What you should know about your ovulation and menstrual cycle

If you are trying to conceive, you may have questions about ovulation and your menstrual cycle. This is normal, and it is essential that you are aware that one of the ways to optimize your fertility is by being in optimal health and understanding how your reproductive cycle works.

Good knowledge of your menstrual cycle is necessary so that you can know the right time for intercourse. To begin, you may want to ask, what is ovulation, what is menstruation, and what is a regular menstrual cycle? Ovulation is when an egg is released from your ovaries to be fertilized. Menstruation, or what is commonly referred to as your period, is the bleeding that occurs after ovulation if you don’t get pregnant.

Ovulation happens about 14 days before your period starts. For instance, if your average menstrual cycle is 28 days, you ovulate around day 14, and your most fertile days are days 12, 13, and 14. If your average menstrual cycle is 35 days ovulation happens around day 21 and your most fertile days are days 19, 20, and 21.

Your menstrual cycle, on the other hand, is the monthly process of changes that occur to prepare your body for a possible pregnancy. When your cycle is regular, it means that the first day of your periods occur on a specified number of days apart every month (usually 21-35 days) and if your menstrual cycle is irregular, it means that the lengths vary from month to month outside this range.

By tracking this information on a calendar, you can better predict when you might be ovulating, which is the time when your ovaries will release an egg every month. The time between your menstrual cycle and ovulation is the luteal phase. This is where the lining of your uterus usually thickens, due to the increase in your body producing progesterone, to prepare for implantation of a possible pregnancy.
Your menstrual cycle starts from the first day you get your period (menstrual phase) through the time your ovaries release an egg (ovulation). No two cycles or periods are alike, so on average, a complete cycle can last 21 days or as long as 35 days. But generally speaking, a period that shows up every 26-32 days is considered the norm.

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From the above, the difference between your ovulation and menstruation is clear. Ovulation is when an egg is released from your ovaries to be fertilised. Menstruation, or your period, is the bleeding that occurs after ovulation if you don’t get pregnant. During your menstruation, blood, mucus, and tissue flow out of the cervix and vagina each month.

To go into a bit more detail, there are two phases of your menstrual cycle. They take place before and after ovulation. Prior to ovulation, your body is producing hormones and preparing the lining of your uterus to accept a fertilized egg. Ovulation, or the release of that egg, occurs mid-cycle and if successfully fertilised, will implant on the prepared lining. If fertilisation does not take place, then the lining will simply withdraw and menstruation will begin.

You may also predict ovulation by regularly checking both the amount and appearance of mucus in the birth canal. Just before ovulation, the amount of mucus increases and becomes thinner, clearer, and more slippery, you should also know your fertile window, which is the interval each month when you are most fertile. It is worthwhile to mention that there are simpler ways like apps and kits that can be used for predicting ovulation.

Normally, the fertile window spans a six-day interval comprising five days prior to ovulation plus the ovulation day. If you cannot calculate your fertile window, just plan to have intercourse every other day.

You might assume that the eggs in the ovary develop from the first stage to ovulation in a month’s time, but that’s untrue. Eggs develop over several months. They go through various stages until they are either ready to ovulate or stop growing and remain dormant. Most of the eggs in your ovaries never mature to ovulation. When you begin puberty, your ovaries house approximately 300,000 eggs. Despite this apparent storehouse of eggs, you only ovulate around 300 ova over your lifetime.

There is also a misconception that each ovary takes a turn ovulating every other month. For example, one month the right ovary ovulates. Then the next month, the left ovary ovulates. In fact, ovulation occurs on whichever side has the most mature ovum of the month. In some women, one ovary may ovulate significantly more often than the other.

You normally experience signs and symptoms before ovulation. Some symptoms may appear several days before ovulation, while others won’t happen until the day before or the day of ovulation. Before ovulation, you may have an increase in sexual desire, an increase in cervical mucus, softening and opening of the cervix, and some cramping or sharp pain on your side. After ovulation, there is a decrease in sexual desire, a decrease in cervical mucus, a rise in body basal temperature, and breast tenderness several days after ovulation that may be mistaken as an early pregnancy sign.

While knowing when you are ovulating can help you time sex for your most fertile days, it’s not required. If you have sex three to four times a week, you’re bound to have sex around your ovulation period.

If you want to get pregnant, you need to have sex on the days leading up to ovulation. There are a variety of ways to detect and track ovulation, but you don’t need to stress over it. If you have sex three to four times a week, you’re bound to have intercourse on one of your fertile days. If you’re not having regular periods, you may not be ovulating. This can be a possible sign of infertility.