You’ve landed here because you want to have a baby. Your natural journey to pregnancy requires ovulation minus other infertility issues.
You are fertile if and when you ovulate. And you are most likely to become pregnant just before, on the day or immediately following ovulation.
However, it is rarely known exactly when you are going to ovulate. Especially for those with irregular menstrual cycles.
Some ovulating predictor knowledge in the form of a calendar, calculator, test, sign or symptom can increase your odds for conception immensely. Ovulation predictability offers some insight to when intercourse might inject you with your desired outcome.
Following are various methods for predicting when you are most likely to ovulate or are ovulating. Laid out for you, in no particular order.
Create an ovulation calendar. Start by annotating the start and finish of your periods. After a few cycles, average the number of days between starts and divide in half.
With this figure at hand, count this number of days forward from the first day of your most recent menstruation start day. This date is a somewhat reasonable predictor of the first day of your most fertile week.
One problem with using this method as your ovulating calculator is that extrinsic factors can affect ovulation, such as:
- illness
- stress
- exercise
Calculating days via a calendar is ofttimes inaccurate if you have irregular cycles.
If you have an irregular menstrual cycle, then you may want to consider using an ovulation predictor test kit. These tests check for luteinizing hormone in your urine. This hormone’s surge takes place just before ovulation, it signals your ovary to release an egg.
Some drugs that can affect your luteinizing hormone measurements:
- estrogens ~ decrease
- testosterone ~ decrease
- progesterone ~ decrease
- lomiphene citrate (Clomid) ~ increase
The positive aspect of using an ovulating test is you can concentrate your conception efforts into a narrower window of opportunity. No prescription necessary, but you may consider them pricey.
Ovulating urine tests are not the same as fertility monitors.
Basal temperature tracking sets forth a sign that you did ovulate within the past couple of days. To use this method, start by annotating your daily morning temperature on a calendar. It needs to be taken at the same time, just before you get out of bed.
Your ovulation may cause a gradual rise or a sudden jump in temperature. Your rise can be as trivial as half a degree, so use the digital type thermometer or one designed to measure basal temperature in order for you view this subtle change.
If your slightly higher temperature sticks around for a couple of days, then you can make an ovulating assumption.
You may be one of the 20% of all women who experience ovulation pain, or mittelschmerz for technical. This pain may occur just before, during or after ovulation. The signs and symptoms for this ovulation predictor is a lower abdominal pain that is:
- on one side
- recurrent, similar pain in past
- may switch sides month to month
- happens somewhere mid menstrual cycle
- sharp, cramping, distinctive, rarely severe
- can last for minutes, hours or couple days
Go to work making your baby as soon as you get back upright from this monthly abdominal discomfort, if that is your case.
Perhaps the least cumbersome and most embarrassing is evaluating your vaginal discharge for ovulating signs and symptoms. You may have already noticed consistency changes during your numerous previous cycles.
For ovulation purposes, this varying discharge is another one of nature’s beautifully crafted signs. The ovulate fluid symptoms range you look for include:
- wet
- clear
- white
- creamy
- slippery
- uncooked egg white appearance
Signs and symptoms for when your ovulation hasn’t come or has already gone are:
- dry
- sticky
- cloudy
- rubbery
- no discharge
Adding judgment to the appearance of your vaginal secretion goes beyond fertility. It provides a sign to your overall reproductive health as well, like symptoms for vaginal yeast infection, STD, vaginosis, and so on.
To maximize your prediction, incorporate more than one of these methods into your ovulating calculation scheme.
Some additional recommended measures beyond all this calendaring, calculating, testing, prediction and looking for signs and symptoms are:
- eat healthy foods
- exercise regularly
- maintain a healthy weight
- keep stress at a minimum
- don’t smoke nor drink alcohol
- sex at least once a day near the time of ovulation
- have sex regularly ~ for many couples this is all it takes
- take a prenatal vitamin or folic acid supplement before conception
Before taking any medication, run it past your health care professional. Some can cause conception difficulty on your road to a healthy new baby.
Don’t advocate using these measures as a form of birth control!
