One surprising factor influencing your menstrual cycle is the air you breathe. Living somewhere with high pollution (cities, industrial areas) can shorten the luteal phase of your cycle: this is the time between ovulating and your next period.
Of course, you can’t choose what air you breathe, but if the air quality where you live is not great, you can limit your exposure to pollution by:
- Staying indoors with the windows closed
- Going outside earlier in the day (air quality tends to get worse over the course of the day with all the traffic)
- Finding walking routes that have less traffic around, like back streets, low-emission zones and parks