For the record, I am not well-schooled in NFP. I learned sympto-thermal method in conjunction with planning my wedding. The couple who taught my fiancé and I were retiring and we happened to be in their last class. So, after my second and then my third child made his appearance, I had a lot of learning to do.
I always labeled myself as a chick with an irregular period; that arbitrary term for a cycle that varies in length.
As a young woman, my cycles were anywhere from 36 to 43 days in length. I envied the unicorn women who said they had 26 or 28-day cycles and knew what day Aunt Flo would come.
In all my online searching, reading, and trying to figure out my cycle, it took until after my third child was born and my cycles returned to discover the magical knowledge that changed my understanding of my own fertility. I learned that it was my follicular phase (the phase BEFORE you ovulate) that varied each month, while my luteal phase was ever so predictable.
No one had ever clarified that for me and I had never realized the information was right there in my charts.
Maybe this isn’t news to you but if you are stunned like I was, here is the jist of my lately gleaned knowledge: Peak Day is the day to start counting from to determine the length of your luteal phase. On average, the luteal phase is between 12 and 14 days, although it can be shorter or longer. Whatever is your “regular” luteal phase length, it will be the same in subsequent cycles. Most women with typical fertility will only have up to a 2 days variance.
Since I’ve kept track, my luteal phase has been either 13 or 14 days long. Now, when I can identify Peak Day, I become one of the unicorn women who can tell you what day her period will start!
Ladies, it’s very freeing and gives you a new level of confidence to know a 2-day window for the start of your period! Go grab a few past charts or open up your app and start counting the days that follow your Peak. Find your “day” and feel like the smart, powerful unicorn lady you’ve become! After all, knowledge is power. Or glitter and sparkles. Whichever you like!
“Each of the two sexes is an image of the power and tenderness of God, with equal dignity though in a different way. The union of man and woman in marriage is a way of imitating in the flesh the Creator’s generosity and fecundity: “Therefore a man leaves his father and his mother and cleaves to his wife, and they become one flesh.”121 All human generations proceed from this union.“ Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2335
