Using the information from helloclue.com, and not taking into account birth control taking, smoking, stressors, pregnancies, birthing or any other life-ing that can alter the length of a cycle, I am going to crunch some numbers and produce for you, my over simplified rough estimation of how long we actually menstruate.
Here we go:
The average “normal” menstrual cycle is between 24 and 38 days. First thought, does anyone else just hate the concept of “normal?” Second, how do they figure that a range of 14 days can be considered “normal”, when for some, that’s half a cycle length? According to most birth control packages that I have encountered, the average cycle is 28 days. Let’s use this number in our crunch.
If we take the amount of days in a year (365) and divide that by a birth control package (365/28), that’s 13 bleeds per year. Assuming you’re one of those lucky people with an “average” cycle of around 28 days, then this applies to you. If not, you may need to adjust your numbers accordingly. Personally, my cycle ranges from 18 to 45 days. I do not fall into this “average” and it may take someone with an advanced calculus degree to figure out my numbers. How many of people fall into this “average?” I feel that realistically, this mystical average is not the case for most. Perhaps I’m wrong.
Back to the math-ish. Simply speaking we bleed 12- 13 times a year. The “normal” range of a period is 1-8 days. Again, HUGE variations. Let’s pick a number between that. How about 4? For me, that seems low. How long is yours? Shall we say 5? Therefore, if we bleed 13 times, for 5 days at a time (again, on “average”) that’s 65 days a year. This means we bleed for about 18% of our year (65/365 x 100).
We begin menstruating around the ages of 12-13. Clue suggests the “average” is between 9-15, but those numbers are again, large in range. I am not discounting the accuracy of Clue, but for my over simplified calculation, dealing with a range is beyond my mathematical abilities. We wrap up the blood business in Western cultures around the age of 51. If we subtract 12 from 51, the mythical average person (who apparently does not take pregnancy breaks) in which I am writing about bleeds for approximately 39 years (Just, shoot me now).
Supposing that we bleed around 65 days per year, for 39 years would imply the total approximate sum of the days in which we bleed is going to be roughly around 2535. If you convert that back into years, that’s 6.95 years.
In conclusion, my numbers do not align with the 10 years that the random internet figure suggested in my introduction post. Likely hood, those numbers were calculated with much more consideration and accuracy. Either that, or those authors pulled it out of their ass by crunching some very simplistic numbers like I did. We also need to take into account that people are different, our bodies are unique, and our cycles are wonky.
Regardless, if you want some actual numbers, and facts, please head to the geniuses behind the Clue app (which I use to track my periods) and check out what they have to say. Their articles and information can be found here: helloclue.com. I am in no way paid to endorse or am in partnership with this company. I just like what they have to say, and the app is pretty cool too. Check it out!
