? About Female Fertility?

Question

I am not trying to conceive at this time but that may be changing within the next year or two and I have a question...

If you're a female with a relatively short cycle (say 23 or 24 days instead of 28), does this mean you are more fertile than a woman with a longer cycle (more likely to get pregnant) or less fertile or is there even a difference? If your cycle is shorter, does that generally mean you have fewer fertile days to work with in a given cycle?

I was just wondering. Usually my cycle is between 26 and 28 days but sometimes it is only 23 or 24 days. I don't remember it being this way when I was younger but it's been this way the last few years, off and on (I'm 31 now).

Just wondering if the shorter cycles means I'm more fertile now than I used to be or less.

Thanks to all who can give me some information about this!

Answer 1

Don't assume you have a luteal phase issue just because your cycle is short.

Let's start off assuming your luteal phase is just fine (it needs to be 10 days or longer), then actually, yes... you would have more opportunities to conceive than someone with a longer cycle. My cycles are about 26-28 days and my luteal phase is 12 days. Some months, I ovulate twice because one cycle ends and another begins in the same month. In a way it's nice that I don't have to wait weeks (or even months) before ovulation comes around again. That's a big plus to having a short cycle when you are TTC.

Okay, now... a short cycle (or even a long one) can sometimes point to a luteal phase problem or an ovulation problem. If either of those things are an issue for you, getting pregnant may be challenging.

Since you're not wanting to conceive anytime soon here is what I would strongly suggest. Start charting your basal body temperatures. Charting your bbt's is the only way to confirm for sure that ovulation took place and the exact date it occured. You can then start counting from the day after ovulation to the day of your next period to figure out how long your luteal phase is. After 3 cycles if you confirm ovulation and have an acceptable luteal phase then you know your short cycles won't be a problem for you. Since you're periods range from 23-28 days, I would suggest you temp for 6 months just to get a perfect picture.

FertilityFriend.com has a great site with charting software that's free and easy to use. There's a course you can take that will teach you all about temping so you know what you're doing.
http://www.fertilityfriend.com/

Good luck!

Answer 2

Generally with cycles only 23-24 days long you have less of a chance of getting and staying pregnant. The second half of a woman's cycle, called the luteal phase or LP, is from ovulation til her next period comes. A lot of women with short cycles tend to have a luteal phase defect, or their LP is too short. For a fertilized egg to implant into the uterus it takes about 10-12 days but when your luteal phase is too short and your period comes before 10 or so days then any fertilized eggs won't hae enough time to implant into the uterus before being washed out with your period. Now, keep in mind, that not all women with short cycles have luteal phase defects, and just because your cycle is a perfect 28 days doesn't mean you don't have a LP defect.

Answer 3

Fewer days of fertility. Go to webmd for more details and search for the ovulation calculator. I can point you into the right direction.