If you are trying to conceive, you may have questions about ovulation and your menstrual cycle. This is normal, and it is essential that you are aware that one of the ways to optimize your fertility is by being in optimal health and understanding how your reproductive cycle works.
Good knowledge of your menstrual cycle is necessary so that you can know the right time for intercourse. To begin with, you may want to ask, what is ovulation, what is menstruation, and what is a regular menstrual cycle? Ovulation is when an egg is released from your ovaries to be fertilized. Menstruation, or commonly referred to as your period, is the bleeding that occurs after ovulation when you are not getting pregnant.
Ovulation occurs about 14 days before your period begins. For example, if your average menstrual cycle is 28 days, you ovulate around day 14, and your most fertile days are days 12, 13, and 14. If your average menstrual cycle is 35 days, ovulation occurs around day 21 and your most fertile days. is days 19, 20 and 21.
Your menstrual cycle, on the other hand, is the monthly process of changes that take place to prepare your body for a possible pregnancy. When your cycle is regular, it means that the first day of your menstrual period occurs on a certain number of days apart each month (usually 21-35 days) and if your menstrual cycle is irregular, it means that the lengths differ from month to month outside this range.
By tracking this information on a calendar, you can better predict when you might be ovulating, which is the time when your ovaries will release an egg each month. The time between your menstrual cycle and ovulation is the luteal phase. This is where the lining of your uterus usually thickens, due to the increase in your body producing progesterone, to prepare for the implantation of a possible pregnancy.
Your menstrual cycle starts from the first day you get your period (menstrual phase) by the time your ovaries release an ovulation (ovulation). No two cycles or periods are the same, so a complete cycle can take an average of 21 days or as long as 35 days. But in general, a period that appears every 26-32 days is considered the norm.
Also read: Buhari seeks collaboration to tackle health challenges
From the above, the difference between your ovulation and menstruation is clear. Ovulation is when an egg is released from your ovaries to be fertilized. Menstruation, or your period, is the bleeding that occurs after ovulation if you do not get pregnant. During your period, blood, mucus and tissue flow out of the cervix and vagina every month.
To go into a little more detail, there are two phases of your menstrual cycle. They occur before and after ovulation. Before ovulation, your body produces hormones and prepares the uterine lining to accept a fertilized egg. Ovulation, or the release of that egg, takes place in the middle of the cycle and if successfully fertilized, it will implant on the prepared lining. If fertilization does not occur, the lining will simply withdraw and menstruation will begin.
You can also predict ovulation by regularly checking the amount and appearance of mucus in the birth canal. Just before ovulation, the amount of mucus increases and becomes thinner, clearer and smoother, you also need to know your fertile window, which is the interval every month when you are most fertile. It is worth mentioning that there are simpler ways such as applications and kits that can be used to predict ovulation.
Normally, the fertile window extends over an interval of six days consisting of five days before ovulation plus the day of ovulation. If you can not calculate your fertile window, just plan to have intercourse every other day.
You may assume that the eggs in the ovary develop into ovulation over a month from the first stage, but this is untrue. Eggs develop over several months. They go through several stages until they are either ready to ovulate or stop growing and remain dormant. Most of the eggs in your ovaries never decay to ovulation. When you start puberty, your ovaries house about 300,000 eggs. Despite this apparent storehouse of eggs, you only ovulate about 300 eggs over your lifetime.
There is also a misconception that every ovary ovulates a turn every two months. For example, one month the right ovary ovulates. Then the next month the left ovary ovulates. In fact, ovulation occurs on whichever side has the most mature egg of the month. In some women, one ovary can ovulate significantly more frequently than the other.
You usually experience signs and symptoms before ovulation. Some symptoms may appear a few days before ovulation, while others will only occur the day before or the day of ovulation. Before ovulation, you may have an increase in sexual desire, an increase in cervical mucus, softening and opening of the cervix, and a little cramping or sharp pain on your side. After ovulation, there is a decrease in sexual desire, a decrease in cervical mucus, an increase in body basal temperature and breasts several days after ovulation which can be considered as an early sign of pregnancy.
Although knowing when to ovulate can help you time sex for your most fertile days, it is not necessary. If you have sex three to four times a week, you will surely have sex around your ovulation period.
If you want to get pregnant, you should have sex on the days before ovulation. There are a variety of ways to detect and detect ovulation, but you do not have to stress about it. If you have sex three to four times a week, you will surely have intercourse on one of your fertile days. If you do not have regular menstruation, you can not ovulate. This could be a possible sign of infertility.
English
French
Spanish