When couples plan to conceive, they sometimes overlook the most important thing in trying to achieve pregnancy – determining the most fertile days of a cycle. If you have been keeping track of your menstrual periods, then you are most likely familiar with the signs that represent ovulation is taking place.
For those who don’t, here are a few simple methods in order to determine what day in the cycle this happens.
How An Ovulation Calculator Can Help You Understand How the Female Menstrual Cycle Works
The ovaries in the female reproductive system release an egg once a month in order to anticipate possible conception. In order to prepare for this, hormones are specifically released by the pituitary gland. After menstruation, a surge of estrogen occurs and this causes the release of progesterone which causes the uterine lining in the endometrium to thicken. This thickening is necessary to maintain implantation for the fertilized egg and in order for it to provide all the nourishment that the fetus needs. Estrogen on the other hand, is tasked to stimulate the production and growth of eggs needed for ovulation.
Once the work o f estrogen is done, it slowly decreases in amount. This decrease signals the pituitary gland to release the luteinizing hormone, a hormone that stimulates the ovaries to release a mature ovum out into the fallopian tubes. Once this reaches the peak level, LH signals the ovaries to release the now fully-grown ovum to let it sit and wait for sperm to come and fertilize it. The egg is viable only for a very limited amount of time, usually about 24-48 hours. After this, it dies and when fertilization has not taken place, the uterine lining in the endometrium sloughs off and is expelled through menstruation.
In a typical 28 day cycle, ovulation happens about 14 days before the next menstrual period. Knowing each individual’s cycle length then helps couples determine the best way to have intercourse so that pregnancy can be achieved.
Determining the Most Fertile Days of Ovulation through an Ovulation Calendar
For women with regular 28 day cycles, it is quite easy to determine ovulation. Just count 14 days from the first day of the next menstrual period and then that’s it. But for those who have shorter, longer or even irregular cycles, can ovulation be predicted using the ovulation calendar method?
In these cases, it will be helpful if the woman will be able to take note of her period lengths for approximately six months. This provided information in order for her to get an average on the days she will most likely ovulate.
After keeping tabs on these, the woman should get the shortest cycle from the list and subtract 18 days from it. This represents her first fertile day. Next, she gets the longest cycle days and subtracts 11 days. This represents her last fertile day.
The results obtained reflect the days in which ovulation is likely to happen, so intercourse can then be timed according to these dates.
For example, the shortest cycle is noted to be 20 days. Subtracting 18 days gives the result of 2, which represents the first fertile days. Next, let’s say the longest cycle is 30 days. We minus this with 11 and end up with 19. Therefore, ovulation is most likely to occur on the 2nd to the 19th day of your next cycles.
Predicting ovulation through the use of an ovulation calendar is only way of determining fertile periods. There are a number of ways which this can be done, and they rely on subjective and objective data that represent ovulation has occurred.
An ovulation calendar is often used in conjunction with other ovulation predictor methods. These may include basal body temperature monitoring, cervical mucus changes, cervical position changes or through the use of ovulation predictor kits. These advances in medical science has allowed more accurate methods of predicting ovulation.
Use An Ovulation Predictor For Timing Intercourse
Provided that the egg lives for only 24 hours, this small window of opportunity should not be missed. Using an ovulation predictor means that you now know when ovulation is likely to occur, having intercourse at this same day probably makes sense. However, there are other factors to consider.
The sperm is able to swim and survive inside the vagina for up to 72 hours. In order to maximize you chances, intercourse can be done three days prior to ovulation. Sperm is able to stay up until the day ovulation occurs so that fertilization is possible. Next, time intercourse on the exact day of ovulation. This is again to take sure that fertilization takes place by depositing a new batch of sperm ready for conception.
The use of an ovulation calendar may not be 100% accurate but it provides an educated guess of your fertile period. Through this simple method of predicting ovulation, couples can then exactly time intercourse for optimal chances of conception.