Understand Your Ovulation Cycle And Get Pregnant

If you are trying to get pregnant and start a family, it is important to know about your ovulation cycle so that you can predict your ovulation and have sex on the optimal days for conception.

We consider the first day of your period to be the beginning of your menstrual cycle, since it is a date that can be determined with some certainty. That is also why doctors use it for projecting a future due date if you get pregnant, since most people don’t know for sure when fertilization actually occurred. It would be so much more convenient if we could actually see what’s going on inside!

In this new cycle, (usually) one egg starts to mature in your ovaries and prepares to get released during ovulation. The body triggers ovulation by increasing the Lutenizing Hormone (LH) in your blood stream, which is why most of urine-based ovulation tests (sometimes known casually as “pee sticks”) as well as saliva ovulation sticks check for the level of LH in your bodily fluids for an indication of recent LH surge as preliminary to ovulation.

Another way of predicting your ovulation is through the charting of your basal temperature. This requires a very accurate thermometer, one that can measure your temperature to the hundreds of a degree. For charting to work correctly, you need to take your temperature immediately after you wake, before you start moving and increasing your body temperature that way. Hormonal shifts in your body will reflect in changes in your resting temperature, so if you take your temperature consistently and graph them, you will see trends that give indications of the changes inside your body.

If you can predict your ovulation, then it is easy to calculate the best days for getting pregnant. Sperm can survive inside a woman for up to 3 days, so the five or six days around ovulation, from about two days before to about three days after ovulation are the peak fertility days. During that time the mature egg is traveling on its way from the ovary down to the uterus; too early and the sperm won’t be around when the egg is ripe, too late and your body will be ready to clean house again with the next menstrual period.

There are several difficulties with predicting your ovulation using either ovulation tests or charting. Since ovulation tests only look for the presence of the LH surge, it cannot tell you in advance and you lose the 2 days previous to ovulation where you are still fertile. Charting, on the other hand, can often be complicated, both to accurately record the temperature and to decipher the graphs for signs of hormone changes. An easier modern solution that can tell you of all your fertile days is the Clearblue Fertility Monitor.

Trying to get pregnant? Make sure you check Jenny Bella’s excellent information on Predict Your Ovulation, and other pregnancy information.