Keeping Track Of Your Cycles What You Need To Know
Let’s just go over the basics before we get into any details. A typical cycle lasts 28 days and is split into these phases: menses, the follicular phase (occurs before ovulation), ovulation and the luteal phase. Menses is your period at which time you are usually not fertile. The follicular phase begins from the first day of menses up until ovulation . During this phase, the ovarian follicles develop and mature until one follicle becomes dominant. Estrogen is the hormone that drives the folllicular phase. The last two days of this phase opens the fertile window that leads to ovulation. You are fertile at this time.
Next ovulation occurs. The luteinizing hormone surges at this time and the ovarian follicle ruptures and releases the ovum for fertilization. You are very fertile on this phase, lasting 12 – 24 hours. The last phase is the luteal phase that typically lasts 12-14 days but can vary and last between 10-16 days. If you have concieved during ovulation, then the egg will implant itself into the uterus 7-10 days after this phase starts. If not, the uterine lining will shed (your period) and body will prepare for a new cycle.
TRACKING YOUR CYCLE : CALENDAR METHOD W/ BASAL BODY TEMPERATURE
Tracking your cycle using the calendar method, and tracking your basal body temperature, is a good blueprint to predict when ovulation is about to occur. There are many sites that allow you to do this easily, where all you need to do is enter your information, and they chart it for you . That draw you can begin to recognize patterns in your cycle. Most of these sites will also have you keep track of other fertility signs such as cervical fluid and cervical position. Two sites that i recommend are www.mymonthlycycles.com and www.fertilityfriend.com . Both of these sites make it quite easy to keep track of your cycle and notify you when ovulation may occur. Fertility Friend also offers a 20 course charting lesson to help you better understand charting and your body.
OVULATION PREDICTOR KITS (OPKs)/ FERTILITY MONITORS
Ovulation predictor kits have become popluar as a way to predict when ovulation is about to occur. The kits measure the amount of lutienizing hormone (LH) in your urine. It is very important that should you decide to use these, you follow the manufacturers instructions completely. Also when beginning to test, deciding when to open is important . If you begin testing early you may miss the LH surge, and if you test too late, the same will happen. This is where keeping track of your cycles comes in handy so you can know when to test daily. Morning urine is not best for these tests because LH starts to rise in the morning and you probably will not have enough LH in your urine to get a positive result. Testing in early afternoon is best.
SALIVA MICROSCOPES
Saliva microscopes use saliva (or cervical fluid) to measure to how close you are to ovulating. It uses the hormone estrogen to do this . When estrogen is present, the microscope will train a “ferning” pattern in the saliva or cervical fluid on the slides indicating how close you are to ovulation. For best results, follow manufacturers directions as closely as possible.
Any combination of these methods, preferably all of them will allow you to predict when ovulation will occur, so intercourse can be timed properly.
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Filed under ovulation calculator by on Jan 30th, 2012. 