When are women most fertile?

Women are most fertile during ovulation. And how do you know when you ovulate?

If you’re trying to conceive or just want to avoid counting fertile days, it’s good to recognize the signs with which your body is telling you that you’re in the fertile period of your menstrual cycle. Read on, and get to know your body better!

What goes on during ovulation?

Ovulation is the part of a menstrual cycle when women are most fertile. A woman’s menstrual cycle begins on the first day of her period and ends with the beginning of the next period. At the beginning of the cycle, the womb is shedding its inner layer, which causes menstrual bleeding or menstruation. During that time, an egg grows in one of the ovaries. When the egg is mature, the sac breaks open and releases the egg, which travels through the Fallopian tube to the womb. If the egg isn’t fertilized within 24 hours of the release, it’s destroyed. A fertilized egg (fetus), on the other hand, attaches itself to the wall of the womb and grows into a little miracle.

When do you ovulate?

You ovulate about 14 days before your next period. It may seem easy to guess the time of your ovulation, but it can be quite tricky. Few women are able to precisely predict the start of their next period. Since your ovulation lasts one to three days, it often happens that your prediction is wrong. The time of your ovulation depends on the length of your cycle. You can ovulate in the middle of a cycle or sooner. So, women who have short cycles usually ovulate soon after their last period and those who have long cycles have ovulation more than 14 days after their last period. If you regularly monitor your cycles and write down the start and end of your periods, you’ll be able to reliably predict your fertile days, especially if you also able to recognize other signs your body is giving you.

Monitoring your cervical mucus – a very reliable marker of ovulation

If you want to determine your most fertile days, you have to check your cervical mucus. The mucus changes in terms of its texture and color throughout your cycle. Soon after your period, your cervical mucus is sticky and blocks your cervix. Your vagina becomes dry because you don’t have much mucus. This dryness means you’re infertile. When you’re most fertile, your cervical mucus becomes clear, slippery and stretchy and you can easily form a thin thread with your fingers. You may feel moistness around the entrance of your vagina, or have a minor discharge that’s brown or contains some blood, which is a clear sign that you’re fertile. After the fertile phase, your mucus changes back to a thicker and cloudier mucus until your next period.

What about other signs?

Sometimes ovulation also triggers slight tension or even a painful feeling in your abdomen, but these signs don’t always appear, so they’re not very reliable. Another sign of ovulation is a rise in your basal body temperature of up to 0.5 degrees. If you take your temperature every day, you can easily tell when you ovulate because your temperature is higher than usual.

Whatever the reason you want to know the time of your ovulation, you have to remember that charting your menstrual cycle isn’t the perfect solution. If you don’t want to get pregnant, you should use a mechanical or hormonal method of birth control. But if you want to get pregnant, don’t pin all your hopes in counting your fertile days. It’s still much more effective if you relax and enjoy when having sex with your partner. Don’t trouble yourself too much, because stress may make it more difficult for you to conceive.