Mine was always different.
Now that I am 43, it has settled down to a 25-27 day schedule.
37 days here. Perfectly normal, although it’s a hassle if your doctor insists on using the usual 28-day cycle calendar for predicting your due date when you’re pregnant.
I am freakishly ‘normal’ at 28 days. We were taught in school, and it has been reinforced by doctors since, that normal is whatever routine your body settles into.
When I was young, it was very irregular. I didn’t get it for 4 or 5 months at a time. Damn, I wish those days would come back!
Mine’s every 28 days…from the beginning of one to the beginning of the next. I also skip the 4th day, and then go again for 1-2 days.
I started Depo-Provera though, and it is supposed to greatly decrease the amount of bleeding and make it very irregular, and possibly go away. I’m hoping for #3.
The only time I’ve ever had regular periods was when I was on the pill. Now I’m off hormones altogether and running anywhere between 30-40 days. The only way I can even come close to predicting when it will come is my boobs get really tender about a week before.
The correct method for counting is from the first day of one to the first day of the next, because the cycle includes the days of your period.
Before I went on the pill, I didn’t have a “cycle”. I had random occurrences, instead. I kept track for years, and it worked out to an average of about 43 days, plus or minus 21. I didn’t have one at all for my whole first semester at college. When it did show up, it could be anything from 3 days of really heavy to 2 or so weeks of continual spotting. To add further insult, I never had warning of when it would start, which led to a number of embarrassing incidents.
On the whole, I’m glad to be on the pill.
Before I went on Depo-Provera, I ranged from 3-8 weeks between periods. The longer it took, the worse it hurt. I saw a gyno and she said everything was fine, that I probably wouldn’t become regular, that is just how I am.
Since the shots, I’ve had them decreasingly. Since the last one, I haven’t had it once and I’m due for the next one in a week. Hope it keeps up 
I have always been somewhat irregular, when not on the Pill.
I haven’t taken the Pill for 14 years, as my SO has been ‘urologically enhanced’ to suit our mutual needs. (Bless that boy!) So, in that time, it fluctuated between 26-30 day cycles.
Now at 44 years of age, I find myself in the perimenopause phase, heading towards full blown menopause. No periods for a couple of months, then Wham!Bam!Thank-you-ma’am! a mere three weeks apart.
It’s a bit inconvenient, as I never can be sure when Auntie Flo is coming to town. As every visit could be her last, I wax nostalgic for the ‘warning signs’.
sigh When I was in my twenties and thirties, I could menstruate with one hand tied behind my back. Soon, I’ll be setting up an IRA with all the money that I won’t be spending on Tampax!
I’m curious as to what this means, exactly.
It just meant that I could count on the 26-30 day ‘cycle’ in decades past, versus what I have been experiencing the last few years.
Menopause does strange things to one’s ‘cycle’, i.e., wild fluctuations. Makes it challenging to ‘plan a romantic weekend’, if you catch my drift.
I’m not going to start an “Ask the Menopausal Woman” thread…
I get mine the 21th of every month at precisely 10 am.
Freaky, huh?
Something even weirder - my birthday falls on the 21st of May, so without fail, it comes a day late (at 10am), on the 22nd of May. Birthday present to myself? Possibly.
I also get some serious back pain the night before, in case I’m not sure what day it is.
This has happened since I was about 16 - before then, it was all over the place. I don’t know what happened, but I like it being so precise.
I’ve never counted the days of my cycle, but obviously it’s arounf 30-31 days.
I don’t have regular periods at all. My record for irregularity is four periods in a year. (two of those were within 20 days of each other) The most I have ever had is eight. I have been on the pill for 10 years, and still don’t have regular periods. My gyne also said that “everyone is different…” Well, turns out she was wrong. Lsura, Laurange, delphica and those others out there like me, please get a second opinion. One thing to have checked is PCOS - http://www.soulcysters.com/ - which at least 5 - 10% of all women have.
I have yet to get my first period, and I’m 39.
[sub]Yes, I’m male. Sue me. ;P[/sub]
I was really irregular until I went on the pill - I ranged anywhere from 25-60 days, and I couldn’t tell when it would come. I was told it was not abnormal. Now that I’m totally regular thanks to the pill, I can tell when I’m gonna start just by my body (with the added knowledge of what day of the week it is ). I get one quick, painful cramp to let me know I’ve started, then normal cramping for the next several hours. A headache is usually on the way, as well as an intense increase in the backpain I always have due to an injury. I had to skip classes last time because I coulsn’t sit in the lecture hall chairs without nearly breaking into tears for the back pain. Seeing my Doc in a month or so, hopefully he’ll be able to help me more than my Advil is.
That’s me too. Couldn’t have said it any better.
You’re going to let us know when that period arrives, right squeegee. I know I could sure use that grant money!
I read somewhere that if your cycle is less than 24, you are more likely to get a certain form of cancer. Also if your cycle is over 37. Anyone else heard this?
I have gone as low as 22 and high as 38. But haven’t gone higher than 28 in 20 years.
When I wasn’t on the pill, I also had the ‘have one, skip 2’ cycle. I miss about 2/year now that I am on the pill
Doctor said I might have problems conceiving for that reason. lola, might be too personal to ask, but I believe you do have kids, did you have problems? (If it’s TMI just say so)
Ladies, one of the best things that has ever happened to me is Depo-Provera. I have not had a period in the last three years. I feel so free. No cramps, no tampons, no lost days of work (my cramps were pretty damn bad) no worries that I would have it on some special day I didn’t want it.
YAY!!!
Please now imagine me skipping through a field, laughing and singing in slow motion. yay.
Menstruation - what a pleasant subject 
Am I the only woman here who has no clue about her cycles? I can never correctly answer the question, “When was the first day of your last period?” I don’t give a rat’s ass. I’m always taken by surprise when it shows up and promptly space it out after it’s over. My guy insists that I purposely have one whenever we start on a new adventure -not true! Daowajan, hope you don’t mind me asking on your thread, but has anyone ever experienced the synchronizing of menstruation effect when living with other females? Is this an old wives tale? Is there a dominance factor - where one woman’s cycle adjusts to the other’s or do they both change?