You don’t have to be a doctor to know when you ovulate

Have you ever wondered what time of your cycle you are fertile at? Did you know that you can reliably find that time using signs your own body gives you?

Are you wondering how you can know when you are fertile? Perhaps you have heard that you are only fertile for part of their cycle and you are wondering how to tell when you are.

 

Why is there only some time each cycle that you can get pregnant?

You only ovulate one time per cycle. The egg can survive for only 12-24 hours and you generally only release one per cycle. If you release a second egg, it is within no more than 24 hours of the first. The rest of the window that you can get pregnant in is based on how long sperm can live in fertile cervical fluid.

You can actually only get pregnant from intercourse occurring in a span of about 6-7 days a month, tops.

 

So can you just count days and figure out when you are fertile?

How can you determine these days? When it was discovered that ovulation occurs a set number of days prior to the first day of menstruation, the average being 14, and the average cycle length is 28-29 days, the rhythm method was developed. In this method, women avoid unprotected intercourse during a time that they believe they are fertile. This is a faulty method.

The reason this method is not good is for a few reasons:

• Not all women have 28 day cycles
• Even if you do have a 28 day cycle, it won’t necessarily stay that way
• The average of ovulation happening 14 days before your next period is not the same for all women.

Do not rely on day counting – ever – to determine when you are fertile. It is unreliable.

 

How can you actually tell when those fertile days are?

You can discover your actual time of fertility pretty easily through signals your body gives you. These signals correlate with the hormones associated with ovulation, regardless of where in your cycle ovulation happens. You determine this fertile window by your pattern of cervical fluid and basal body temperature. Two simple signs to determine when your window of fertility opens and closes. You can learn how to use the sympto-thermal method of fertility awareness to determine the correct days you are fertile.

There are a few rules that need to be applied to the information you glean in order to properly buffer the fertile zone, since you can only determine the fertile window and not pinpoint ovulation exactly. It ends up being about 9-10 days a month.

Interested in learning more about these signals and the rules to use it as birth control or to maximize your chances of conception? Join HER fertility and learn how to chart your cycles and determine your fertile phase with accuracy.