How to Chart Cycle Count Results

There are different ways and degrees to which you can chart your menstrual cycle in order to track regularity, determine fertile periods and detect pregnancy. Charting your cycle helps you to better understand your body and take control of your birth control or your fertility, and it also will help you be prepared when your doctor needs information on your menstrual cycle. The most important element to track is the first day of your period, but you can also track your daily basal body temperature upon waking, the consistency of your cervical discharge and the days on which you have sexual intercourse.

Things You'll Need

• Digital thermometer
• Day planner or calendar
• Graph paper or electronic spreadsheet
• Pen
• Highlighter

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Instructions

Collecting Your Data

• 1

  Write down the first day of your menstrual cycle right away. You can do this discretely by drawing a small heart on the date in your day planner or on your calendar.

• 2

  Take your temperature every day when you wake up but before getting out of bed. Basal body temperature rises slightly just before or during ovulation, so charting it can help you predict when you ovulate.

• 3

  Take note of your vaginal discharge on the toilet paper once a day when you wipe after urinating. Your vaginal discharge changes throughout your cycle. It tends to be more dry after menstruation, getting thinner and clearer as your cycle goes on until it becomes watery and abundant right before and during ovulation.

Charting Your Cycle

• 4

  Get a piece of graph paper or open a new document in an electronic spreadsheet. Your chart will have a vertical axis (for charting basal body temperature), a horizontal axis (for charting the date), and three lines below the horizontal axis for indicating cycle days, charting daily vaginal discharge and keeping track of days that you have intercourse.

• 5

  Label the columns on the horizontal axis with the date. There should be a column for each day of the month, so your chart will either have 28, 30 or 31 columns, depending on which month it is.

• 6

  Label the rows on the left vertical axis with body temperatures at .1 degree intervals. Start with 95.9 degrees F and go up to 96.7 degrees. There should be nine rows all together.

• 7

  Record your daily temperature on the chart by marking a dot where the date and temperature lines intersect.

• 8

  Label the line under the horizontal axis "cycle days." The first day of your cycle is the first day of your menstrual period. If you have already had your period this month, highlight the days of your period on the horizontal axis. Write "1" under the start date in the "cycle days" line and keep numbering the days until the start of your next period so that you will know on which day of your cycle you ovulate and how long your cycle lasts.

• 9

  Label the line under the "cycle days" line "D," which stands for discharge. On this line you will record every day the consistency of your vaginal secretions by writing "D" for dry, "M" for menses or menstrual period, "C" for creamy or sticky or "T" for thin, watery, stretchy discharge.

• 10

  Label the line beneath the "D" line "I" for intercourse. Simply write x's on the days that you have intercourse, or you can write AM or PM to indicate when you had intercourse.