Dr. Marjorie Greenfield
Specializing in pregnancy and birth.
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 Ask Dr. Greenfield
Confused about Relationship between Ovulation and Menstruation | | | QUESTION | | | Dear Dr. Greenfield,
Hi. Will you please clarify something for me? It is true that if you have a period each month that you may or may not in any given month ovulate. Does that hold true if you don't have periods each month, or rather if you don't have a period, you definitely won't ovulate. Please clear up the confusion on this issue for me.
— A Little Confused in Columbia, South Carolina | | | ANSWER |
April 11, 2002 | | | Dear A Little Confused,
This is a great question, because the issue is confusing. Let me try to explain it in steps.
- Any time that you ovulate, you either get a period two weeks later or you are pregnant. If you didn't get a period and you aren't pregnant, you didn't ovulate.
- Women who are not ovulating regularly can have episodic bleeding, called anovulatory bleeding, which they may interpret as a menstrual period. Generally this isn't as regular as ovulatory periods, but for some women, it can be fairly regular. Young teenagers usually don't ovulate regularly, but may have fairly regular menses.
- Some women ovulate irregularly. They can have some true menstrual periods after ovulation mixed with skipped periods or anovulatory bleeding.
I hope that this answers your questions. For more information, see our articles on menstrual issues.
— by Marjorie Greenfield, M.D. |
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