# Why Menstrual Cycle Awareness (MCA) is important during Perimenopause? ##### Menstrual Cycle Awareness for Perimenopause --- ![[Pasted image 20261024192305.png]] --- ## TL;DR - I still believe it’s worth getting to know your body, even now. - Tracking can help you know if you’re still ovulating, what your hormones are doing and where you are in perimenopause. - It can help you see when symptoms happen and whether changes you make are actually helping. - It’s also a chance to pause and reflect on your wants, needs, strengths and vulnerabilities in this life season. --- ## Transcript Right, so now we’re on to why menstrual cycle awareness is important during perimenopause. So as I’ve just said, you know, perimenopause is like climate change. When it can all come undone like that, isn’t awareness pointless? Someone has said to me before that it’s too late in the day. We’re going to be done with our menstrual cycle soon enough, you know, when we enter menopause. But there are a number of reasons to get to know your hormones, your menstrual cycle and your body. And I still believe it’s worth getting to know your body, even now. Okay. And again, as we’ve said, perimenopause may last seven to 14 years. It might be a long time. So you’ve still got time to get to know your cycle and your body. Some women still track in menopause, using the moon cycle to keep this cyclical way of being. Personally, I know I’ll turn more towards the moon when I reach menopause, because I still want to live a cyclical life. And it’s the cyclical life that I just think is so beneficial to us as women. We can’t be superwoman all the time; we have to do things differently. We try and be like men, don’t we? That’s the key thing. We try and do the same things day in, day out. But we’re not. We are so different. So, yeah. So why still do it? First, it helps you know if you’re still ovulating. So again, this will help you know where you are in your journey and, you know, where you are in those phases of perimenopause and if you are still producing progesterone. So this is what it will help you with. Second, you can see what your hormones are doing. So if you’re tracking things like your cervical mucus, then that can help you know what is going on with your oestrogen levels. That’s something I’ve shared previously in a blog. And again, you can find that on my website. If you’re tracking your basal body temperature, that can help you, again, know if you’re still ovulating and producing progesterone. I’ve got blogs on my website that can help you get to know your menstrual cycle. So the other thing is you can know which phase of perimenopause you are in. So as I’ve already mentioned, you know, you can get to know whether you’re in early perimenopause, the menopause transition or late perimenopause. That’s another way it can help. And I just think it’s really handy and it just helps us to align more with what is going on in our body. So the other thing is that we can track symptoms and when they occur. So if you have symptoms, do you know when your symptoms occur? You know, if you’re having, say, migraines or headaches, are they before your period? Are they after your period? Are they mid-cycle? Because knowing this means you may be able to identify what will actually help you to help with them. Tracking symptoms can also be a starting point if you need help further down the line, say from your GP. So it’s helpful to know when the symptoms occur in your cycle, you know, whether they’re cyclical and where they fall. That can help you work out what treatment might help. Another reason to track is to see whether the changes you make help your symptoms. So if you’re having symptoms and you do something different to help it, whether it’s taking a medication, whether it’s getting more sleep, getting more exercise, whatever it is, we need the before and after. So if you’re tracking, you can see whether what you’re doing is actually helping. And also tracking can help us know who we are in this life season. So this is with regards to tracking your wants and your needs and your strengths and your vulnerabilities and your values. And again, your menstrual cycle can become this spiritual practice, you know, especially during perimenopause. You know, it can give us a chance to pause and reflect about who we are right now.