So, you’re ready to take the plunge into parenthood—congratulations! You’re probably finding the prospect super-exciting and super-scary, in almost equal measures.
Ovulation symptoms aren’t difficult to notice. Once you know what to look for, you’ll be surprised how easy it can be. Just about every person trying to get pregnant wants to know when it’s ovulation day. Ovulation is when an egg is released from the ovary. When the egg is ovulated, you want sperm waiting in the fallopian tubes available to fertilize that egg.
In other words, ideally, sexual intercourse should occur before the moment of ovulation in order to increase your odds of conception. You are most fertile in the days leading up to ovulation. If you can have sex during this time, your chances of getting pregnant that cycle will go up considerably.
On average, a woman with regular cycles tends to ovulate sometime between day 11 and day 21 of her cycle. (Day 1 is the day you get your period.) This means a woman’s most fertile days will fall somewhere between day 8 and day 21.
If your cycles are on the shorter side, you’re more likely to ovulate closer to day 11. If you have longer menstrual cycles, ovulation may occur closer to day 21. But “some time” between day 11 and day 21 is quite a long range!
Unsure about how to tell when you’re ovulating? Here are the signs of ovulation to detect when that magical window of opportunity has arrived.
- A Positive Result on an Ovulation Test
An ovulation predictor kit works a lot like an at-home pregnancy test. You urinate on a stick or into a cup in which you place the stick or test strip. Two lines will appear. When the test line is darker than the control line, you’re about to ovulate. This is the time to have sex to get pregnant.
- Fertile Cervical Mucus
When you’re approaching ovulation, secretions near the cervix known as cervical mucus increase and transform into a raw-egg-white-like consistency. This fertile quality cervical mucus helps sperm swim up and into the female reproductive system, and makes sexual intercourse easier and more pleasurable.
When you’re not in a fertile stage of your cycle, cervical mucus is stickier. The stages of cervical mucus are almost-dry to none, sticky, creamy, watery, raw-egg-white-like, and then back to sticky or dry. You can learn to track these changes and predict ovulation.
When you have wet or egg-white-like cervical mucus, that’s the time to have sex to get pregnant!
- Basal Body Temperature Increase
Your basal body temperature (BBT) is your temperature when you’re at rest. While you may think of a normal body temperature as 98.6, the truth is that your body temperature varies slightly throughout the day and night. It goes up and down based on your activity level, what you eat, your hormones, your sleep habits, and, of course, if you get sick.
After ovulation, progesterone levels rise in your body. The hormone progesterone causes your temperature to rise slightly. If you track your BBT, you can see when you ovulated.
- Change in Cervical Position
If you think of your vagina as a tunnel, the tunnel ends at the cervix. Your cervix shifts positions and changes throughout your menstrual cycle. You can track these changes.
Just before ovulation, the cervix moves up higher (you may have difficulty reaching it), becomes softer to the touch, and opens slightly. When you’re not in the fertile stage of your cycle, the cervix is lower, harder, and more closed.\
- Breast Tenderness
Ever notice that your breasts are sometimes tender to the touch? But not always? The hormones your body produces after ovulation cause this.
You can take notice of this change as a way of knowing that ovulation has occurred. You can’t predict ovulation this way, but it can be reassuring if you’re wondering if you’ve ovulated this cycle yet.
- Saliva Ferning Pattern
A ferning pattern in your saliva is another possible sign of ovulation. A unique and uncommon way to detect ovulation, a ferning pattern looks like frost on a windowpane. There are specialized microscopes sold for this purpose, or you could technically use any toy store microscope.
- Ovulation Pain
Ever notice a sharp pain in your lower abdomen that seems to occur randomly? If that pain comes mid-cycle, you may be experiencing ovulation pain.
Some women get ovulation pain every month. Research has found that mid-cycle pain (also known as mittelschmerz, German for “middle pain”) occurs just before you ovulate, which would be when you’re most fertile.
For most, ovulation pain is a temporary sharp pain in the lower abdomen. However, others experience pain severe enough that it prevents them from having sexual intercourse during their most fertile time.
You can use what you’ve learned about ovulation to get pregnant faster. That said, even if your fertility is “perfect,” don’t expect to conceive your very first month of trying.
However, ovulation isn’t the only key to conception. It’s just one part of the puzzle. Also important is the health of the overall reproductive system in both partners. If you’re struggling to conceive, and you’re pretty sure you’re ovulating, don’t assume this means everything is okay. See your doctor and get checked out. If you’re 35 years or older, and you’ve been trying to get pregnant for six months without success, see your doctor. If you’re younger than 35, as long as you don’t have any other symptoms of infertility, see your doctor after a year of trying to conceive without success.
The good news is that most couples with fertility challenges will be able to get pregnant with the help of fertility treatments.