# Getting Started With MCA ##### Menstrual Cycle Awareness for Perimenopause --- ![[Pasted image 20261024192338.png]] --- ## TL;DR - First, monitor your cycle: your bleed, symptoms and, if you want to go deeper, basal body temperature, cervical mucus and cervix position. - Second, decode what you’ve tracked. Look for patterns in ovulation, symptoms and your inner seasons. - Third, create your own menstrual cycle blueprint: who you are, what you need and what changes in each season. - Revisit your blueprint over time so you can see how things change during perimenopause. --- ## Transcript OK, so we’re on to getting started with menstrual cycle awareness. So this is a framework that I have developed over the years, starting with myself and one that has evolved as I’ve worked with more and more clients. So the first step is to obviously monitor your cycle. And this could be using an app or a diary, or you could download the free tracking templates that I have on my website. This is where you need to track your cycle. OK, so starting off with basic tracking, you know, you want to track your first day and your last day of your bleed. You want to track how long you’re bleeding for, how heavy or light your flow was, any spotting. You know, you’re mainly looking at your period, I think, for that bit. You’re also looking at your symptoms, so tracking your symptoms. So night sweats, migraines, anxiety, backache, joint or muscle pain, insomnia, basically anything that you find distressing. From that, I would highly recommend, and again, I’ve got a free menstrual cycle tracking kit, including templates and video guides and links to blogs to help you as well. I think advanced tracking, as I call it, is really, really freaking important. So you’re looking at your basal body temperature, your cervical mucus and your cervix positioning as well. From that as well, you know, going into that sort of deeper sense, you’re looking at identifying your strengths, identifying your vulnerabilities. And this is especially useful to know what your needs are in each of those seasons as well. So I highly recommend going through those free videos, those downloads, those templates. They’re all there ready for you to start tracking or monitoring your menstrual cycle. So that’s your first step. The second step is to decode your cycle. OK, so once you’ve completed a full menstrual cycle’s worth of tracking and monitoring, it’s time to decode what the information is telling you. After, say, three menstrual cycles’ worth of monitoring, you can start to discover patterns. I like the idea that once is chance, twice is coincidence and three times is a pattern. OK, so we’re looking at using that information to decode. Number one, we’re identifying if and when we ovulate. OK, number two, we’re looking at when we move into the different phases or seasons of the menstrual cycle. Number three, we’re identifying patterns in symptoms. And if you have, say, three cycles’ worth of tracking templates, identifying patterns works really well for that. And number four, we’re looking at our strengths, vulnerabilities and needs in each season. So again, we’re looking for patterns and decoding what is going on. But you can’t get to this point unless you’ve been tracking your cycle in the first place. First track your cycle; then decode what you’ve recorded. The third step is to create your blueprint. Now, obviously, once you have decoded your menstrual cycle, you could stop there and that’s absolutely fine. But if you want to go one step further, this is where you create your own menstrual cycle blueprint. You’re literally creating a document. It can be in your journal, on paper or in an app; it doesn’t matter. But you’re literally detailing who you are in each of those seasons. You know, what are your strengths, weaknesses? What days are you most likely to ovulate? How long is your luteal phase usually? You know, are there any special days in particular that stand out? Are there any troublesome days that stand out? We’re looking at, in each of the seasons, what do you need more of? What do you need less of? What can help you? What do you need to be careful of? And one way I’ve explained this to clients is, imagine that you’re giving this document to a friend. How would you describe who you are, what you need, and so on, to a friend? And I really love this part of the process because it helps us to sit down and pause and reflect on who we are. It shows how our personalities, motivations, dreams and goals change throughout the menstrual cycle. Because we do change, you know, we are literally a different woman in each of our seasons. And creating this blueprint can help us to understand ourselves so much more. Once we have this blueprint, we could create a new one each year. Maybe once a year, spend, say, three cycles monitoring your menstrual cycle, decoding it, and then creating your new blueprint of who you are right now. Because this will help you understand when things have changed, especially during perimenopause, and how they’ve changed as well. Now, a big part of perimenopause is dealing with symptoms. Although we can ease many of them ourselves, you know, for example, sleep more, eat better, exercise, you know, and obviously all of these can help with hormones and symptoms. Sometimes we’re going to need to go to the GP and ask for more help. So, using menstrual cycle awareness when communicating with medical professionals can be incredibly empowering.