Overview
Knowing when you're
ovulating has several benefits. You can only get pregnant by having
unprotected intercourse from about five days before to one day after
ovulation. Pinpointing when ovulation occurs can help both with natural
family planning -- a non-hormonal method of avoiding pregnancy -- and
conception -- getting pregnant when you want to. Some women just want to
track ovulation as part of their understanding of their general health
and well-being. Others track ovulation as part of a medical evaluation
of health conditions such as polycystic ovary syndrome. Charting
ovulation requires a calendar and a method of determining when you
ovulate.
Writing It Down
Any calendar will do for keeping track of
ovulation, although you may want to keep it private. A calendar that
shows up on your work desktop is probably not the best choice. While you
may use good old-fashioned paper and pencil to make your own calendar,
you may also use more modern methods of charting. Commercial
manufacturers produce an increasing number of software programs and
smartphone apps to help facilitate your recording process.
Basal Body Temperature
One of the most basic home health tools, a
thermometer, can give an accurate determination of when ovulation
occurs, but you've got to be diligent about your recording efforts.
Starting around the day after ovulation, your body produces the hormone
progesterone. Progesterone causes a slight rise in body temperature,
typically between 0.5 to 1 degree Farenheit when measured by a sensitive
thermometer first thing in the morning (even before getting out of
bed). It is important to note that tracking your basal body temperature
helps detect if/when ovulation occurred, but it will not help you
recognize ovulation before it occurs, which is essential if you're
trying to get pregnant or avoid pregnancy.
Theoretically, any thermometer can be used, but a
thermometer specifically made to detect ovulation gives the most
reliable results. A rise in temperature that lasts two to three days in a
row reliably indicates that ovulation has occurred. While many women
use and like this method, it has drawbacks. It doesn't work for
everyone, it's labor intensive and it can only confirm that you
ovulated, but it can't predict ovulation in advance.
Checking Cervical Secretions
You can use cervical secretions to help determine
when ovulation is approaching and to help pinpoint ovulation, especially
if you use this method in conjunction with recording your temperature.
Cervical secretions change in a predictable pattern during the course of
your menstrual cycle. Cervical mucus ranges from scant right after
menses to abundant, clear and stretchy prior to and immediately
following ovulation. While this method isn’t for everyone and takes a
little education to master, it does correlate quite well with ovulation.
Many women find it to be an easy, convenient, and reliable way to track
ovulation
High-Tech Monitors
Commercially available monitors and kits that
detect hormones in the urine, saliva or cervical fluid that indicate
ovulation provide a high-tech way to detect ovulation. While urine kits
differ slightly from one another, they all appear very similar to urine
pregnancy tests in that they utilize plastic sticks with an indicator.
While most urine kits predict ovulation only one to two days in advance
by detecting luteinizing hormone, at least one brand predicts ovulation
even further in advance -- as much as three to five days before
ovulation -- by measuring a metabolite of estrogen. You may purchase
even more high-tech, and typically more expensive, monitors to track
ovulation, although these haven't proven more beneficial than basic
systems in reliable clinical studies. Some of these other monitors
include mini-microscopes and monitors for cervical fluid and saliva as
well as wearable thermometers and skin monitors. One notable new product
integrates the basic basal body temperature measurements with
compatible fertility charting software.
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