How to track official start days

Random question! I should no the answer to this but I have never tracked my period before. I have always been on the pill and knew when I hit a certain pill I would start. No need to track as I was not TTC. Now I am and have a question about timing. My sister says her doc told her that if she starts her period after 12:00PM then she should record it as her start date the day after. So, I started today at around 3:00, red flow. Do i say that I started today the 19th or tomorrow the 20th? Does it really matter? I am going to start using test strips to see when I ovulate and need to know when to start using them. I was given a chart when I ordered my test strips and it has you starting to test so many days in to your cycle depending on how long your cycle is. Mine is 26 days if I say I started today and 27 days if I say I started tomorrow. Am I just making this too hard??

Thanks! 

I haven't heard the after noon rule. I always count day 1 as the first day of bright red flow. Fertilityfriend.com is a great place to track your cycles, it's free. Also the book - taking charge of your fertility is awesome, I highly recommend it if you are TTC. Usually you would start testing for ovulation around CD 10 (cycle day 10)

Good luck!
Liz

I always just counted the first day as whenever I started bleeding red.  I never bothered tracking the time I started.  Do you have an iphone?  There's an app for tracking your period, cleverly called "iPeriod".  It's great!  After you input so many cycles, it finds your "average" so you can get a more accurate estimate of when you're going to start.  It was great for me, because my cycles ranged from 28-52 days.  I ended up leveling off at around 36 days.

Anyway, since my cycle was never "every X days", I ended up just doing the 20-day First Response ovulation prediction kit.  I started it the day after my period ended, and I tracked my cervical mucus.  I also did the basal temperature, but my temp fluctuated a bunch and I didn't feel like it was accurate.  Anyway, the OPK ended up being the best thing, because when I got my positive, we "did the deed" and I was lucky and got pregnant right away.  Those OPKs really took the guesswork and hassle out of everything!

You count the first day of red flow, no matter what the time. And if you have a 26 day cycle you could o as early as like cd 11-12 and as late as cd say 16... so I would start the opk around cd9 just to be safe as they usually detect the surge 12-36 hours prior to o. Good luck and check in with the Friday ttc post I will be doing later today. Shari

Hi,  I use mymonthlycycle.com it is free. it predicts when your period starts and ovulation etc.  It is free.