charting. I conceived on day 41 of my cycle and got a positive test 16 days post-ovulation (I had an idea it might be positive because my BBT hadn't dropped).

My OB/GYN says that the ovulation kits work really well. You start it the day after your period ends and keep going until it says you're fertile.

Give them a try. They even work with not so regular cycles.