Ovulation Symptoms and Ovulation Signs
Women trying to get pregnant often become frustrated when they miss their period but have a negative pregnancy test. They don't know what's going on. What most don't realize is that when TTC the single most important information is finding out if and when ovulation happens.
Ovulation is when the egg is ejected from the ovary.
If you miss your period and you know if and when ovulation happened then there are only 2 possibilities:
1. You are not pregnant and your period comes 15 or so days later
2. You are pregnant and your period does not come 15+ days later
But if you don't know whether and when ovulation happened then you don't know when your period is supposed to come or not.
Women who don't ovulate usually do not get their periods or they have irregular spotting and bleeding.
When trying to get pregnant the #1 information to know about is The "BIG O": OVULATION. It is essential to find out with enough certainty whether and when you ovulate (find out about the #2 information HERE).
Your chances getting pregnant each month are 20-25% if all of the following 5 conditions are met:
- You ovulate (you should monitor your body to ensure you ovulate)
- He has enough motile viable sperms
- You made love during the 4-5 fertile days
- Your fallopian tubes are open
- You are under 35 years old
Your chances decrease significantly if one or more of these conditions are not met
If you are pregnant then a pregnancy test is usually positive 15+ days after ovulation. That's why knowing exactly the day of ovulation is crucial to improve your chances getting pregnant.
Making sure that you ovulate and finding out exactly when you ovulate likely improves your chances getting pregnant. That's why and checking ovulation signs and symptoms is crucial and especially when taking Clomid (clomiphene citrate).
The most fertile to make love are the 1-2 days before ovulation and the day after ovulation. Making love after ovulation is unlikely to get you pregnant.
There are several ways to find out if and when you ovulate. If you have a very regular menstrual cycle cycle, then having a fertility or ovulation calculator and calendar may be helpful. Some methods be easily done at home, others require more sophisticated testing.
At Home Ovulation Detection
- Temperature Charting (Over 95% reliable)
- Calculation: Ovulation and Fertility Charting and Calculator (Not 100%)
- Cervical Mucus Changes (Not 100% reliable)
- Ovulation Pain: Mittelschmerz (Not 100% reliable)
- OPK Ovulation Predictor Kit (not 100% reliable)
Combining two or more of these improves the reliability of ovulation detection.
Ovulation Detection in Doctor's Office
- Blood Progesterone Test (100% diagnostic if elevated)
- Ultrasound Exams of Ovaries (100% diagnostic)
The only 100% correct diagnosis of ovulation can be made if you become pregnant, or if your ovulation shows on sonogram or you have an elevated progesterone level about a week after ovulation.
Basal Body Temperature BBT Charting
This involves keeping a record of where you are in your menstrual cycle and then recording your daily basal temperature (temperature in the morning before you get up).
The Basal Body Temperature chart records the change in temperature that occurs after ovulation. It cannot predict when ovulation will occur in a given cycle, but by looking at records from a few cycles you can notice a pattern from which ovulation can be estimated.
The best way to record and monitor body temperature is with a BBT chart. You can download a free blank Basal Body Temperature chart in two different formats: PDF or Excel Spreadsheet. This chart also includes an area to record your Cervical Mucus assessments.
A BBT chart provides a good visual basis for determining ovulation:
Cervical Mucus Monitoring
The presence and tactile consistency of your cervical mucus undergoes a number of changes during your menstrual cycle. By observing changes in cervical fluid, you can predict ovulation - your most fertile time for conceiving a baby.
One of the purposes of cervical mucus during ovulation is to sustain the sperm in a healthy medium and to allow it to move freely through the cervix. Logically, there will be an increase in cervical mucus at ovulation, as well as a change in texture - the mucus becomes more clear, "stretchable", and slippery.
Using clean fingers, or if you prefer, toilet paper, you can examine your cervical fluid. Prior to ovulation, during non-fertile periods, you will experience a dryness (or lack of cervical mucus). Gradually, as you approach ovulation, the cervical mucus will increase, though the consistency will be "sticky" and the color will be white, yellow, or cloudy in nature.
Directly prior to ovulation, cervical fluid will increase greatly, and now the mucus will be semi-transparent, slippery, with the consistency of "raw egg white". This is your most fertile period and ovulation will take place at about this time.
If you find that your cervical mucus is not reaching the "raw egg white" stage, you may want to try a lubricant like Pre-Seed. Pre-Seed is the only truly sperm friendly lubricant currently on the market at this time, and many people have found success in getting pregnant while using it.
However, finding fertile strechy cervical mucus in and by itself does not necessaily mean that you ovulated all the time. Mucus is made strechy by the estrogen hormone which normally rises before ovulation. However, there are many circumstances where estrogen can be elevated without ovulation, and the most important one is women who have PCOS Polycystic Ovary syndrome. These women often don't ovulate but they can observe strechy mucus EWCM.
Mittelschmerz/Lower Abdominal Discomfort
About one-fifth of women actually feel ovulatory activity, which can range from mild aching to twinges of sharp pain. This ovulation symptom, called Mittelschmerz, may last anywhere from a few minutes to a few hours and is usually noticed in the right side of lower abdomen.
Ovulation Tests (OPK)
These can also predict ovulation. If you tests every day starting 5-6 days before suspected ovulation then ovulation usually happens within 12-34 hours after the test first becomes positive.
