When Will I Ovulate?
80How to Tell When You Are Ovulating
One of the most important things that you need to know when you are trying to get pregnant, is when you are ovulating. Unless you actually have sex at the right time in your cycle, then the chances of conceiving are pretty much out of the window before you even start.
A lot of women who have a regular 28 day cycle will assume that they will just ovulate in the middle of that cycle and work with those dates when trying to conceive. However, this is not the case and women often have different ovulation patterns. Although the majority of women have a very similar luteal phase each month (the number of days between ovulation and the start of the next period), the amount of time before ovulation can vary from month to month.
So if you are wondering 'when will I ovulate?' then there are ways of telling when you are ovulating and you can use any or a combination of these to pinpoint your ovulation date.
Supplements for Fertile Cervical Mucus
 | Evening primrose oil is said to increase the level of egg while (fertile) cervical mucus. Take it only in the first half of your cycle before ovulation. Amazon Price: $5.43 List Price: $9.57 |
 | This supplement has been specifically designed to help increase the quality of cervical mucus. Doing so can also increase the chances of conception as this aids the path of the sperm to the egg. Amazon Price: $19.95 List Price: $21.95 |
 | Preseed is a sperm friendly lubricant that mimics the qualities of egg white cervical mucus during intercourse so if you do not have a lot of fertile cervical mucus then this can help. Amazon Price: $21.50 |
Cervical Mucus
In the days before ovulation the cervical mucus changes form to what is known as egg white cervical mucus (EWCM). This is stretchy and stringy and is particularly good at carrying the sperm to the egg, and hence it appears near to ovulation. However, some people do not notice EWCM so this can be a difficult sign to look for.
If you don’t have much EWCM then it is possible to help it along in a few ways. You can take a supplement like Evening Primrose Oil (only take this before ovulation as it can cause cramps) or FertilCM, or you can add some ‘artificial EWCM’ such as preseed, as a kind of lubricant to aid conception.
Cervical Position
If you monitor the position of your cervix during the month then you may notice changes in the position of the cervix around ovulation time. Just before and around ovulation the cervix is high and open, indicating that it is ready for conception to occur.
However, some women (myself included) find it difficult to monitor the cervix as it may be hard to reach or just be difficult to tell which position it is in.
Ovulation Test Kits
Just before ovulation the body produces Luteinizing Hormone (LH) which indicates that the follicles are attempting to produce an egg and that the egg should be released in the next 24-48 hours. You can buy ovulation test kits that will check for the level of LH in the urine at any given point in the cycle. All that is required is to dip the test in the urine and a control line will appear. If there is an LH surge you will also get another test line and if the level is high so that you may be just about to ovulate, the test line will be as dark as the control line.
As the LH surge can last up to 48 hours you can then get a good warning of when ovulation will occur. As soon as you start getting a positive 2nd line it is advisable to start trying as the most fertile time can be any time up to around 4 days before ovulation.
As well as the simple (and cheap) ovulation test strips which enable you to tell when you are ovulating, there are also more complex (and expensive) ovulation predictor kits which can pinpoint ovulation even more accurately. Check out some of the tests below for more options on ovulation test kits.
Ovulation Testing
 | These ovulation test strips are simple to use - just dip in urine for 10 seconds - and they can help to determine the LH surge before ovulation. They are also very cheap! Amazon Price: $13.95 List Price: $11.26 |
 | The ovulation monitor can give you a much more accurate prediction of your ovulation date - which can help in particular if you have irregular cycles. It is a more complex and expensive system but does guarantee 99% accuracy of the results so may help if you are having trouble pinpointing ovulation. Amazon Price: $110.00 List Price: $199.99 |
Basal Body Thermometer
 | Amazon Price: $9.76 List Price: $9.99 |
Taking Your Temperature
As the hormones in the body change throughout your cycle, so this causes changes to your body temperature. It is normal for the body to experience higher temperatures post ovulation so that you can tell when you actually ovulated.
This is why a lot of people will use temping as a form of determining their ovulation date. You will need a basal body thermometer (shown below) which gives you temperatures to 2 decimal places. You have to take your temperature every morning at the same time, before you get out of bed, so that you can get an accurate and steady picture. If you use this together with the other signs of ovulation then you will get a good idea of how your body is working.
During the first half of the month the temperatures will stay lower and then increase after ovulation. You can usually determine ovulation date by 3 straight rises in temperature afterwards.
When Will I Ovulate?
Summary
Hopefully this will give you some kind of answers to help you with the question 'when will I ovulate?' so that you can pinpoint your own ovulation date and hence get a better chance of conceiving.
