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When Do I Ovulate? And Related Life Questions

When do I ovulate?

When do you ovulate?

When do women ovulate?

Do all women ovulate the same?

Ovulation patterns differ with each woman’s specific body type and menstrual cycle. You probably learned about ovulation in middle school health class….but that was years ago. Here’s a refresher.

Ovulation: The Basics

Ovulation is the release of an egg from the ovary, and its travel down the fallopian tube. As the little egg is traveling, it has a *chance* of getting fertilized by a sperm. If that happens successfully, pregnancy is the result! As such, having sex during your ovulation window is the best way to maximize your chances of pregnancy. And conversely, avoiding sex when you are in your ovulation window is a good way to make sure you do not accidentally get pregnant.  

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Ovulation Calendar

Women often ovulate about half way through the menstrual cycle. Let’s hit the calendar. Call the first day of your most recent period Day 1 and the last day before your next period Day 28 (this assumes a 28 day cycle, obviously).  If you have a consistent, 28-day cycle, chances are you will ovulate about mid-way through the cycle–around Day 14.

During ovulation, an egg is available to be fertilized for only 12-24 hours; on the flip flop, sperm can live in the body for 3-5 days. Because of this, medical experts tend to talk about ovulation occurring during a multi-day “window” of time around the ovulation day.  Using the example of a 28 day cycle, you can presume that ovulation will occur approximately in the window between Day 12 and Day 16 (notice Day 14 is right in the middle–you see what we did there?). For cycles that are not 28 days long (ahem…most cycles), just count back 14 days from your NEXT expected period. That’s about the time when you will ovulate.

Ovulation Signs

Calendar estimation is one way to figure out when ovulation might be happening. But a more foolproof method involves also paying attention to your body’s signs of ovulation: patterns in body temperature and vaginal discharge (yep, it’s gonna get goopy).

Temperature - We’re not just talking regular temperature–this is basal body temperature, or the lowest body temperature you experience in a 24-hour period. It happens right when you wake up in the morning.  You can detect BBT by taking your temperature with a special BBT thermometer before getting out of bed.  When you ovulate, your basal body temperature rises.  The uptick is tiny–only about 0.5 to 1.6 degree Fahrenheit–but it is enough to indicate that ovulation has just occurred.

Vaginal Discharge - If you pay attention to the fluids in your panties, you’ll notice that cervical mucus (fancy medical name for discharge) changes a fair bit during your cycle.  Most of the month, your vag stays pretty mellow in this department. But as you approach ovulation, you’ll notice a clear, slippery, and stretchy substance making an appearance. That’s egg white cervical mucus. Named so because it looks and feels kind of like raw egg whites. Yes, we went there. You will never look at egg whites the same way again.

Ovulation Symptoms

According to polls in the Glow Community, a significant number of women have experienced the following symptoms (in addition to the temperature and vaginal discharge variations discussed above) during their ovulation window:

  • Change in cervical position and cervical firmness - 81% (383 women surveyed)
  • Increase in sex drive - 56% (2194 women surveyed)
  • Brief twinge of pain or dull ache felt in abdomen - 48% (2231 women surveyed)
  • Breast tenderness - 38% (2108 women surveyed)
  • Abdominal bloating - 35% (2253 women surveyed)
  • Heightened sense of vision, taste, or smell - 21% (2094 women surveyed)
  • Light spotting - 7% (2214 women surveyed)

Ovulation Tracking Tools

Accurately tracking your ovulation requires tools. From where we sit, these are the essentials.

  • Glow - Smartphone app that allows you to record everything from your period dates to your BBT and cervical mucus. The app does the math so that you don’t have to–and sends you updates before menstruation and ovulation to keep you in the know.  As you might expect, we recommend it highly :)
  • BBT Thermometer - Essential for knowing if you’re hot or not…and when you might be ovulating.
  • Ovulation Predictor Kit (OPK) - This is a pee-on-a-stick test will give you a positive result a day or two before your ovulate…and signal when you should hop to it if you’re down to make babies.

Your body don’t wait. Sister’s gonna ovulate. So know the facts and stay up to date!