Mary Teye, a Midwife and Clinical Quality Advisor at Marie Stopes, Ghana, has asserted that the 28-day menstrual cycle chart is only partly accurate.
She revealed to host, Mercy Bee, on eTV Ghana’s ‘Girl Vibes’ that there is a notion that every woman’s cycle revolves around 28 days, however, it is not entirely true and is quite a misconception.
She expunged this saying that there are different menstrual cycles for each woman.
“Cycle ranges from 21days to 35days, and averagely around 28days. As women, we actually need to study ourselves to know what length of a cycle we can accurately go by. It is not everybody who has the 28-day cycle”, she enlightened.
Further tutoring on how a woman can calculate her menstrual cycle to know her fertile and infertile periods, she noted that firstly, it is important for a woman to know her right menstrual cycle before she can make those calculations accurately.
The midwife continued, “It is recommended that if you want to know your normal cycle, then you have to study your cycle consistently for six months”.
To do this, Mary required that women note down the number of days in their menstrual cycle for these six months, put the numbers together and then strike it by the average.
The expert however advised in accordance with this that, during this period, the cycle must not be distracted in any way. That is to say avoid contraceptives, abortions and any other action that will mess with the hormones.
By: Maureen Dedei Quaye