Cycle charting questions???

Question

I recently read the book "Taking Charge of Your Fertility" (great book) but now I have a question. I was going to start charting when I started my period, but it says to chart from your first day of red blood and if you spot brown it doesn't count as your period. I spotted brown the day I thought I would start. Then it stopped for a day. Then I spotted red for a day and it stopped for a day. Now I am back to spotting brown again. If I had already started charting I would go by when my tempereture dropped, but this was to be my first month! So should I go by the time I was spotting red??

I asked this earlier today in women's health and got zero responses. I thought maybe I would have better luck here!

Answer 1

Unless your period is usually made up of nothing but spotting, you are supposed to consider the first day of your cycle as the first day you see full red flow, spotting of any color is not usually considered the start of your period.

Good luck.