When do you ovulate? How does ovulation determine when you can get pregnant? When is the best time to try and get pregnant? How can you estimate when are you ovulating and most fertile? This article provides you with the best ovulation predictor tricks to answer the basic question “when do you ovulate?”
When do I ovulate?
Each month, between 15 and 20 eggs mature inside your ovaries. During the time of your ovulation day, the well-developed egg (ovule or oocyte) gets released from one of your ovaries, and travels down your Fallopian tube where it might meet a sperm and become fertilized. In other words, your most fertile period happens about two weeks before the next expected period. So if your average menstrual cycle is 28 days, you ovulate around day 14
How does ovulation determine when I can get pregnant?
When one of your eggs and your partner’s sperm meet in your Fallopian tube, Your egg survives up to 24 hours after ovulation while sperm lives up to 7 days in your vagina.
When is the best time to try and get pregnant?
You actually have a fertile window of about six days. Five days before and the day of ovulation itself. So if you can engage yourself in to an intercourse during these days, you will be more likely to conceive.
How can I estimate when I am ovulating and most fertile?
Once you reach childbearing age, you need to note down the length of each of your cycle and then listen to your body’s natural signals of hormonal and physical changes and if both failed you can resort to ovulation predictor kits to have an answer for “when do you ovulate?”
If your cycle is regular (28-day menstrual cycle), you can easily count the first day of your period as day one. In this case your fertile window is likely to be around days 12 to 17. But if your cycle is irregular, ovulation may occur a week earlier or later from one to the next.
This method is easy but not that efficient because you might be among some women who ovulate more than once during a cycle. You can try other tricks to determine your most fertile day to conceive by paying attention to your body signs and signals about five days before you ovulate.
2-Cervical Mucus Changes
A cervical mucus is a cervical fluid that you see on your underwear or on the toilet tissue when you go for a wee.
After your period has finished, your cervical mucus changes in texture.
If you are aware of these changes throughout your cycle, you will notice that at certain point in your cycle, your cervical mucus will become thin, clear and sticky (a bit like a raw egg white). This fertile mucus helps and protects the sperm to travel towards your Fallopian tubes to reach your egg.
3-Increased Energy levels
You may not always tell if your cervical mucus has changed to the right type of mucus, but you can observe how your body feels, when you are fertile. This is a natural way of letting you know that ovulation is near or happening. When you feel increase in your energy level after your period then you might be ovulating.
4-Looking and Feeling Great
Feeling more sociable, physically attractive, sexy and flirty may be signs that you’re at your most fertile. Without realizing it, you may choose clothes that flatter reflecting your good looking.
5-Changes in Voice, Scent and Skin tone
Some studies suggest that due to hormonal changes during fertility, you may experience minuscule shifts in voice, scent and skin tone. Your body odor becomes more pleasant and sexy to men.
6- Mid Cycle Breast Tenderness and Sensitivity
Due to increase in progesterone, you may experience tender breasts (similar to premenstrual breast tenderness) near the middle of your cycle. If you notice breast tenderness there is a good chance you are ovulating or ovulated recently.
7-Basal body temperature Increases
Keep a thermometer at your bedside to check your (basal body temperature) BBT first thing at the morning, after at least three to five hours of sleep and before you get out of bed, talk, or even sit up. When ovulation is about to occur your basal temperature will increase few degrees and stay elevated for the rest of the cycle.
once the matured egg gets released from your ovary, it ruptures from the follicle causing a slight spotting. You may assume this spotting is a leftover blood from menstruation, but if it occurs around the time you might be ovulating, it can be a sign of high fertility.
Due to the hormonal changes during ovulation, you may experience a little bloating (much like the bloating you feel before period), in your abdominal area.
10-Mid Cycle Cramping
pay attention to ovulation message through a condition, called mittelschmerz, a one-sided ache or a series of cramps at your lower abdominal area which may last for few minutes to few days. These cramps may be more noticeable on one side of the abdomen compared to the other side (the side you are ovulating)
In case you failed to notice fertility biological markers, then why don’t you use ovulation kits to pinpoint your most fertile time during your cycle?
11-Urine Ovulation Test Kits
Ovulation predictor kits test the increased concentrations of luteinizing hormone (LH), which is the actual trigger for egg release. They pinpoint your date which you most likely conceive, 12 to 24 hours in advance, where LH increases by two to five time the normal amount.
How to test?
If you have a length of 28-day cycle, (28 days – 17 days =11) start testing on day 11 and carry on for six days.
1- Get the test.
2- Collect your wee in a cup or hold a stick under you as you wee.
Note: -The best time to collect your urine falls between 2 pm and 2:30 pm.
-The should be clean and sterile
3- Wait 10 minutes.
4- Read the results to know whether you’re about to ovulate or not.
12-Salivary Ferning kits
They test the levels of estrogen in your saliva with a pocket-sized portable microscope. When you’re ovulating your saliva becomes more concentrated with estrogen levels, which leads to increase in salt (sodium chloride) in the saliva. When the salt dries, it crystallizes into a fern-like pattern. This phenomenon can be observed three to four days before and two to three days after ovulation.
Try this test should be done on the early morning on an empty stomach
1. Get salivary Ferning OPK
2. Place some of your saliva on a slide by using your finger or licking it.
3. Make sure not to put too much saliva
4. The saliva should be free of any air bubbles.
5. Wait for the saliva to dry
6. Use the Microscope to see if there is any ferning or not.
7. Compare your slide with the instructions to know the results
What else should I know?
· Some drugs, such as those containing human Chorionic Gonadotropin (hCG) or LH and Clomid, can affect the test result.
· You should always follow the directions that come with the kits, For accurate results.
· You can still become pregnant for about 24 hours after ovulation.
· Salivary Ferning Tests aren’t as accurate as LH tests. Ferning may happen at other times in your menstrual cycle. Plus, in case you have poor eyesight, salivary Ferning kits may not be the best method for you.
· If you are and your partner fertile, you have 20% to 25% chance of getting pregnant each cycle.
· A positive result will not disappear, but some negative results may later display a faint second color band.
· Try to reduce the amount of liquids you drink for about two hours before you do the urine test, because your urine gets diluted, making it difficult to detect the surge.
· There are other ovulation symptoms that you can pay attention to during ovulation, such as increased libido; heightened senses of vision, sense and taste; and high, soft and wet cervix.
· Saliva Ferning Test is reusable so it is cheaper than those sticks you have to pee on.
· There are also devices that detect the numerous salts (chloride, sodium, potassium) in your sweat, called the Chloride Ion Surge. These tests give can give you a four-day warning of when you may be ovulating. And some need to be worn on the wrist for at least six hours to get accurate results.
· Never use these methods neither as fertility boosters to get pregnant nor as contraceptives to avoid unplanned pregnancy. Because none of the methods guarantee that you will get pregnant or that you’re actually ovulating; they can only indicate when ovulation may be occurring.
Whether you are planning to get pregnant or not, your main concern is identifying your fertility window. Fertility monitoring is the key component for answering the question, when do you ovulate?
You have multi tricks to self-monitor your reproductive hormones changes through biological markers and several easy and accurate ovulation predictor kits.
Now that you know when is your most fertile period why don’t you prepare a very romantic dinner and enjoy it with your beloved partner?