When Am I Ovulating?

It is 
common for women to ask “when am I ovulating? Or  “did I
ovulate?” ” Am I ovulating? “These questions arise because of
the pivotal place of the date of ovulation in fertility issues.

 Am I
Ovulating?

There are three “tools”  available that could help you  determine if you are ovulating or not.  You can use any or best still a combination of them. They are The ovulation signs. These are the signs  that  accompany the ovulation process The ovulation calendar. This is a simple mapping of the days of your cycle to try to predict which days ovulation is likely to occur

3. Ovulation
test kits and monitors. These are tests, like the home pregnancy test that you
can use to detect when ovulation actually occurs.

Ovulation
signs

There are
signs or symptoms that accompany the process of ovulation. They are the “body
language of ovulation”. Please remember that these signs give you a very rough
estimate and therefore are not totally reliable.

Some signs
and symptoms of ovulation include:

• Basal body
  temperature(BBT) rise of  about 0.25 to
  0.5 degrees Celsius( 0.5 to 1 degrees Fahrenheit).
• Cervical
  mucus  increasing in amount and becoming
  clear and “thread” like the white of an egg
• Cervical
  Position  rising  “high” in the vagina
• Mid Cycle
  bleeding or ovulation spotting  that may
  occur in about 1 in every 10 women.
• Ovulation
  pain that occurs in the lower abdomen on the day of ovulation
• Increased
  libido in some women
• Increased
  attractiveness!

The
Ovulation Calendar

This is a range of days during your cyclel that you are most likely to ovulate. These days can easily be predicted using  the length of your cycle and the luteal phase length

Ovulation
test kits and monitors

The ovulation predictor kit is a simple test strip like the pregnancy test that detects the hormone of
ovulation, called Luteinizing hormone or LH. 
They are very easy to use, as easy as the home pregnancy test. They are
the most reliable method  to ascertain
the time of ovulation, and can let you know sometimes within hours of ovulation.
There are more sophisticated ovulation monitors which greatly facilitate this
task, but they are more expensive, as expected.

When Am I
Ovulating vs Did I Ovulate?

These two
questions look similar but they are different. In using the ovulation signs and
prediction tools,  each tool should be put
in an appropriate context

• There are
  signs that tell you that you are about to ovulate. That means they can tell you
  in advance, such as the changes in cervical mucus or the predictor kits. You
  rather want to know ovulation is about to happen than that it already occurred!
• There are
  signs that tell you that ovulation has already occurred, such as the rise
  in  BBT.
• There are
  signs that tell you that ovulation is actually occurring right now.
  Unfortunately, we do not have many of such signs. An example will be the onset
  of ovulation pain that will 
  theoretically tell you that ovulation is occurring NOW!

The
ovulation predictor kit can help with all of these three categories depending
on  how they were used. You can  learn more about the ovulation predictor kit.

If you want
to have a better overview of how to predict ovulation using these methods,
check out predicting ovulation or how to calculate ovulation date.

Still not
sure about  “When am I ovulating?”
Contact Doc!

If you have  any personal experience about how you feel during ovulation and would want to share with the other women visiting this site, please use the form below