Ovulation occurs once a month, offering healthy fertile couples who are in their twenties and thirties a twelve to twenty-four hour window in which they can conceive. Each monthly opportunity means they have about a twenty percent chance of pregnancy. As you grow older the percentage lowers.
While the egg is viable for twelve to twenty-four hours, the sperm can live for three to six days. This allows them to reach the fallopian tubes and hang out until the mature egg is released from the ovary. This means that you can have sex several days prior to ovulation and still get pregnant; however the ideal time for intercourse is the day you ovulate if you want to have a child.
Because the amount of time each month when you can get pregnant is so short, it is important for you to be able to tell when you are getting ready to ovulate or when ovulation has occurred.
Checking for Ovulation
There are several ways for a woman to check for ovulation. The first is to look at the calendar. This requires you to know how many days are in your menstrual cycle based on counting from the first day of your last period to the day before your period starts the next time. The average menstrual cycle is twenty-eight days, but it can be anywhere from twenty-three to thirty-five days long.
Some women will have varying menstrual cycles. For someone with a twenty-eight day cycle you will ovulate about half way through. If you are planning to get pregnant it is important to track this cycle. Besides, knowing the first day of your last menstrual cycle (LMP) will help the doctor estimate your due date!
There are online ovulation calendars available to help you figure out the window when ovulation should occur based on your cycle. These calendars work better for those with regular cycles, but it can give you a place to start. To use the online ovulation calendar you do need to know the first day of your last period and how many days you have in a typical menstrual cycle.
Use the calendar to know when you should check for other signs of ovulation. Other ways to check for ovulation include:
- Get to know your body signals and signs. Learn to listen to your body, about twenty percent of women can feel a twinge, a quick sharp pain, or a little lower abdominal cramping that is typically localized on either the right or left side, depending on which side is ovulating. This feeling is called mittelschmerz, which is German for “middle pain.”
- Check and chart your temperature. Use a basal body thermometer, designed just for this purpose, and take your temperature orally. Basal Body Temperature or BBT is then charted. The reading should occur after you’ve slept at least three hours, first thing in the morning before you sit up, talk, or get out of bed. As fluctuations in your hormone levels occur the temperature will change. Estrogen dominates during the first weeks of your cycle and once ovulation occurs, progesterone increases and your body temperature will rise. The BBT is at the lowest point right at ovulation and then it will go up about half a degree as soon as ovulation occurs. You will need to chart your basal body temperature for several months before you can predict your monthly ovulation.
- Part of knowing your body and predicting ovulation is to understand how your cervix changes to throughout the menstrual cycle. The cervix is the neck-like passage that goes between your uterus and vagina. The cervix has to open and stretch to make room for the baby’s head during birth. At the start of your menstrual cycle your cervix is positioned low, it is closed, and hard. At the approach of ovulation it softens, pulls up, and opens up a small amount. With practice some women can feel these changes. They are able to check their cervix by inserting one or two fingers. The website beautifulcervix.com has very graphic pictures of what a woman’s cervix looks like throughout the menstrual cycle. Check here for the photos. The changes can be noted on your basal temperature chart.
- You can also track the change in cervical mucus. As ovulation nears this discharge will become transparent to white in appearance, and is in fact often compared to egg whites. It will be a little slippery and will stretch between your fingers for an inch or two before it breaks. Changes in cervical mucus can also be noted on your fertility chart with basal body temperature and the position and condition of your cervix.
- There are now Ovulation Predictor Kits or OPKs that will help you tie down ovulation from twelve to twenty-four hours in advance. Much like pregnancy tests, you pee on a stick and the kit checks your hormone levels. For ovulation it is looking for LH levels or Luteinizing Hormone.
- You can also test your saliva for estrogen levels. This reusable test requires you to use an eyepiece to check for a microscopic pattern that somewhat resembles window frost.
There are other tests that check sweat for a chloride ion surge and other methods. Often women will combine several methods to figure out when they are ovulating. Such as first plotting possibilities on a calendar and then checking temperature, their cervix, saliva, or urine as the projected day approaches.
