Facts About Ovulation

Becoming pregnant can be difficult for a great deal of women. With the help of the many tools out there available to you, you can remedy these difficulties and be on your way to a successful pregnancy.

Why It's Important to Track Your Ovulation

Ovulation and pregnancy go hand in hand. Implantation during ovulation leads to a pregnancy. Becoming aware of your fertility cycle is the first step to pregnancy. Every woman's fertility cycle is unique, and therefore fertility awareness begins with monitoring your menstrual cycle and being attentive to ovulation symptoms.

The best time to conceive is during ovulation or the 1-2 days prior to it. The newly released egg is fertile for 12-24 hours, and therefore it is essential that you get into the routine of knowing your cycle intimately. The window of opportunity is small so inform yourself on some of the methods of ovulation prediction.

Symptoms of Ovulation

Look to your body for some natural signs of ovulation. These include changes in cervical mucus and ovulation pains.

Cervical Mucus

You will experience changes in the frequency and consistency of your cervical mucus throughout your menstrual cycle. The cervical mucus serves to provide an environment that the semen can easily move up the uterus in. Therefore, the most advantageous consistency for a sperm to move through is a slippery texture-something like raw egg white. This texture should be noticed at the time of ovulation. Read more on Monitoring your Cervical Mucus.

Ovulation Pains

Ovulation signs include pains, or Mittelschmerz, which occur before, during or after the ovulation period in your menstrual cycle. The pain is centered around your lower right abdomen, and may last anywhere from a few hours to days. Although these can alert you to the occurrence of ovulation, you should not rely primarily on these pains to help you conceive. Ovulation pains can be used as a secondary fertility sign-that is, taken with the many other symptoms of ovulation, these pains will create a more accurate representation of your fertility.

Basal Body Temperature

Charting your basal body temperature (BBT) will let you chart the higher temperatures your body experiences before and during ovulation, and will therefore help you plot your days of ovulation.

Using a thermometer specially designated for measuring basal body temperature, take a reading at the beginning of each day, right after you get out of bed. Try to take the temperature around the same time each day-setting an alarm might help you be more accurate in your readings. Some basal thermometers will even beep to indicate a peak temperature reading.