This Cycle: a free printable tracker
Two printable sheets for noticing what your cycle brings.
Sign up for Moon Quest emails and get This Cycle as a welcome gift. You'll get the tracker straight away, a few emails about using it and the journal, then The Monthly Cycle once a month. You can unsubscribe at any time.
We only ask for your name and email. Nothing about your health or your cycle. Privacy policy
What it is
This Cycle is two A4 sheets. The first includes a list of things people with PMS, PMDD and PME often notice, from low mood and anger to changes in sleep and appetite. The second is a grid: one row for each thing you choose to track, one column for each day, and a mark for how much it showed up.
It takes a minute or two each evening. You print it, you fill it in, and the pattern of your cycle starts to appear on paper.
Why track at all
Memory holds on to how things felt far better than to when they happened. On a hard day, everything can seem permanent. In a good week, it's easy to downplay the hard days.
A paper page shows you something memory can't: whether the hard days come and go with your cycle, and when the quieter stretches arrive. For a lot of people, that shifts the question from "what's wrong with me?" to "this is my pattern".
What you do with that is up to you.
How to track
Pick five to eight things from the list that tend to show up for you.
Write them into the empty rows on the grid, one per row. Column 1 is the first day of your period.
Each evening, give every row a mark: a dot for nothing, half filled for some, filled in for a lot.
When your next period starts, print a fresh set and begin again.
Missed a day? Leave it blank. A page with gaps is still a record.
Questions about tracking
What is this tracker for?
For you, to see your own pattern. It's built to be quick and forgiving, so you can keep it going through the harder weeks. It doesn't diagnose anything.
Can I use it to get a PMDD diagnosis?
Not on its own. For a diagnosis, clinicians look for daily severity ratings across at least two cycles, usually on a scale such as the DRSP. IAPMD has the DRSP free. This sheet can help you decide whether that's a step you want to take.
How long until I see a pattern?
Often after two or three cycles. If you don't bleed, or your bleeding is unpredictable, it can take three or four sheets.
What if I don't have periods, or they're irregular?
Start on the first of the month and keep going. Some contraceptive methods stop the bleed without stopping the cycle underneath it, so a pattern can still show. Please don't stop or change your contraception to make tracking easier. If that's on your mind, talk it through with a clinician first.
Do I have to track everything on the list?
No. Five to eight things is plenty. If something stops fitting, cross it out on the grid and write the new one next to it.
Paper or the app?
Whichever you'll actually use. The sheet suits people who like to see a whole cycle on one page. The Moon Quest app is quicker day to day and shows you where your cycle tends to get harder. Some people might choose to use both.
What happens after I sign up?
You'll get the sheets straight away, then a few emails about using them and about the Moon Quest journal, and after that The Monthly Cycle once a month. You can unsubscribe at any time. We never ask about your health.
Ready to try it?
Get the sheetsThis is a record of what happened. Only a clinician can diagnose.
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