Cycle mapping - how best to monitor your menstrual cycle

Understanding your menstrual cycle is about much more than just predicting your period. For many women—whether you're trying to conceive, experiencing irregular cycles, or managing hormone-related symptoms—cycle mapping offers an in-depth view of your hormonal health. And with advanced tools like Mira and expert interpretation from Sirona Health, it’s easier than ever to gain meaningful insights.

What is Cycle Mapping?

Cycle mapping is the process of tracking the key female hormones across your entire menstrual cycle to determine whether ovulation has occurred and to evaluate hormone trends throughout the month. This process requires multiple tests on specific days of the cycle and is only accurate if you're not taking hormones for contraception, menopause, or menstrual control.

The Key Hormones Involved

A typical menstrual cycle involves fluctuations in:

• Luteinizing Hormone (LH) and Follicle Stimulating Hormone (FSH) – produced by the pituitary gland

• Oestrogen (specifically Estradiol, E2) and Progesterone – produced by the ovaries

Ovulation is the event that drives the predictable rise and fall of these hormones. Without ovulation, the hormone patterns change—or may not occur at all.

Why Traditional Testing Falls Short

The current NHS-recommended method to detect ovulation is a single blood test to measure progesterone about 7 days before your period is due. But there are several limitations:

• Timing is retrospective: You only know the right time to test after your next period arrives.

• Progesterone fluctuates hourly: A low reading doesn’t always mean no ovulation—it could simply reflect the natural variation during the luteal phase.

Are There Better Options?

Yes. While the "gold standard"—serial transvaginal ultrasound scans—is highly accurate, it’s also expensive, invasive, and impractical for routine use. Thankfully, modern home-based technologies offer powerful alternatives.

Mira: A Revolution in Hormone Tracking

The Mira monitor uses urine-based testing to detect real-time levels of:

• LH – to identify the ovulation surge

• Estradiol (E2) – to detect the fertile window before ovulation

• Pregnanediol Glucuronide (PdG) – a urine metabolite of progesterone, to confirm that ovulation occurred

• FSH - to identify your menopausal stage

Unlike traditional tests that offer a simple “yes or no”, Mira provides quantitative data and plots your hormone levels across the cycle, making it a robust tool for women with:

• Irregular cycles

• Short luteal phases

• Hormone-related symptoms

• Perimenopause

Mira Hormone Monitor-Clarity Kit: £231 (includes enough strips for one cycle) - 30% discount code SIRONAHEALTH
Mira Ultra4 Replacement wands: £80 per cycle - 30% discount code SIRONAHEALTH

How Does Mira Compare to Other Tests?

• Clearblue Ovulation Tests: Detect LH or E2 + LH, but only provide a binary result. From £27.99–£28.99 per 10 strips.

• Proov: Detects progesterone metabolites post-ovulation to confirm ovulation, but results are still "yes/no" – from £36.

Mira is the only at-home device that tracks real-time hormonal values, giving you a more detailed and accurate picture.

Why Does This Matter?

A common myth is that regular periods mean regular ovulation. However, research suggests up to one-third of regular cycles may actually be anovulatory (no ovulation), based on serum progesterone testing. Either the test is wrong—or our assumptions are.

Also, if you have a short luteal phase (less than 10 days between ovulation and your period), relying on a single blood test may falsely suggest you didn’t ovulate. Continuous hormone tracking helps avoid misdiagnosis.

Get Expert Interpretation with Sirona Health

Even with detailed hormone tracking, it’s not always easy to interpret the results on your own. That’s where we come in.

At Sirona Health, we offer:

• Personalised consultations to interpret your Mira results

• Guidance on how your cycle may be affecting symptoms

• Expert insights to support fertility, hormone health, or cycle regulation

Whether you're using Mira for fertility planning, symptom tracking, or general health, our doctors can help you understand what your hormones are telling you—and what steps to take next.

Ready to Take Control of Your Cycle?

• Visit www.sironahealth.co.uk/appointments to book a consultation

• Link your Mira app to the Sirona clinic for tailored advice

• Let’s map your cycle—and make sense of it together

References

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[3] Newman M, Curran DA. Reliability of a dried urine test for comprehensive assessment of urine hormones and metabolites. BMC Chem. 2021 Mar 15;15(1):18. doi: 10.1186/s13065-021-00744-3. PMID: 33722278; PMCID: PMC7962249.

[4] Newman M, Pratt SM, Curran DA, Stanczyk FZ. Evaluating urinary estrogen and progesterone metabolites using dried filter paper samples and gas chromatography with tandem mass spectrometry (GC-MS/MS). BMC Chem. 2019 Feb 4;13(1):20. doi: 10.1186/s13065-019-0539-1. PMID: 31384769; PMCID: PMC6661742.

[5] Filicori M, Butler JP, Crowley WF Jr. Neuroendocrine regulation of the corpus luteum in the human. Evidence for pulsatile progesterone secretion. J Clin Invest. 1984 Jun;73(6):1638-47. doi: 10.1172/JCI111370. PMID: 6427277; PMCID: PMC437074.

[6] Handelsman DJ, Nimmagadda R, Desai R, Handelsman TD, Whittle B, Skorupskaite K, Anderson RA. Direct measurement of pregnanediol 3-glucuronide (PDG) in dried urine spots by liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry to detect ovulation. J Steroid Biochem Mol Biol. 2021 Jul;211:105900. doi: 10.1016/j.jsbmb.2021.105900. Epub 2021 Apr 17. PMID: 33872762.

[7] Prior JC, Naess M, Langhammer A, Forsmo S. Ovulation Prevalence in Women with Spontaneous Normal-Length Menstrual Cycles - A Population-Based Cohort from HUNT3, Norway. PLoS One. 2015 Aug 20;10(8):e0134473. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0134473. PMID: 26291617; PMCID: PMC4546331.