Tracking Your Cycle / Ovulation

Perimenopause Research Lecture: Fraser Health

Dr. Prior presenting at the Fraser Health Wellbeing Guest Speaker Series where she discussed Perimenopause – women’s misunderstood, confusing, and long midlife transition. This presentation was recorded at the Surrey Memorial Hospital, BC in December 2023.
Stride to Wellness: A Community Movement and Knowledge Exchange

On November 8, 2023, the CeMCOR team hosted a community event at the Mountain Equipment Company (MEC) store in Vancouver. The event included a run/walk led by Filsan Abdiaman, founder of Project Love Run, followed by a participatory design workshop involving community members, researchers, and facilitators. This workshop, a unique initiative by CeMCOR to strengthen…
Menstrual Flow and Timing Changes Following COVID-19 Infection or Vaccination

Acute COVID-19 Illness and Menstrual Cycles During hospitalization for acute illness with COVID-19 infection, younger women in Wuhan, China’s outbreak experienced changes in their menstrual cycles1. The most common change was to have menstrual cycles that were 33 or more days apart (that occurred for 42% of the 237 women studied)1. These longer cycles were…
When Should I Have Sex to Get Pregnant?

I am a 36-year old woman and we have been trying to conceive for a while. I know my fertile window is 3 days before ovulation the day of and after ovulation. Does that mean that you cannot fall pregnant if you engage in sexual activity a week before your next period? Thank you for your…
Depo-Provera Use and Bone Health

New science decreases concerns even about use in teenagers by Drs. Azita Goshtasebi & Jerilynn C. Prior Many teenagers and women of all ages around the world use a three monthly injection of medroxyprogesterone for contraception. This long-acting and highly effective birth control method is officially called DepoProvera® but for simplicity here we will call…
Stopping Depo-Provera

Many women experience difficulty when they stop taking Depo-Provera contraception – everything from heavy flow to amenorrhea, sore breasts, mood swings and weight gain. In this article based on a re:Cycling blog post for the Society for Menstrual Cycle Research (SMCR), Laura Wershler interviews Dr. Jerilynn Prior about what causes these adverse effects and what…
The ABCs of Osteoporosis Prevention for Teenage Women

Bone Health: As Simple as ABC! The teen years are a time of major change occurring before and after the first menstrual period. During these years bone not only increases in size (with growth) but also becomes stronger to reach peak bone mass. This is the best time in your life to build strong bones…
Documenting Ovulation with Quantitative Basal Temperature (QBT)

If our cycles are regular – about a month apart we assume we are ovulatory – meaning releasing an egg and making normal amounts of progesterone. However, ovulation is highly variable for all women. Progesterone raises our first morning (or basal) temperature a little bit. But so do many other things. Thus “basal body temperature”…
Manipulating Menstruation with Hormonal Contraception — what does the Science say?

The flood of recent articles and magazine reports and even books (1) about so-called “menstrual suppression” describe taking the Pill continuously or for longer than 21 days with seven days off. The advertising suggests that this is giving women a “choice” to do away with menstrual flow or menstrual problems. The Federal Drug Agency in…
Young Women and Osteoporosis — Good news about treatment and prevention

Osteoporosis and broken bones are an old woman’s disease-right? No, that is not right! Young women do get osteoporosis-although rarely. The sooner we understand that young women can and do fracture bones and develop osteoporosis the better. Also, the sooner we accept that the bone we build in our childhood and teen years provides a…