A healthy couple who dreams of becoming the parents of a beautiful baby, as soon as possible to see two treasured stripes on the test will help the method of calculating ovulation. The fact is that problems with conception can even occur in healthy young spouses. The reason is simple. Days of proximity may simply not fall into the most “prolific” period of the cycle - ovulation. There are many ways to calculate ovulation day to increase the likelihood of conception.
Ovulation: when it comes
As a rule, women planning a pregnancy begin to think about the features of their own menstrual cycle. Although the calendar method of protection is also common: the couple refrains from intimacy on “dangerous” days, when there is the greatest chance of becoming pregnant. To understand how to calculate the day of ovulation and in order to prevent pregnancy, and to quickly conceive a child, it is worth returning to the school course of anatomy.
Ovulation is the exit of an egg, ready for conception, from a follicle. This usually occurs in the middle of the menstrual cycle, although within the normal range, if ovulation occurs a few days earlier or later. With a standard 28-day cycle (this is the so-called middle ground), ovulation occurs on the 14th day of the cycle.
As soon as pregnancy occurs, the next ovum ceases to ripen, ovulation (like menstrual bleeding) falls for a while. After giving birth, the cycle is restored, and the woman can become pregnant again. The first ovulation occurs shortly before the menarche - the first menstruation. The latter is about two weeks before the last menstruation before menopause.
The egg, ready for fertilization, moves along the fallopian tubes to the uterus (along the way, it can meet with a sperm) - this happens within about 24 hours. Ovulation happens only once a month. In order for a woman to become pregnant, unprotected intercourse must occur just at this time. If intimacy happens a little earlier, the likelihood of conception also remains, because sperm can remain capable of fertilization in the genital tract of a woman for about a week.
Calendar Calculation Method
How to accurately calculate the day of ovulation? There are several ways to do this with varying degrees of probability. The simplest but somewhat unreliable method is the calendar one. How to count? The egg matures about 14 days before the next menstruation (a deviation of two days in one direction or another is possible). To calculate the day of ovulation, you need to know the approximate start date of the next cycle. It is here that the difficulty of determining this important day by the calendar method is.
With a cycle of 28 days, ovulation will occur on approximately the 12-16th day (28-14 and ± 2 days). The cycle is 26 days? Calculating ovulation is simple. This should be done according to the same scheme: 26-14 = 12 and ± 2 days. So, the egg will be ready for fertilization by about 10-14 days. The exact date depends on the individual characteristics of the woman’s body, the presence of stress, nutrition and other factors.
Another example: how to calculate ovulation? The 30 day cycle is the raw data. Subtract 14 days from the cycle time (30 days). It turns out that ovulation will occur on about the 16th day, if you count from the first day of the last menstrual bleeding. Now you need to leave ± 2 days. So, attempts to conceive should be more active in the period from the 14th to the 18th days of the cycle.
You can not rely on the calendar method with an irregular menstrual cycle. In this case, it is better to turn to other methods of calculating the day of ovulation.
Ovulation calculator
The calculator is based on the calendar method. There are many mobile applications that can help calculate the day when conception is most likely. In such an application, a woman can note not only the dates of the onset of bleeding, but also her feelings, the nature of the discharge, basal temperature, the amount of water drunk, weight and other indicators.
The only advantage of applications over calculating favorable days on paper is that the intelligent system analyzes all the data entered by the woman. If there are patterns between the state of health and the phase of the cycle (they are, but not all women are so sensitive that they determine ovulation and the approximation of menstruation only by subjective sensations), then the calculator will adjust the cycle. Of course, for this to work, observations must be made for several months.
The following mobile applications can calculate ovulation with the days of the cycle:
- Flo.
- Period Calendar.
- Love Cycles.
In all, you can set reminders for taking pills or auspicious days, see fertility forecasts, create temperature and weight graphs. Applications are convenient, have a beautiful interface and many features. Flo also offers useful articles, tests, and the opportunity to chat with other women. By the way, useful materials are selected taking into account the particular state of a woman’s health. So, if you notice heavy menstrual bleeding, then the application will offer articles explaining the abundance of secretions.
Subjective sensations
How to calculate ovulation days with an irregular cycle? Many women complain of ovulatory syndrome. It is characterized by pain of varying intensity in the lower abdomen. As a rule, discomfort is localized either on the left or on the right. This is an indicator of which side the egg has ripened.
Some representatives of the fair sex notice increased sexual activity in themselves (this is inherent in nature, at a time when there is the greatest chance of having a baby, a woman will feel a craving for the opposite sex more), a surge of strength and energy. Some complain about the sensitivity and soreness of the chest, swelling caused by fluid retention in the body, aggravation of feelings and sensations: smell, sound, smell.
There may be spotting in the middle of the cycle that is caused by a sudden drop in estrogen before ovulation. If at the same time there is a lack of progesterone, then minor spotting from the genital tract will appear. A sign of ovulation is the softening and opening of the cervix, it rises, occupies a position in the upper part of the vagina.
Discharge during ovulation
The nature of the discharge also changes - this helps to calculate the day of ovulation. With a cycle of 25 days, from about 8-9 days, the discharge becomes watery, and already closer to ovulation, if it occurs in the middle of the cycle, mucous, transparent and well-stretched. They may resemble raw egg white. The number of days with such secretions decreases with age. So, in a twenty-year-old girl, they can last up to five days (longer discharge is easier to notice), and in a woman in forty - a maximum of one to two days.
Ovulation Test
How to calculate the day of ovulation with an irregular cycle? A very informative method is to use test strips to determine the most favorable days for conception. Tests operate on the same principle as those that determine pregnancy. The reagent determines not HCG (the so-called pregnancy hormone), but LH - the hormone that is released during ovulation. There are strips that need to be lowered into the material for research, pre-assembled in a clean container. You can use jet tests, which are enough to substitute under the stream of urine.
You can start using tests from around the eighth day of the cycle if it leaves an average of 28 days. If the cycle is irregular, then you need to calculate the arithmetic mean between the longest and shortest, and start from the obtained duration. Tests should be done once or twice a day (morning or morning and evening). Shortly before ovulation, a second strip will appear on the test. This means that favorable time will come in a few hours. You can try to conceive a child.
Maintain BT schedules
Graphs of basal temperature allow you to determine ovulation even with an irregular cycle. To do this, daily (immediately after waking up, it is necessary to sleep at least 4 hours) to measure the temperature in the rectum or in the vagina. You can use both electronic and mercury thermometers. It is important only to take measurements with only one instrument and in one place during the entire cycle.
Shortly before a favorable day, the temperature drops slightly, and then rises by at least 0.4 degrees Celsius. An accurate sign of an egg cell leaving the follicle is a temperature of 37 degrees or more for three consecutive days. This method is bad only because the most favorable time can be found out only after ovulation has already passed.
Ultrasound calculation of ovulation
This is the most reliable way to calculate favorable days. Ultrasound monitoring is an observation in dynamics of the growth and maturation of follicles. The examination is carried out for several days in a row to establish the presence of ovulation and determine the time of its onset. This method is used in the treatment of infertility and in preparation for IVF.
