Ovulation 101 - Part 2

Today is part 2 of Ovulation 101. If you missed part 1 you can find it here.

You need to have a good luteal phase for pregnancy to occur.

For an implanting pregnancy to be supported, the length of the second part of your cycle (the luteal phases) needs to be greater than 9 days. This gives enough time for the hormone progesterone to act on the lining of the womb (endometrium) and thicken it enough to allow implantation to take place.

How you can help to increase your luteal phase.

There are a number of natural ways you can help to increase your luteal phase. Have a read of another blog I wrote on natural remedies to increase the luteal phase. There are also medical treatments such as proegesterone therapy that you can talk to your Doctor about.

Ovulation Predictor kits (OPK’s) are not always accurate.

OPK’s determine whether lutenising hormone (LH) is dected. LH rises right before ovulation occurs, and therefore OPK’s detect that ovulation is going to occur. However women with conditions such as PCOS or dimished ovarian reserve have higher levels of LH and therefore OPK’s can give false positive result. As there are 1:10 women in the UK who have PCOS and many more that are yet diagnosed, this equates to a large amount of women that OPK’s will not work for.

You can conceive from sex that occurs before ovulation.

Any sex that you have during your fertile time prior to ovulation can result n a pregnancy. This is because the life of the sperm is 5 days and on occasions up to 7. Therefore having sex in the 5 days prior to ovulation and the day of ovulation gives you the best chance. There are no recorded pregnancies from sex that occurred on the day after ovulation.

Ovulatory pain is not a reliable indicator of ovulation.

Women report many signs of ovulation. Such as breast tenderness, bloating, heightened sense of smell and taste and ovulation pain. Whilst these may be due to ovulation, the subjective nature of these symptoms and that they could be based on pure coincidence, means that they are not termed reliable indicators. Recording your natural fertility indicators such as temperature, cervical secretions and cervical position are all methods of observing for ovulation.

Having a period does not necessarily mean that ovulation has taken place.

Some women have what is termed as an-ovulatory cycles (meaning no ovulation) and can experience some bleeding that is mistaken for a period. However this is not the case. The bleeding is due to either a build-up of endometrium that cannot be sustained or by a drop in oestrogen levels. Monitoring temperature is a good way to confirm whether or not ovulation has taken place.

Contraception delays return of fertility.

When stopping hormonal contraception it can take awhile for your fertility to return. When you initially stop the combined oral contraceptive you may be very fertile for the first month however after this time it is likely that your fertility will take a number of months to return completely. Your fertility is likely to take longer to return after stopping the contraceptive injection and could be as long as 9+ months.