How to tell if you have ovulated

Am I Ovulating? Physical Signs That You Are Fertile

Written by Lisa Fields

In this Article

• What Are Ovulation Symptoms?
• How to Track Ovulation Symptoms
• When Does Ovulation Happen?
• How Long Does Ovulation Last?
• Ask Your Doctor

To boost your chances of getting pregnant, it helps to know when you're ovulating. Then you'll know when you and your partner should be having sex.

Ovulation happens halfway through your cycle. Every woman’s cycle is different, so you have to pay attention to the signs.

There are many ways you can tell if the time is right.

What Are Ovulation Symptoms?

Here are the signs you may have when your body releases an egg:

• Your basal or resting temperature falls slightly, then rises again. You can use a special thermometer to check your temperature every morning before you get out of bed. You’re most fertile 2 or 3 days before your temperature rises.
• Your cervical mucus becomes clearer and thinner with a slippery consistency, like egg whites.

You may also notice:

• Tender breasts
• Bloating
• Cramps

But these symptoms don’t always mean you’re ovulating.

How to Track Ovulation Symptoms

Mark your calendar

Take note of when your period begins and ends and know how long your cycle lasts. Doctors say it's best to have sex at least every other day, especially during the 5 days before you ovulate. They call this your "fertile window." Your egg only lives for about 12 to 24 hours. But sperm can survive for a few days inside your body, so it's ideal to have them already there waiting for your egg.

Watch for body changes

Your hormone levels change throughout your menstrual cycle. During the first half, your ovaries give off the hormone estrogen. When your estrogen levels get high enough, your ovary releases an egg. Then your body starts to make progesterone, another hormone. It makes your body temperature rise slightly.

Your hormones also change the texture of your cervical mucus, the sticky fluid that comes from your cervix, the bottom of your uterus. As your body gets ready to ovulate, you have more of it, and it feels more stretchy and slippery, like raw egg whites. The texture helps sperm swim inside your body. When your mucus feels like this, you should be in your fertile window.

Ovulation predictor kits (OPKs)

You can find these at most drugstores. They cost about $25-$75 a month. These kits test the presence or the amount of luteinizing hormone (LH) in your urine. Some detect both LH and estrogen levels. This indicates ovulation will happen. When the surge is detected, having sex in the next 24-36 hours will improve your chances of getting pregnant. Because sperm will survive for some time inside of you, they'll be ready to join the egg during ovulation.

The kits 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.

Fertility monitors

They can be expensive, but they have a significant benefit. While most ovulation predictors only give you a fertile window of up to 2 days, these can show 6-7 days of potential fertility for each cycle.

Fertility monitors give you more days to try to conceive, and they give a more accurate day of ovulation. Fertility monitors collect data from your body and your cycle. They use data and algorithms to help you determine exactly when you're going to ovulate. They're 89%-99% accurate in identifying your fertile window if used correctly. They monitor various signs of fertility, including skin temperature, basal body temperature, and vaginal fluids.

Progesterone ovulation tests

These tests can find out whether you have ovulated. They look at the levels of progesterone metabolite (pregnanediol glucuronide, or PdG) in your urine.

PdG levels typically rise 24-36 hours after you ovulate, so the tests are highly accurate. Start testing your levels before your anticipated menstrual cycle. These tests also have several strips to allow you to check your progesterone levels throughout your cycle.

A twinge of pain

It's possible to feel yourself ovulate, but many women don't notice it. You might notice a slight pain in your side about halfway through your menstrual cycle. But if you're trying to get pregnant, don't wait for the twinge. That means your fertile window is soon closing.

When Does Ovulation Happen?

If your menstrual cycle lasts 28 days and your period arrives like clockwork, it's likely that you'll ovulate on day 14. That's halfway through your cycle. Your fertile window begins on day 10. You're more likely to get pregnant if you have sex at least every other day between days 10 and 14 of a 28-day cycle.

How Long Does Ovulation Last?

Your fertile window typically lasts 4-5 days. These are the days leading up to when you ovulate.

Ask Your Doctor

Some women don't ovulate on a set schedule. If you can't figure out when it happens or if your menstrual cycle isn't regular, ask your doctor for help.

Am I Ovulating? Physical Signs That You Are Fertile

Written by Lisa Fields

In this Article

• What Are Ovulation Symptoms?
• How to Track Ovulation Symptoms
• When Does Ovulation Happen?
• How Long Does Ovulation Last?
• Ask Your Doctor

To boost your chances of getting pregnant, it helps to know when you're ovulating. Then you'll know when you and your partner should be having sex.

