When do You Ovulate (Ovulation Signs and Test)? How Many Days after Your Period do You Ovulate? Ovulation is that time of the menstrual cycle when a mature ovarian follicle releases an egg into the lower part of the uterus. If the egg meets a sperm, it becomes fertilized, and the woman becomes pregnant.
♦ Signs and Symptoms
During ovulation, your body will send you signs that it is ready for pregnancy. Make use of this time if you want a baby in nine months’ time!
• Increase in basal body temperature
You will need a basal thermometer to determine your temperature, and it’s quite easy to acquire one. Use it to check your basal body temperature at the same time each day before rising from your bed in the morning, throughout the cycle. Do it before any other activity. Before even saying a Good Morning to your bed-mate! You will need to note down the findings of several cycles for this method to be reliable. You will note that the temperatures are low after menstruation and even lower during ovulation. The temperature will increase abruptly when ovulation occurs, until just before your next periods start. If pregnancy happens during the ovulation, the temperature remains high.
• Clear, raw egg-white and stretchy cervical mucus
You can tell when you are ovulating by noting the texture, color, and consistency of your cervical mucus. Immediately after menstruation, the mucus is cloudy, and dry. It is also thick and does not stretch for long before breaking. But during ovulation, it changes to becoming runny and as clear as a raw egg white. When you stretch it between your fingers, you will note that it can even stretch for a whole centimeter without breaking! (Some fun in the bathroom, right?). This environment allows the sperm to swim through the cervix with ease.
Read more about Why Do I Have Irregular Periods After Childbirth?
• Lower cervix.
When a woman is not ovulating, her cervix is dry and tight. When you feel it with your finger, (make sure your hands are clean) its position is lower. During ovulation the cervix feels higher, and it is wet and tender.
• Mittelschmerz
It is a German word. It means mid-pain. Some women are lucky to experience a mild pain from one side of the lower abdomen. The side is from which a follicle releases an egg. The pain is not supposed to be acute.
• Spotting
Spotting should not be confused with bleeding. It is usually a slight tinge off blood stains on the underwear. The estrogen levels are lower just before ovulation. This may cause bleeding from the lining of the fallopian tube.
• The breasts become more tender
• The woman’s sex drive increases
♦ Fertility Days
It might be a little difficult to identify your ovulation window, especially if you tend to experience irregular cycles, like most women do. But if your cycle falls in between the range of 26-32 days, then they are considered regular, and ovulation will happen somewhere in the middle of the cycle. This means that the ideal ovulation window occurs 12-16 days before your next monthly visitor. However, like in most natural occurrences, things might not be that perfect, and your next ovulation prediction might vary from the previous one.
♦ Ovulation Test
With technology, a lot of ovulation testing kits are available in the market. They foretell and warn you that your body will ovulate in a particular amount of time. The following are the most popular:
• Saliva testing kits
Your drying saliva is closely examined from a reusable little microscope. It uses estrogen levels from the woman’s saliva to predict her ovulation when the saliva’s pattern matches that of a fern leaf.
• Ovulation prediction kits
They work like the Pregnancy kits. You just have to pee on the stick, and the result you get is determined by the levels of your body’s LH ( luteinizing hormone ). They predict for you if ovulation is to happen in 12 to 24 hours.
Do not give up! Always try to make a baby whenever you are in the mood, if that is what you want. And you will succeed!
