# Tips on effectively communicating with medical professionals using MCA ##### Menstrual Cycle Awareness for Perimenopause --- ![[Pasted image 20261024192400.png]] --- ## TL;DR - Track your symptoms consistently, including when they happen, how severe they are and how they affect daily life. - Look for patterns and use clear, specific language when you talk to your GP. - Bring your notes, highlight the shit that disrupts your life most and prepare questions. - If you know something isn’t normal for you, be polite but firm. Advocate for yourself. --- ## Transcript Okay, here are some tips to help you make the most of this approach. When you need to go to your GP, the first thing is to track your symptoms consistently. So, if you track your daily symptoms, moods and energy levels across your cycle, you know, this creates a clear picture of patterns. And it helps medical professionals understand your unique experience. Include the severity, timing and effect of each symptom on your daily life; that can help massively. So, again, when you track consistently, you know, you’re building a map of what’s happening in your body. So, you know, you’re not just telling your GP, “I don’t feel well.” You’re showing them exactly how you don’t feel well. Okay, so that’s the first thing. So, track your symptoms consistently. Second point is to identify and highlight patterns. So, again, once you have a few months of data, review it for patterns, for example, maybe every time you hit the luteal phase, maybe it was around about day 17, 18 for you, you get hit with this, you know, this fatigue or anxiety or physical symptoms. Then if you can note any recurrent symptoms that impact your quality of life, this can be essential for diagnosing conditions like PMDD, you know, or endometriosis or hormonal imbalances, you know. So, again, knowing these patterns literally gives your medical team a clearer picture of what you’re actually going through. So, number three, use clear, specific language. Instead of general statements like “I feel bad once a month”, you can be specific. You could say, “During the luteal phase, around days 17 or 18 of my cycle, I experience severe fatigue, anxiety and migraines.” Then describe the effect on your daily life: “I struggle to work or socialise during those days.” So, again, this is how doctors figure out if you’re dealing with a certain hormonal imbalance or whatever condition or whatever it is. So, again, you know, if you can say follicular phase or luteal phase instead of just the start or end of my cycle, they’ll understand you faster. And knowing the basics of how to talk about your cycle, it helps them see that you’re not messing around, okay? That you’ve done your research, you know a little bit more about your health. Number four, bring data and notes to appointments. Many healthcare professionals appreciate having concrete data. You know, most doctors love data. That’s because it can help them diagnose more accurately. So, it makes things easier for them. So, highlight the shit that is most disruptive to your life. You know, the symptoms that you struggle with, because this can help make sure that those things, they get prioritized. Number five, prepare questions based on your cycle awareness. Use what you know about your cycle to ask targeted questions. So, for example, you could say, you know, could these luteal phase mood swings relate to hormone levels? Or you could say, you know, what treatment options work best for this part of my menstrual cycle? You know, you’re being specific about what you want to know. And it actually means that it makes your time with them more useful. Okay, so if you can prepare questions based on your own knowledge, then this can help massively. And number six, be persistent with concerns and patterns. And sometimes it sucks and you’re going to get brushed off with, you know, oh, that’s just normal menstrual cycle stuff. But if you know in your gut that this isn’t normal for you, say it. You know, you’ve tracked this and you know what’s up. You know, you can be polite, but be firm about the patterns that you’re seeing. You know, this is all about advocating for yourself. And fuck knows, we need to advocate more for ourselves, right? Because if we don’t, who will? Okay, so these are just tips to help you hopefully, you know, understand the benefits of menstrual cycle awareness. And you can use this awareness when you need help from your GP or another medical professional.