Ovulation happens halfway through your cycle. Every woman’s cycle is different, so you have to pay attention to the signs.

There are many ways you can tell if the time is right.

What Are Ovulation Symptoms?

Here are the signs you may have when your body releases an egg:

• Your basal or resting temperature falls slightly, then rises again. You can use a special thermometer to check your temperature every morning before you get out of bed. You’re most fertile 2 or 3 days before your temperature rises.
• Your cervical mucus becomes clearer and thinner with a slippery consistency, like egg whites.

You may also notice:

• Tender breasts
• Bloating
• Cramps

But these symptoms don’t always mean you’re ovulating.

How to Track Ovulation Symptoms

Mark your calendar

Take note of when your period begins and ends and know how long your cycle lasts. Doctors say it's best to have sex at least every other day, especially during the 5 days before you ovulate. They call this your "fertile window." Your egg only lives for about 12 to 24 hours. But sperm can survive for a few days inside your body, so it's ideal to have them already there waiting for your egg.

Watch for body changes

Your hormone levels change throughout your menstrual cycle. During the first half, your ovaries give off the hormone estrogen. When your estrogen levels get high enough, your ovary releases an egg. Then your body starts to make progesterone, another hormone. It makes your body temperature rise slightly.

Your hormones also change the texture of your cervical mucus, the sticky fluid that comes from your cervix, the bottom of your uterus. As your body gets ready to ovulate, you have more of it, and it feels more stretchy and slippery, like raw egg whites. The texture helps sperm swim inside your body. When your mucus feels like this, you should be in your fertile window.

Ovulation predictor kits (OPKs)

You can find these at most drugstores. They cost about $25-$75 a month. These kits test the presence or the amount of luteinizing hormone (LH) in your urine. Some detect both LH and estrogen levels. This indicates ovulation will happen. When the surge is detected, having sex in the next 24-36 hours will improve your chances of getting pregnant.  Because sperm will survive for some time inside of you, they'll be ready to join the egg during ovulation.

The kits 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.

Fertility monitors

They can be expensive, but they have a significant benefit. While most ovulation predictors only give you a fertile window of up to 2 days, these can show 6-7 days of potential fertility for each cycle.

Fertility monitors give you more days to try to conceive, and they give a more accurate day of ovulation. Fertility monitors collect data from your body and your cycle. They use data and algorithms to help you determine exactly when you're going to ovulate. They're 89%-99% accurate in identifying your fertile window if used correctly. They monitor various signs of fertility, including skin temperature, basal body temperature, and vaginal fluids.

Progesterone ovulation tests

These tests can find out whether you have ovulated. They look at the levels of progesterone metabolite (pregnanediol glucuronide, or PdG) in your urine.

PdG levels typically rise 24-36 hours after you ovulate, so the tests are highly accurate. Start testing your levels before your anticipated menstrual cycle. These tests also have several strips to allow you to check your progesterone levels throughout your cycle.

A twinge of pain

It's possible to feel yourself ovulate, but many women don't notice it. You might notice a slight pain in your side about halfway through your menstrual cycle. But if you're trying to get pregnant, don't wait for the twinge. That means your fertile window is soon closing.

When Does Ovulation Happen?

If your menstrual cycle lasts 28 days and your period arrives like clockwork, it's likely that you'll ovulate on day 14. That's halfway through your cycle. Your fertile window begins on day 10. You're more likely to get pregnant if you have sex at least every other day between days 10 and 14 of a 28-day cycle.

How Long Does Ovulation Last?

Your fertile window typically lasts 4-5 days. These are the days leading up to when you ovulate.

Ask Your Doctor

Some women don't ovulate on a set schedule. If you can't figure out when it happens or if your menstrual cycle isn't regular, ask your doctor for help.

Diagnosis of ovulation and its problems - test to determine the day in the FertiMed clinic

Diagnosis of ovulation

Speaking about the diagnosis of ovulation, you need to keep in mind the diagnosis of the fact of ovulation and the day of ovulation.

Understanding the fact of ovulation (whether there is ovulation or not) is necessary to assess the prospects for natural conception: if it is, conception is possible, if not, treatment may be required.

Knowing the day of ovulation is essential for calculating the optimal time for natural conception and for many fertility treatments. nine0005

So, first about how to understand if there is ovulation?

Understand in 1 minute

It is enough to ask the question - is there a premenstrual syndrome (PMS)?

If there is, then there is ovulation. There is no PMS without ovulation. Painful periods are another sign of ovulation.

