How Ovulating Leads to Pregnancy
Of the four phases of a women's monthly cycle, ovulation is the shortest phase, yet the most important for those seeking to get pregnant and those seeking to avoid pregnancy all together. Occurring on the 14th day of a regular 28-day cycle, the ovulation period usually lasts from 24-72 hours. Lets go over the different ways to test for your ovulation cycle.As the ovulation phase approaches, your blood supply to your ovaries increase and the ligaments contract, pulling the ovary closer to the fallopian tubes and allowing the egg, once released, to find its way into the tube. Just before ovulation, a woman's cervix secretes a lot of clear "fertile mucous" which is always stretchy. Some women use daily mucous monitoring to help determine if they're fertile. Mucous monitoring consists of physically testing the discharge from your vagina. By using two fingers, you take a sample from your vaginal area and look at the mucous. If it's thick, creamy or white in color, and if it breaks apart easily as you spread your fingers apart, you're not quite at your ovulation cycle. If it looks like egg whites and is extremely thin, allowing you to separate your fingers dramatically without breakage, chances are you're at your small window of opportunity and ovulation has arrived.
Another and more popular way to track your ovulation cycle is to write it down manually on a calendar. Any calendar will do. This is the easiest way to track your ovulation. The day you begin ovulating, the very day, count backwards 14 days and mark it on your calendar. This is because no matter how inconsistent your period is (starting on this day, then completely different the next month) your ovulation date will always remain the same. You begin your period exactly two weeks after you ovulate. So don't forget, count backwards, not forward.
Another common way to track your ovulation cycle is to check your basal body temperature. This can be tricky for some, and flat out complicated for others. This method is only useful for women who have a regular 30-day menstruation cycle. The test is the one that measures a change in your body's temperature that occurs after ovulation, making it easier to predict when ovulation will begin on your next cycle. Day one of your chart is the first day of your menstruation cycle. You should take your body temperature right then, record it and then save the thermometer because using the same thermometer each time will help to gain accurate information. The next morning and every morning after that, before, yes before you get out of bed take your temperature again and record the information. Your basal body temperature will rise just after ovulation by about .4F-.6F. So, the day ovulation occurs you will see a rise, then over the next two days your temperature should climb even higher, making it very easy to see when you are peaking. Peaking is good. Now, the tricky part about charting your temperature is noticing that your post-ovulating temperature will remain at the new, higher level. When the temperature drops, your cycle starts over again. Like with most fertility charting methods, you'll need to plan and test in advance, at least 3 months to give you a good idea of your exact ovulation date.
The Luteinizing Hormone, also known as LH is what triggers ovulation to begin. During ovulation a mature egg is released from a woman's ovaries and travels to the fallopian tubes. The egg, regardless if its fertilized then makes its way into the uterus. If it is fertilized, conception happens. Besides the Luteinizing Hormone, there are two other hormones that play a crucial role during this phase; Estrogen and Progesterone. During ovulation these hormones are produced, or increase and when they combine together, they create many dramatic changes in your endometrium, because these changes are needed in order for an embryo to implant and begin growing.
Ovulation kits are available over the counter in almost any local pharmacy or grocery store. The best thing you can get from an ovulation kit is a better understanding of your monthly cycle. If you are trying to conceive, these kits could be a great tool. The kits themselves are meant to track your Luteinizing Hormone. A high amount of LH is released throughout your body just before ovulation. Most professionals will tell you to stock up on ovulation kits and test multiple times per day, since the amount of LH in your system fluctuates during this time. Once you test positive for increased amounts of LH, it's important you're either constantly intimate over the next 72 hours if you want to get pregnant, or avoiding intimacy all together if you don't.
Be careful not to confuse pregnancy tests with ovulation tests since they search for different hormones. Pregnancy tests look for the hormone hCG, while again, ovulation tests look for LH. Monthly supply's of ovulation kits can become slightly costly, averaging around forty dollars per month. But if you're striving to get pregnant, it's well worth the money.
There can be complications with a woman's ovulation cycle. It can be delayed by stress, illness, medication or heavy increased activity. When women say things like "my period is late" it's actually the ovulation cycle that is late, not their menstrual cycle. This can be confusing if a woman is not charting her cycles. Start charting, you'll see what I mean. :)
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