Your Rhythms: The best days to try to conceive.
Ovulation Prediction Kits & Fertility Signs
Approximately midway through her menstrual cycle, a woman ovulates – releasing an egg from one of her ovaries. While sperm can live for as long as five to seven days within a woman's body, this egg will only survive for about 12 to 24 hours. If a man and woman have unprotected sex in the seven days before ovulation, or in the 48 hours after ovulation, there is a chance that the woman will become pregnant. The shorter the window between unprotected sex and ovulation, the better the chances.
GENERAL GUIDELINES
This information is for educational purposes only. It does not constitute medical advice. Work with a qualified healthcare provider to decide which ones are important right now for your health and manageable, and which ones may be reserved for later. A consultation is recommended since your healthcare provider will also be able to adjust these suggestions specific for your needs and after a thorough assessment, as these suggestions are not a replacement for diagnosis or treatment.
There are three main fertility signs for you to track:
Basal Body Temperature
Cervical Fluid or Cervical Mucus
LH Surge (Ovulation Prediction Kits)
Tracking your fertility signs helps us:
Confirm when ovulation occurs
Establish your most fertile days
Assess for a synchronized, balanced menstrual cycle
Assess for progesterone activity as it reflects in sustained temperature readings from ovulation onward
If you are just getting started, it is usually recommend tracking your cervical fluid first. This is because your cervical fluid changes just before ovulation, thereby signalling your most fertile period. Basal body temperature changes are best interpreted after ovulation and therefore confirm that ovulation occurred. We often pair cervical mucus with LH surge (ovulation prediction) kits to give the most information with the most ease since tracking temperature can become cumbersome.
Cervical Fluid
As our preferred way of tracking fertility, this is where we start. Cervical fluid is produced by your cervix as you approach ovulation due to increased estrogen. It flows from the cervix into the vagina where it can easily be observed. Your cervical fluid changes throughout your cycle, increasing in quantity and becoming clearer and increasingly stretchy as you get closer to ovulation. In the most common pattern, cervical fluid starts out dry after your period and then gets sticky, then creamy, then wet and watery, becoming most like egg white as you get closer to ovulation. You may get different types of cervical fluid on the same day.
How to check for cervical fluid
Avoid checking your cervical fluid just before or after intercourse as arousal and seminal fluids will skew your observations. The best way to check your cervical fluid is to make observations when you go to the bathroom. After you wipe, you can wipe outside your vagina a second time and note what, if anything, you find on the bathroom tissue. This will soon become second nature and you will find yourself noticing your cervical fluid every time you go to the bathroom.
If you are having trouble finding cervical fluid, doing Kegel exercises (tensing and relaxing the muscles that control the flow of urine) helps to push cervical fluid to the vaginal opening and makes observation easier.
Exercise and bowel movements also push cervical fluid to the vaginal opening making observation
easier. You may find that the best time to check your cervical fluid is after a bowel movement.
You can also use your clean fingers to check, and you may also notice some cervical fluid in your underwear.
Things to notice when checking your cervical fluid
• Does the vagina feel wet or dry?
• Is there any fluid on the tissue?
• How does it look?
• What color is it?
• What consistency is it?
• How much is there?
• How does it feel when you touch it? Can you stretch the fluid between your thumb and index finger like raw egg whites?
LH Test Strips/Ovulation Tests – There’s Diversity in the Cycle
The LH surge itself indicates the end of the fertile period for many (but not all women). A great amount of variation does occur! For example, some women peak once, twice, or multiple times. There is also variation in how long or short the surge lasts. In one study that looked at 283 cycles of healthy, fertile women ovulation was determined by ultrasound and compared to urinary
LH during the peri-ovulatory period. Four major patterns were revealed as outlined below:
o A: ovulation occurred at the onset of the LH peak
o B: ovulation occurred during the LH peak
o C: ovulation occurred at the end of the LH peak
o D: ovulation occurred after the peak (and notably before a second peak)
So, when ovulation occurs at the onset of the LH peak, an LH surge result would mark the end of the fertile window. This means that intercourse in the days leading up to the LH peak is even more important for conception.
When ovulation occurs after the LH peak, more time is available to fertilize the egg from the moment an LH surge occurs. This means, continuing to have intercourse is important.
- Because it isn’t always practical to determine which group you fall into, the advice is to not wait until you have an LH surge to have intercourse. The days leading up to this surge are quite important! AND you also don’t want to stop prematurely, so keep going.
The Take Home Message:
YOUR FERTILE WINDOW:
o Your most fertile days are the 3 to 5 days leading up to ovulation. After the egg releases you
may have an additional 12-24 hours, sometimes less depending on the egg.
o Your peak fertile days are typically in the 2 days before ovulation, so don’t wait for an LH
surge to have intercourse.
o You may want to start testing your urine LH earlier in the cycle and continue testing past the
first surge to see if you might be ovulating earlier or later than expected and if you have multiple
LH surges in one cycle.
Overall,
Get to know your individual cycle and connect with your own body – your cervical mucous is a great
guide, but also how you are feeling, your libido, and temperature changes.
You may not always know exactly when you ovulate, but you can often get a good idea of when this
is approximately, and over several cycles you will have an increased chance of having conception at
the optimal time.
Reference
Direito A, Bailly S, Mariani A, Ecochard R. Relationships between luteinizing hormone surge and other characteristics of the menstrual cycle in normally ovulating women. Fertil Steril. 2013 Jan;99(1):279-285.e3. doi: 10.1016/j.fertnstert.2012.08.047. Epub 2012 Sep 19. PMID: 22999798.