Evidently, for women hoping to get pregnant, having a regular, normal-length period is no guarantee they are actually ovulating. One-third of all seemingly normal menstrual cycles may be egg-less. If you are struggling to get pregnant, you may have what is known as ovulatory disorders.

If you are not ovulating regularly, the cause is usually that the ovary is not receiving the appropriately timed signals to mature and release an egg. If you have ovarian cysts and are struggling to get pregnant. You are not alone, there are simple things you can do nowadays to get pregnant fast.

Can you ovulate without having a period?

Are you ovulating but no period? While ovulation and periods naturally go together, it is possible to ovulate without having a period. This often occurs for women with irregular periods.While this may seem confusing, it becomes clear when you understand how ovulation works.

If you’re trying to get pregnant, it can be confusing and upsetting to find that you aren’t ovulating, especially if you’re experiencing periods, whether that’s according to your regular cycle or a disrupted one. Understanding why this is happening can help to point you in the direction of a solution, or at least help to ground your worry in the real processes taking place in your body.

When you’re trying to conceive, it’s normal to begin paying closer attention to your cycle. After all, in order to become pregnant, you first must ovulate. It’s common to assume that your period is a sign that you’re ovulating normally. But surprisingly, that’s not always the case.

In an optimal scenario, a woman’s reproductive system will ovulate every month. But there can be situations that cause anovulation, or the lack of ovulation in a menstrual cycle. When that happens, you may still assume that the bleeding you’ve experienced was your monthly menstrual cycle. But if you’ve had an anovulatory cycle, it isn’t technically a period.

If you’re trying to get pregnant, it’s important to understand the causes of this relatively common condition, also called anovulation and treatments to help you conceive.

Ovulation Without a Period

Again, since your period results from ovulation, it is uncommon to ovulate without having a period, but not impossible. Factors such as uterine scarring or becoming pregnant can cause your period not to occur.

You may have scarring on your uterus. If so, the usual thickening of the uterus lining that normally happens after ovulation does not occur. You may ovulate without having a period, or you might have a light period. You also may ovulate without periods if your ovaries release an egg between 12 to 16 days before you expect your period to begin.

Ovulating but not getting pregnant causes

Can you get pregnant when not ovulating? If you are ovulating but not getting pregnant, the cause is may be polycystic ovaries (PCO). Again it is not uncommon, since around 20% of women have the condition. The term refers to an increase in the number of small cysts (antral follicles) that can be observed on the ovary’s surface when analysed in an ultrasound scan. There are many women with PCO who have no problems ovulating and getting pregnant. However, some women who have this characteristic also have the condition known as Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS). These women have irregular menstrual cycles or even a lack of menstruation; therefore they have problems getting pregnant because they do not ovulate.

Why am I not ovulating?

If you haven’t experienced ovulation this cycle, you’re probably wondering why I am not ovulating what can I do? Anovulation happens when there is an imbalance of hormones. These are finely tuned to regulate the phases of the menstrual cycle. There are a number of factors that can lead to anovulatory cycles. If you’re concerned or are being impacted by anovulatory cycles, we recommend you talk to your doctor or gynecologist.

Causes of anovulation:

Severe changes to diet and/or exercise
Prolonged stress
Disruption to routine
Existing medical conditions such as PCOS
Menopause

What’s an anovulatory cycle?

As its name suggests, an anovulatory cycle occurs when a woman skips ovulation. During ovulation, the ovary releases an egg. It’s not uncommon for a woman in her prime conception years to experience an anovulatory cycle occasionally. In fact, you may have experienced one and not even noticed. That’s because when a woman experiences anovulation, she may still seem to menstruate normally.

In a normal cycle, the production of progesterone is stimulated by the release of an egg. It’s this hormone that helps a woman’s body maintain regular periods. But during an anovulatory cycle, an insufficient level of progesterone can lead to heavy bleeding. A woman may mistake this bleeding for a real period.

This kind of bleeding may also be caused by a build-up in the lining of the uterus, known as the endometrium, which can no longer sustain itself. It can be caused by a drop in estrogen as well.

What causes anovulation?

Your brain tells your body to secrete the hormones estrogen and progesterone, which stimulate the ovaries to produce a mature egg every month. Women who have anovulation usually have an imbalance in these hormones.

A few common causes of anovulation include:

Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS): PCOS is the most common cause of anovulation. The disorder, which affects between 8 and 10 percent of women of childbearing age, causes an imbalance in the hormones that regulate ovulation.

Ovarian insufficiency: For women over 40, hormone levels might be irregular because there are few eggs left to ovulate. For women under 40, premature ovarian failure is when ovaries stop working normally. In 90 percent of cases of premature ovarian failure, the cause is unknown. However it could be linked to a genetic disorder (like Fragile X syndrome, a very rare condition affecting more males than females and resulting in childhood learning disabilities and other developmental problems, or Turner syndrome, a rare disorder affecting girls that causes them to be short in stature and have early ovarian function loss) or an autoimmune diseases (like Addison disease, a very rare but serious disorder affecting the adrenal glands that results in the body not producing enough of two vital hormones).

Why do women experience an anovulatory cycle?

A menstrual cycle without ovulation is most common in two distinct age groups:

Girls who’ve recently begun menstruating: In the year following a girl’s first period, known as menarche, she’s more likely to experience anovulatory cycles.
Women who are close to menopause: A woman between the ages of 40 and 50 is at a greater risk of changes to her hormones. This may lead to anovulatory cycles.

For women in both age groups, many changes are happening to their bodies. Sudden changes to hormone levels can trigger anovulatory cycles. Other causes include:

body weight that’s too high or too low
extreme exercise habits
eating habits
high levels of stress

Can you get pregnant if you don’t ovulate?

Can you get pregnant if you’re not ovulating? If you don’t ovulate, you can’t get pregnant during that cycle. Fortunately, many treatments can trigger your body to release a mature egg so that you can conceive.

How is anovulation diagnosed?

Diagnosing an anovulatory cycle can be simple when a woman has no period, or periods that come very erratically. But that’s not the case for every woman.

To diagnose an anovulatory cycle, your doctor may check:

your progesterone levels
the lining of your uterus
your blood for the presence of certain antibodies

Your doctor may also perform an ultrasound to take a closer look at your uterus and ovaries.

Treatment for anovulation

The findings from these tests will help your doctor recommend the best treatment for you. If these cycles are related to an outside influence like nutrition or lifestyle, effective treatments will include regulating eating habits and moderating physical activities. Making changes to your weight (gaining or losing weight ) may also be enough to and you can ovulation calendar to help know when is ovulation. Sometimes internal imbalances are the reason a woman is experiencing anovulatory cycles. In that case, your doctor may prescribe medications for fertility. These medications are designed to combat the cause of a woman’s infertility. There are drugs designed to ripen the follicles, increase estrogen, and help the ovaries release an egg.

Surgery is an option in the event that a serious complication, such as a tumor, is discovered.

Next steps

If you’re experiencing consistent anovulation — identified by very irregular and erratic cycles that vary wildly in length from one to the next — your doctor may recommend making small lifestyle changes.

Better nutrition, exercise, and stress relief can be very powerful. Try sticking to these changes for at least a few months, and then start paying close attention to whether your monthly cycle is becoming more consistent.

If these changes don’t seem to make a difference, or you just aren’t sure, speak to your doctor. Confirming the diagnosis of anovulation means you can find a solution.