Are you trying to conceive? It helps knowing when you ovulate so that your chances of getting pregnant are increased.
Your body usually releases one egg each month in a process called ovulation, and needs to be fertilized soon after. To boost your chances, it helps to know your body and when you’re ovulating. Then you’ll know when you and your partner should be having all the sex!
Here are some ways of knowing when you ovulate.
Know your cycle
Keep a menstrual calendar for a few months so you can get an idea of what’s normal for you. Find a ovulation calendar tool online to help. If your menstrual cycle lasts 28 days and your period arrives like clockwork, it’s likely that you’ll ovulate on day 14.
Check your calendar
Now that you know when you will likely ovulate, you can plan when to have sex. Your fertile window begins on day 10, so plan to have sex between days 10 and 14 of a 28-day cycle. Sperm can survive for a few days inside your body, so it’s ideal to have them already there waiting for your egg.
Chart your temperature
As your hormone levels change throughout your menstrual cycle, watch for signs of body changes. During the first half of your cycle, your ovaries give off the hormone estrogen and when your estrogen levels are high, your ovary releases an egg. After the release of the egg, your body starts to produce the hormone progesterone which causes body temperature to rise slightly.
If you track your temperature every day before you get out of bed, your basal body temperature, you may notice a pattern that shows when you ovulate. Taken with a special thermometer, your BBT is the baseline reading you get first thing in the morning
Track your fluids
Your hormones also change the texture of your cervical mucus, the sticky fluid that comes from your cervix. As your body gets ready to ovulate, you will notice more of this stretchy and slippery fluid. When your mucus feels like this, you are within your fertile window.
Ovulation predictor kits
Ovulation predictor kits like the First Response® Digital Ovulation Test are able to pinpoint your date of ovulation in advance by looking at levels of luteinizing hormone, or LH, which is the last of the hormones to hit its peak before ovulation actually occurs. The kits, which checks your urine, have enough test strips to let you check your LH levels several times during your menstrual cycle. Start testing a few days before you think you might ovulate, then repeat a few times over the next few days to pinpoint the exact day. When your LH levels are highest, you’re in the fertile window. Your two most fertile days begin with the LH surge and you are most likely to get pregnant if you have intercourse within 24-36 hours after you detect your personal LH surge.
Twinges of pain
It’s possible to feel yourself ovulate – in fact 20 percent of women do! Your body will send you a memo when it’s ovulating in the form of a twinge of pain or a series of cramps in your lower abdominal area, usually on one side.
Ask your doctor
Some women don’t ovulate on a set schedule, so if you’re having trouble realizing when you ovulate, ask your doctor for help.
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