Scarleteen

Hi, I'm curious about how traveling and illnesses factor into menstrual cycles.

I traveled to California from the East Coast last week and happened to get sick the day I arrived. According to my period tracker, I'm currently a few days late for my period. I've also noticed an increase in discharge over the past few days. (I'm not too worried about being pregnant, but I do have a pregnancy test on hand if I decide I need it later.)

I did some research and found that traveling and being sick could alter your cycle if these situations happened during ovulation. As I was supposed to have ovulated the week before I went to California, generally how do traveling and illness affect menstrual cycles? Are they like any other factor (i.e. stress, weight loss/gain, changes in diet and exercise) in which regardless of where you are in your cycle, it will throw it off? Or, as I've researched, do they only affect your cycle if it happened during ovulation?

Thank you!

Hi Jaie,

I can't give you any specific information about the impact of travel and illness but I can tell you that a number of things can affect your period. It's not uncommon for there to be some variance, and a few days falls within the typical range.

Here is a article that can give you more information on late or missed periods: http://www.scarleteen.com/article/bodie ... _my_period