Does your period/menstrual cycle ever suffer from stage fright?

Sometimes I worry about my period being late and it will only prolong the wait. It’s kind of weird. I think it has to be due to the hormones that stress produces.

I used to worry about being late, but my period never seemed to be regular throughout those years.

”...people either tracked their periods or not. I rarely have.”

“It seems that month after month, it arrives either late or early. Which is unusual for me.”

How do you know that it’s unusual if you never kept track of it? Unless you’re on birth control, periods rarely come on EXACTLY the 28th day. If you have one per month, you’re fine.

As for the actual question, I’ve wondered that myself. I’ll be a day late, freak out that I’m pregnant, and it holds off a few more days. I’ll be so nervous so I’ll take a pregnancy test – negative. Without fail, my period starts that same day. Stress does strange things to the human body, that’s for sure.

I have only been late when I was pregnant. Most of my life my cycle was 26 or 28 days, but for many years I knew the day I ovulated and exactly 14 days I would get my period or be pregnant. I knew how long the cycle was by remember the day not date. Ovulate Tuesday, get my period Tuesday, next month ovulate Sunday, 26 day cycle.

Now my cycles are 24–26 days. Age I guess, moving towards menopause.

I think anxiety and stress plays a part, but I’ve never been regular. I’m not sure if I’m always irregular (which would be my normal) or if I’m incapable of paying attention, but I do know the time-frame seems longer if I have any cause for worry.

Mine are wildly irregular and I freak out about it often because I don’t use the pill. But it’s always exactly like @livelaughlove21 describes: it’ll come right after I take a pregnancy test. I don’t think worrying about it can delay it, I just think our bodies are often more irregular about these things than we tend to believe.

@wildpotato I used to worry about being pregnant even when I was on the pill AND using condoms. How mental is that?

I am wondering if people consider waking up with your period a day late when you usually get it the day before, and is the day before usually in the late afternoon? Most people ovulate in the afternoon and their period also come late in the day, if it is a few hours off it might come while you are sleeping, you don’t notice til the morning, but it is only a few hours late, if you consider that late, anyway not really a day.

This points to how circadium rythm probably affects our hormones or vice versa. If you are very jet lagged or have very irradicate sleeping habits it might alter your cycle I would guess, stress often comes with interrupted sleep. It all counts probably. Sugar and insulin levels seem to affect our cycle also, which I guess is hormone related also in a way. Patients who don’t ovulate, who have PCOS, seem to have an underlying sugar problem. Often taking diabetic drugs or switching to a diabetic friendly diet helps them start ovulating. Ovulation gets the body to line the uteris and leads to the period.

I’ve always kept track of mine, and always been fairly easy for me staying regular.

Any time I am stressed, there’s often a delay, I’d say it’s not a big deal. Normally mine are about three days and then I get a headache, then it’s over.