Dr Fiona Clancy, Dr Sarah Jarvis, Sarah Richards, Aston Merrygold and Moi
Firstly, huge apologies, if you have been wondering why this podcast is late. I moved house at the weekend and with the best will in the world couldn’t find one of my cables that meant I could share this content with you.
You see, last week I hosted a panel event for Clearblue for the launch of its Ovulation Test System and spoke to Dr. Sarah Jarvis, a GP and author of Pregnancy for Dummies, and Dr. Fiona Clancy who works for Clearblue about the issues affecting our knowledge about our menstrual cycle.
Clearblue
Had conducted a survey after a report found that the inclusion of both partners in reproductive health discussions is crucial for healthy pregnancies and positive outcomes for parents and children. Overall findings indicated that couples need to talk more when it comes to trying to conceive however what was interesting was that potential dads are listening and learning so they can be part of pregnancy conversations from the start.
Nearly a sixth (15%) of male respondents said that when it came to pregnancy planning they didn’t feel very involved, whereas 91% of women felt their partner was very much part of the conversation. The research also showed that almost one in three (29%) women incorrectly believed they could get pregnant at any point in their cycle, compared to only 21% of men who chose this option.
Know your cycle
The research showed that almost one in three (29%) women incorrectly believed they could get pregnant at any time in their cycle, compared to only 21% of men who chose this option. Perhaps even more surprisingly, nearly nine out of ten women (88%) failed to identify the most accurate description of the menstrual cycle, with 41% mistakenly believing it to be the often-quoted average length of 28-days, despite their own experiences of cycles.
However, nearly a quarter of men (23%) and women (24%) surveyed correctly identified that successful conception is most likely to occur 2-3 weeks before a woman’s period starts. How is that possible? Guys what did you learn in sex education that we didn’t!
It’s clear that we need to know more about our cycles.. I’m going to be chatting more with my pals Dr. Fertility about their recent cycle savvy campaign soon hopefully. In the meantime, I’d love to hear about your experience of monitoring your cycle. Is it something that you feel empowered by, does it stress you out? Email me natalie@thefertilitypodcast.com
To find out more visit Clearblue
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