To clarify, PMS is any cyclical changes in well-being associated with the approach of menstruation. These can be headaches, pain in the back, lower abdomen, soreness and / or engorgement of the mammary glands, irritability, tearfulness, increased appetite, weight gain, etc. PMS/or menstrual cramps can be severe or very mild, it doesn't matter. If they are, then there is ovulation. nine0005

In 98 out of 100 women who ovulate, careful questioning reveals PMS, or painful periods. It is extremely rare that in the presence of ovulation, a woman does not have either PMS or painful menstruation. And then, in order to understand whether there is ovulation, you have to resort to modern diagnostic methods: ovulation tests, blood tests for hormones.

The most common way to diagnose ovulation is with an ultrasound.

With a regular 28-day menstrual cycle, to understand if there is ovulation, ultrasound should be done on the 21st-23rd day of the cycle. If the doctor sees the corpus luteum, then everything is in order, there is ovulation. With a 24-day cycle, ultrasound should be done on the 17-18th day of the cycle. nine0005

It is more difficult to calculate the timing of an ultrasound to diagnose ovulation with an irregular menstrual cycle. If symptoms of PMS appear, an ultrasound should be done at this time. The corpus luteum is a confirmation of the fact of ovulation. Another approach is to do an ultrasound every two weeks until a growing follicle appears, then every 3-4 days.

To confirm the fact of ovulation, you can also determine progesterone (yellow body hormone) in the blood. The time of taking blood for determining progesterone is one week before the expected menstruation with a regular cycle and when symptoms of PMS appear with an irregular cycle. nine0005

Determining the day of ovulation

If you went to the doctor in the first half of the cycle (before the 14th day), he will see a growing follicle. Its dimensions will be from 6-7 mm on the 6th day of the cycle to 18-22 on the 14th day of the cycle. Such a follicle is called preovulatory or dominant. It is he who ovulates in this cycle, that is, an egg will come out of it, which can be fertilized.

The dominant follicle grows at a rate of 2 mm per day, starting at 10 mm (from about day 6 of the cycle).

Ovulation occurs when the follicle is approximately 18-22 mm

Thus, having seen a 10 mm follicle on the 8th day of the cycle, the doctor can easily calculate that ovulation will occur on the 12th-14th day of the cycle, which means that the optimal days for conception are from 13 to 15.

Ovulation tests should be started 2 days before the expected day of ovulation. You can calculate it by subtracting 14 days from the cycle duration. So, with a 28-day cycle, ovulation ideally occurs on day 14 +/- 2 days. With an irregular cycle, it is not advisable to “catch” ovulation by tests: it is long, expensive and unreliable. nine0005

Measuring rectal temperature (temperature in the rectum) in the morning is a long-gone day. But for those who are too lazy to go for an ultrasound or do ovulation tests, it is an acceptable, although not very accurate, method.

We wish you good ovulation and successful conception!

How to determine ovulation at home and on ultrasound?

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Ovulation: what it is and why it is necessary to determine it

More than a million eggs are formed in a girl's body even before birth, and their number gradually decreases with age. As they mature, some of the cells leave the ovary. Ovulation is a period in the middle of the cycle, when the egg (usually one) is released from the follicle - the bubble in which it matures. It is at this time that a woman is ready to conceive. The ovulation period lasts from a day to one and a half - if fertilization did not happen at this time, the body prepares for the upcoming menstruation. nine0005

In case of menstrual irregularities, ovulation may not occur (anovulatory cycle) or it may begin later or earlier. Therefore, in case of problems with conception - with infertility - first of all, they find out whether ovulation takes place and when it happens. If there is no ovulation or it is irregular, infertility treatment is started by a gynecologist.

How to determine ovulation at home

There are several methods for determining ovulation at home, but it is important to understand that the effectiveness of "home" methods has a weak percentage of reliability. These methods can only be used in the early stages of trying to conceive, as long as there are no signs of infertility. If there is a suspicion of infertility, you need to urgently contact a gynecologist and undergo a procedure with a specialist. nine0005

1. Basal thermometry.

Woman at the same time in the morning with a thermometer measures the temperature in the anus, mouth or vagina. The most accurate indicators are obtained with rectal measurement.

In the first phase, the temperature is 36.1-36.3 o . During ovulation, there is a jump of half a degree or even a degree. The indicator rises to 37.0 and even higher and remains at this level until the onset of menstruation. If pregnancy occurs, the temperature does not decrease. nine0005

Disadvantages of the method:

• In inflammatory processes, basal values ​​can change unpredictably and do not depend on the menstrual cycle. Constant concern about obtaining indicators creates certain problems. A woman has to wake up at the same time, for example, at 7 am on a day off.
• Do not drink alcohol during the measurement period, as it affects the readings.

2. Extraction analysis method. nine0068