# Menstrual Cycle Awareness (the foundations) ##### Your Perimenopause Blueprint Workshop ---  --- ## Summary > - Menstrual cycle awareness is the foundation of the four pillars. > - Perimenopause involves changing and fluctuating hormones. > - Tracking more than your period can help you understand what is happening. --- ## Transcript So, we've got menstrual cycle awareness as the foundation of the four pillars—the foundation of all of this. I’ve added a little image there to help you understand, but we're going to look at this more closely. Menstrual cycle awareness is the foundation of your perimenopause blueprint, and for good reason. Perimenopause occurs because our hormones are changing. It’s the opposite of puberty, with oestrogen and progesterone fluctuating. The initial idea of menopause is that it's all about low oestrogen, which is why HRT (hormone replacement therapy) is commonly used. Menopause indeed involves low oestrogen levels. However, in perimenopause, it's actually about higher and wildly fluctuating oestrogen levels. Progesterone also fluctuates as we don’t ovulate as much. Therefore, these hormonal changes make it crucial to track your menstrual cycle, especially ovulation. Ovulation is key to understanding the perimenopause transition because it helps you understand what's happening with your hormones. Advanced menstrual cycle tracking involves more than just monitoring your period; it includes tracking ovulation through cervical mucus changes and basal body temperature, which can indicate oestrogen and progesterone levels. I have blog posts that can help you understand why tracking your menstrual cycle is important. I mentioned in a blog post that menstrual cycle awareness is the foundation upon which the four pillars are based. Someone called me out for making them feel excluded because they didn’t have periods due to contraception, like an implant. Depending on your contraception, it can alter your cycle. Initially, I considered removing menstrual cycle awareness as a foundation of the perimenopause blueprint because I don’t like upsetting or excluding people. But I decided to keep it in because perimenopause is fundamentally about hormonal changes. Contraception, including the pill, does not prevent or delay menopause; your hormones will still change. There's an idea that hormonal contraception may actually quicken menopause by suppressing ovarian function. If you’re on the pill or other hormonal contraception, you might not realise you're perimenopausal, but it's still happening. So menstrual cycle awareness remains an essential foundation that needs to stay.