The fifth phase of the menstrual cycle

I’m no stranger to irregular cycles. According to my Read Your Body cycle stats, my average cycle length is 41.3 days long. Knowing where I am in my cycle in terms of ovulation has been both a blessing and a curse. I track my fertility daily and know where I am in my cycle relative to ovulation. In longer cycles, once I hit about day 20 and haven’t ovulated, it feels like the wild west. Ovulation could now happen anytime, and there’s no knowing when.

What’s happening during a long cycle

The the time of the cycle between menstruation and ovulation (the follicular phase) is variable. Any life circumstances or outside factors can lengthen or shorten this span of time. When ovulation does happen, the time between ovulation and your next period (the luteal phase) is generally fixed, plus or minus 1-2 days. Once you do confirm ovulation, there are two outcomes: either you will conceive or menstruate.

Delayed ovulation is most commonly caused by things that your body perceives as stress such as: illness, travel or life changes. It can also be tied to a hormone imbalance such as PCOS or present after childbirth or coming off hormonal birth control.

In long cycles, it’s not that your period is late. It’s more that the time from right after menstruation to ovulation is really long and drawn out. The pre-ovulatory phase will actually be the longest phase in a cycle over 35 days.

Cyclic awareness and delayed ovulation

Most teachings on menstrual cycle awareness break up the cycle into four distinct phases, if we think about it like the seasons it goes something like: winter/menstruation, spring/pre-ovulation, summer/ovulation, fall/pre-menstruation.

I’ve been thinking about what happens when we’re charting with menstrual cycle awareness and we experience delayed ovulation. The teachings on cyclic awareness that I’ve come across don’t talk about the characteristics of an extended spring phase in the case of delayed ovulation.

The inner spring is when estrogen typically begins to rise slowly after menstruation, lending to feelings of renewal, excitement, vulnerability, shakiness, planning and newness.

I actually don’t feel these characteristics for the entirety of my extended inner spring. I have a completely different experience.

The best way that I can describe it is that a fifth phase of the cycle emerges, a bonus phase, the extended spring, spring 2.0.

The characteristics of this fifth phase are more like:

  • Uncertainty

  • Surrender

  • Frustration

  • Deep inner wisdom

  • Anticipation followed by disappointment

  • Trust in how I ACTUALLY feel, not in how I SHOULD feel

  • A reliable, unchanging quietness (almost like the wisdom i would imagine in menopause)

  • Accompanied by emotional ups and downs

There is this cyclic perfection narrative that cycles longer than 28 days are abnormal. Yet, when I share about my experience with my community there are so many of us in the same boat. It’s a combination of finding the root cause of hormone imbalance when cycles are consistently over 36 days, while challenging this ‘textbook cycle’ narrative and loving our bodies how they are.

For so long I agonized over having long cycles. Especially as someone who teaches about hormones and fertility, I always cringe a little when I share my own experience with delayed ovulation.

But there’s also something there about breaking the silence of this cyclic perfection narrative. When I share about my longer cycles, I’m met with responses from so many other people who feel the same. I’ve learned that it’s about a balance of nourishing and healing my body while showering it with love for all that it does.

Accepting that I experience a fifth phase makes my whole body sigh with relief. There is wisdom in the surrender of the fifth phase. I feel incredibly in tune with how I feel day to day.

Sometimes I feel a little less connected with my cycle when I’m in the fifth phase. When someone asks me what day of my cycle I’m on and I have no idea, I know that I’ve dissociated a little bit from my experience.

Helpful tips for long cycles

  • Acceptance and a mindset shift is KEY. Shifting away from perfection and towards nourishment and healing.

  • If your cycles are consistently longer than 36 days, you may want to get a hormone panel done by a practitioner who specializes in reproductive health.

  • Track your cycle with fertility awareness, knowing where you are relative to ovulation brings so much peace of mind. You can also bring your invaluable cycle data to a practitioner.

  • Along with tracking ovulation, practice menstrual cycle awareness and tune into your own experience of the cycle each day, whether that is through journalling, using a cycle map or downloading an app.

Having long cycles has taught me to appreciate and accept my body as it is, without striving for perfection. It's also taught me that my own experience and how I feel day-by-day is more reliable than any outside source.

If you’re in the same boat, my heart goes out to you. I know what it’s like to feel frustrated about long cycles, especially when you feel like you’ve tried everything. Your body is wise, you are resilient, and you haven’t done anything wrong. Hugs ❤️

Nathalie Daudet