What Only Getting Your Period For One Day Means For Your Fertility

Many women love the idea of having their period for only a day or two, thinking it makes life much easier. While a short period may be good news for your pad and tampon budget, it’s not great for your fertility.

How short is too short when it comes to your period? An ideal cycle is characterized by four days of bleeding during which you’re soaking a tampon or pad every four hours with no clotting or cramping. Anything less than that and your fertility starts to suffer.

Your menstrual bleeding is an indication of the health of your uterine lining, which is super important because that's where your fertilized egg is going to implant and grow. 

The number one reason we want our periods to be four days in length is that abundant, fresh red blood is needed to establish a healthy uterine lining. Without thick enough lining, a fertilized egg won’t be able to effectively implant in the uterus.

So why might you be experiencing short cycles?

You need more nutrients in your diet

Blood is made in the marrow and essentially comes from the building blocks extracted from the foods we eat. If you’re not taking in enough nutritious food, your body simply won’t be able to produce enough blood.

You’re having trouble breaking down and absorbing nutrients

Some patients will tell me, “But I eat a really healthy diet and I still have scanty menstruation!” In this case, there could be a problem with digestion—your body’s ability to consume, break down, and absorb nutrients from the food you eat. Despite your healthy diet, your body still isn’t getting enough nutrients to make abundant blood.

There isn’t enough heat being generated by your metabolism

We need heat to metabolize food into energy. If your body temperature is too low, your body doesn’t have enough spark to transform food into energy, and convert that energy into the building blocks to make enough blood for a healthy uterine lining. Progesterone production—a hormone necessary to produce a uterine lining and sustain a pregnancy in its early weeks—is also dependent on heat.

What you can do

The first step to making sure that you have a nice, lush uterine lining is to make sure that you're getting the right nutrients in your diet. After that, improving digestion will help make sure that you're breaking down your food and that those nutrients are being used to build blood for a healthy lining. That's where Conceivable can help. Our meal plans and recipes are specifically tailored to each phase of the menstrual cycle, to make sure that you're getting the right nutrients, right when you need them.