Irregular

I find it very disconcerting that as I am growing older, my menstrual cycles are becoming shorter and shorter. I’ve noticed the following patterns over the course of my menstruating years.

1) Puberty/teen years-I don’t think I kept close track on how long my cycles were back then so it’s hard to see any particular pattern then.

2) Young adulthood, before pregnancy/kids-My cycles ran fairly long, usually 26-35 days and never a consistent length. I hated not knowing when to expect my period then. In hindsight, I at least didn’t have to go through it as often as many women.

3) Post-pregnancy years-My cycles suddenly were closer to the typical cycle, lasting around 28 days, on average. The only exception was after the second pregnancy which ended in second trimester. Those cycles were pretty irregular along with menorrhagia that continued until I became pregnant the third time. My theory for these years is that I was breastfeeding through many of those years and that helped regulate my cycles.

4)Long past pregnancy years-In the last three or four years, my cycles have returned to irregular ones but now tend towards shorter cycles that run anywhere from 19 days (this month) to 29 days. Going only on a hunch, I seem to alternate between a very short cycle and a closer to normal length cycle. I’m not quite sure what to make of that, but it’s interesting.