How to tell when you are Ovulating?

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iVillage Member
Registered: 03-29-2003
How to tell when you are Ovulating?
4
Wed, 11-10-2004 - 3:33pm
I was reading a few posts about ovulating; How do you know when you are ovulating? What time of the month does this occur?
iVillage Member
Registered: 12-11-2003
Wed, 11-10-2004 - 3:47pm
Hey, that a good question... I dont know either.. how do you tell ?
iVillage Member
Registered: 07-21-2003
Wed, 11-10-2004 - 3:51pm
If you really want to know and understand it you'll have to read either Taking Charge of Your Fertility or The Art of Natural Family Planning. But to give you a quick summary... After your period you can identify your fertile period by checking for cervical fluid (wiping or using your fingers before and after going to the bathroom). If you are dry all day, sperm can only survive a couple of hours at most. As soon as you get cervical fluid, sperm can live up to 5 days so you are considered potentially fertile. As you approach ovulation your cervical fluid changes over the course of several days, usually from sticky, to creamy, to clear and stretchy (the most fertile). After ovulation you will dry up very very quickly, and most women remain dry for the rest of their cycle. But because it is possible for the body to try to ovulate and fail, and then try again, you have to confirm ovulation actually happened by charting a rise in your basal temperature. You take your temperature every morning right when you wake up, and after ovulation, because of the progesterone being released, you will have a temperature rise that continues until your period.

An optional cross-check to identifying ovulation is checking your cervical position. It gets soft and open around ovulation.

I have to give the caveat that this is just a very cursory summary of how to identify ovulation so that you could, say, predict your period. If someone wanted to use it to avoid pregnancy there are other rules you have to understand.
Avatar for kissmedeadly
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-29-2003
Wed, 11-10-2004 - 4:08pm
wow, thank you for that valuable info. Yes, I was curious about it in regards to avoiding pregnancy. What does one have to know in that case?
iVillage Member
Registered: 07-21-2003
Wed, 11-10-2004 - 4:53pm
Well to use it to avoid pregnancy you should practice charting for 3 months. If you're coming off hormones it can be really tricky to chart at first while you are waiting for them to get out of your system so that can take some patience. Even if you aren't coming off hormones it can seem tricky at first. I know my first month charting I didn't see any difference in cervical fluid (granted, I was coming off the pill). The second month somehow everything came together and I could see the changes much easier.

There are rules on when it is safe to have sex during your period, since your period would obscure your cervical fluid if you had any. How many days it is safe to have sex on your period will depend on your cycle history and whether you are in pre-menopause (you should have anywhere from 3 to 5 days). This is the only part of fertility awareness that uses the past to predict the future, but the rules are still very conservative.

Also there are rules on when it is safe to resume sex after ovulation. You're safe the evening of the 3rd consecutive day your temperature has risen, and the evening of the 4th consecutive day after your last day of wet cervical fluid. These are extremely conservative rules to make absolutely sure the egg is dead and gone. So the amount of time you will need to abstain or use another method will depend on how many days you have cervical fluid before ovulation. For me, it adds up to about 8-10 days.

There are some charting software programs. I love the one I'm using. I can post my charts on the web and have other women check it out if I have questions.

So this is more info, but still really cursory so don't depend on my explanation :) I use Taking Charge of Your Fertility, but I'm definitely buying the Art of Natural Family Planning soon. I've heard the rules are a bit more conservative in that book, and I'm curious to read the differences since I very much want to avoid getting pregnant :)