If you want to become pregnant, an ovulation calendar can help you to map out
the best times to try for a baby.
Ovulation refers to the release of an egg from a woman’s ovary, and tends to
occur about 14 days before the start of your next period. You are most fertile
around the time of ovulation. While an egg survives for only about 24 hours
after it has been released, sperm commonly live inside the female genital tract
for about 3 days (and sometimes for up to 5 days). This means that sperm
deposited in the genital tract several days before ovulation can be alive and
can fertilise the egg when it is released.
Your ovulation calendar:
Here are the times when you should be most fertile over the next
months.
Because the ovulation calendar is based on your past menstrual patterns, the
more regular your cycle, the more accurate the calendar will be. However, the
exact timing of ovulation can vary from month to month, even in women with
regular cycles.
There are other ways that can help you predict when you are most fertile,
including:
measuring your basal body temperature (body temperature when resting), which
tends to rise slightly when you ovulate; and
detecting changes in your cervical and vaginal mucus (which becomes clear and
slippery around the time of ovulation).
There are also home ovulation testing kits that you can use. One type of test
measures the amount of luteinising hormone (LH) – the hormone that controls
when ovulation occurs – in your urine. LH levels tend to rise 24-48 hours
before you ovulate. There are also ovulation tests that can detect a rise in
the level of oestrogen (which occurs several days before ovulation) in your
saliva.
It’s important to note that the ovulation calendar is a tool to help women
conceive. It is not a suitable way of preventing pregnancy.
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