The follicle contains and nurtures the egg. When a follicle has adequately matured, a surge of Luteinizing Hormone LH causes the follicle to burst and release the egg into the fallopian tube — the moment of ovulation.
Throughout the menstrual cycle, a small amount of LH is produced — but during the middle of the cycle LH briefly and dramatically increases. Elevated quantities of luteinizing hormone facilitate ovulation — and OPKs detect this LH surge through anti-LH antibodies contained in the sensitive testing membrane of the test. The LH surge is, alas, very brief — and in order to detect the LH surge, a woman needs to test at the right time of the month — and the right time of day. As LH is produced by the body in the morning, mid-afternoon is considered the ideal time to test.
Once the LH surge has been detected, successful fertilization is most likely to take place one to three days following the LH surge — with peak fertility at 36 hours post-LH surge. Below, you will find information on getting the most out of your ovulation tests and visit our Ovulation Test FAQ for more testing tips. To determine when to start testing, you must first do a little calculating. Use the Cycle Chart below to figure out when to begin testing for your LH surge. First, determine the average length of your menstrual cycle.
The length of the menstrual cycle is the number of days from the first day of menstrual bleeding to the day before bleeding begins on the next period. Determine the usual length of the menstrual cycle over the last few months. Then, refer to the Cycle Chart to determine on which day of the menstrual cycle to begin testing. Should I be worried? As the LH surge can be sudden and over in a flash, it is possible to receive a negative result and still ovulate.
However, there are testing suggestions to help ensure the accuracy and reliability of tests. Most of these tips are covered in the bulleted points above. If you have a very irregular cycle, you may consider using an ovulation microscope which can be used for women with irregular cycles. I would venture that if you only experience pain during sex in your mid-cycle, then your pain is most likely ovarian in nature.
As the ovary is ready to ovulate it enlarges. When it enlarges it often moves down into the lower part of the pelvis. As the penis pushes the upper portions of the vagina and cervix it can make the ovary move thus causing pain. Something to bear in mind is that saliva contains digestive enzymes that have a very damaging effect on sperm, so you might want to rethink your foreplay! So, how often should you try to conceive? Regular sex is one of the most important things you can do to optimize your fertility.
In absolute terms, the highest pregnancy rates are seen if intercourse occurs the day prior to ovulation, with rates declining if they occur ON the day of ovulation. The average woman is fertile around days of her cycle. In numerous studies, tracking EWCM and having intercourse on the peak production day is one of the most reliable methods of timing fertility. Ovulation prediction tests such as First Response Ovulation Test are helpful as well. One word of caution: ovulation can occur within a two-day window after a positive LH surge the hormone an ovulation test measures , so have intercourse once per day for two days after a positive ovulation test.
Talk about a conception myth. No specific sexual position is any better for conception. In fact, having sex that feels extra good to the man and has him really turned on DOES increase the number of healthy sperm he makes, which will give his best chance of fertility.
Every time you are baby-making, consider giving your partner additional foreplay or use some unique positions just for your fertile time so he gets excited knowing it is coming!
Just remember that saliva, like lubricants, can damage sperms. Everyday lubricants kill sperm, as do oils and many homemade remedies. In fact, animal studies suggest that oils like baby oil and canola oil damage sperm by making them only half as able to support normal embryo motility. Plus, these oils have no quality control for safety in reproductive use. Following Barrett and Marshall , Wilcox et al. The analyses presented in this article are based on the methods of Dunson and Stanford The significant trend was attributable to a steady increase in the pregnancy probability with each unit increase in the mucus score.
Specifically, the posterior probability of an increase in the pregnancy probability in going from a mucus score of 1 to 2 was 0. The day of lowest fertility was 5 days before ovulation, and the day of highest fertility was 3 days before ovulation. The difference in pregnancy probability between these two days ranged from 0.
Thus the gain in pregnancy probability attributable to an increase from the lowest to highest mucus score is generally higher than the gain attributable to having intercourse 3 days before ovulation instead of 5 days before ovulation. Within the fertile window, the type of mucus observed on the day of intercourse is more predictive of conception than the timing relative to ovulation. Figure 2 shows the distribution of the reported mucus scores according to timing within the fertile interval.
On each day, type 4 mucus is the most common, with the largest proportion occurring 2 days before ovulation, which is also the day on which the smallest proportion of cycles had no vaginal discharge type 1 mucus.
It is important to note that each of the days had a substantial proportion of women in each of the mucus categories. Although fewer women reported type 2 mucus and that proportion remained essentially constant across the fertile window, there was a significant difference in the pregnancy probabilities between type 2 mucus and the other categories.
These results provide direct evidence that mucus plays a role in fertility that is more important than its previously identified role as a marker of the fertile window of the menstrual cycle. Previous estimates of pregnancy probabilities on days relative to ovulation did not account for daily observations of the quality of mucus, though researchers have identified increased conception probabilities on days when secretions were observed compared with no secretions Dunson et al.
Our study demonstrates that the quality of mucus explains most of the relationship between the pregnancy probability and the timing of intercourse relative to ovulation. Our results have important clinical implications. Because vulvar observations of cervical mucus predict not only the fertile days of the cycle but also the probabilities of conception within the fertile interval, monitoring of mucus provides additional information not provided by other methods for identifying the fertile interval.
In addition, such monitoring is expensive and inconvenient and can miss the beginning of the fertile interval and even the most fertile days. Many women already rely on their own calculations to predict ovulation, often obtaining estimates different from results of ultrasound or LH detection Gnoth et al.
Hence, monitoring of mucus provides a useful clinical marker of days with high conception probabilities. Thanks also to Allen Wilcox and Donna Baird for their insightful comments. Figure 1. Estimated probability of pregnancy with a single act of intercourse in the fertile interval conditional on mucus observations. Figure 2. Proportion of cycles with each mucus score on each day in the fertile interval.
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