A big part of addressing infertility is understanding ovulation, which occurs in the middle of your menstrual cycle. So, if that cycle is the typical 28 days long, you ovulate on day 14, right?
Probably not. Only about 13% of women experience this near-mythical 28-day cycle, even though so many ovulation tracking apps base their entire technology on this falsehood. The truth is that there isn’t one “normal” menstrual schedule to use as a measuring stick for everybody. Making your own ovulation chart or keeping an ovulation journal is the only way to truly understand your unique cycle.
Full disclaimer: pinpointing ovulation is a tricky task. It’s not one-size-fits-all by any means. What works for some women won’t work for others, so tracking your ovulation may be intimidating at first in order to do it correctly.
Luckily, we’re going to show you several resources at your disposal to take some of the mystery out of ovulation. And best of all, one of them will enable you to keep tabs on your body’s hormonal cycles and increase the odds of conception! But first, a word on ovulation itself.
The Truth (and Myths) about Ovulation
During ovulation, an ovary releases an egg into the fallopian tubes where it waits to be fertilized. Some studies show that sperm can survive inside a woman’s reproductive tract for up to five days, but this theory likely isn’t true if you are over 30. Changes to the vaginal microbiome can change with diet and become a increasingly important fertility factor as we age. In these scenarios, sperm are more likely to survive for only about a day.
Moreover, once the egg is released from the egg, it’s only viable for fertilization for about 24 hours—a shockingly short span of time if you’re trying for a baby!
This 24-48 hour timespan following egg release is called the ovulation window, and it’s the only time a woman can get pregnant. It’s not an exact science without a scientist on hand, but ovulation tracking lets you narrow it down to the most likely time according to your unique physiology and history.
Many women’s menstrual cycles will vary month to month due to a variety of factors, such as age, race, weight, stressors, and genetics. In fact, 87% have shorter (~26 days or fewer) or longer (~30 days or more) cycles. If you have sporadic or absent periods, this will obviously complicate ovulation tracking, but it could also indicate a more serious health issue, and you should talk to your doctor about it. Conditions like PCOS can make cycles virtually unpredictable, but working with a doctor can induce ovulation to help you conceive.
Ovulation Tracking Options
From tracking your period on a calendar, to monitoring your body’s temperature, to examining your cervical mucus (or even your saliva), there’s no shortage of ways to predict and anticipate your ovulation nowadays. Some lucky women only need to figure out the midpoint between periods, but for most of us, it takes studying a few other signs and putting the puzzle together.
No idea where to start? That’s why I’m here! I’m both a biologist and a woman who was struggling with infertility, and I’ve got a lot of tips on how to make the most out of your ovulation tracking chart. Here are the essentials you’ll need to know.
Avoid Period Tracking Apps
There’s no shortage of apps in this world, and while they can help you organize many aspects of your life, I don’t recommend them for ovulation tracking. The algorithms are almost always inaccurate and could lead you to believe you’re putting yourself in the best position to conceive when you might actually be completely off.
Not only does that waste your time and minimize your chances of achieving your goal, but it will also negate any investments you made along the way. For instance, a top-of-the-line ICI kit is one of your very best options for overcoming infertility challenges. And while they cost a fraction of in-patient procedures like IUI or IVF (only $200 for the best of the best!), no ICI kit in the world will work if you use it at the wrong time.
Basal Body Temperature
BBT involves monitoring your temperature at rest, and it’s a crucial indicator of when you’re ovulating. “Rest” means when you are sleeping or immediately after you wake up and have not moved around. If you so much as sit up before taking your temperature, you’ll get inaccurate results, and you’ll need to use a specialized thermometer at a consistent time of day.
Because it can be tricky to get right, many women get inaccurate results that don’t help them get pregnant. However, with a little strategizing and some experience, it can be a great way to add valuable information to your ovulation tracking chart.
Saliva
Yep—your spit can reveal signs of ovulation from rising estrogen levels. When you examine it under a microscope after it dries, estrogen-rich saliva leaves a characteristic fig-leaf-shaped crystallized pattern on the slide!
I’m probably one of the few people who have a microscope at home, so this one usually requires a little help from a trusted healthcare professional. However, if you can make it part of your tracking routine, it can add important context to your overall process.
Cervical Mucus
Checking your cervical mucus is another good option if you can tell the difference between your cervical height, firmness, and identify fluctuations in its consistency. That being said, it certainly doesn’t work for everyone. As someone who is 5’10” with what I later learned was a tilted uterus, my cervical mucus was impossible to track.
It’s also important to note that the presence of fertile cervical mucus might not always line up with the release of the egg. This could happen before the egg is released, so monitoring hormones in addition to cervical mucus can give you more confidence in the results.
Ideally, if you’re using an ICI kit, you’ll want one that gives you the tools for three separate tries so you can cover a window of likely fertility. Also, the kit should be FDA-cleared and 100% guaranteed sterile so that each attempt doesn’t upset your delicate vaginal microbiome and reduce your chances of getting pregnant.
Calendar Method
Using a calendar to determine your average midpoint between periods is the best way to get a starting point you can narrow down over time. Apps can help with this, but I found that there were far more things I wanted to track that they could organize. For instance, measuring fluctuations in luteinizing hormone via urine testing can dial in your exact 24-48 hours of your fertile window. By recording it on your calendar or journal along with your period, you get a much better understanding of how these things are related in your body.
Our patented PherDal Ovulation Tracking Method incorporates a calendar, LH testing, and a variety of other important factors that give you a much more scientific and reliable view of your personal cycle. Not only does it keep the process in your hands, but it allows you to make the most of investments like ICI kits and trips to a fertility specialist.
Making Your Own Ovulation Chart
We know this will be crazy old school, but ovulation tracking can start with a piece of paper taped to your fridge. After that, all you’ll need is a little strategy and some time to get the data.
Record Your Period Cycle
This is pretty simple stuff. Simply note when your period starts and ends, and keep a running list from month to month. The first day of your period is cycle day 1, and you’ll need to average out your midpoint between periods over time. Most women fluctuate a little, so you’ll want several months of data before you start thinking about getting an ICI kit.
LH Testing
LH testing should start on day 5 of your period so that you don’t miss your LH peak. You can buy testing kits online, and it’s as simple as gathering a urine sample, dipping the stick or strip, and seeing if a line shows up.
LH testing should occur multiple times a day when you see the line start getting even a tiny bit darker. If you want to be safe, you can also test 3 times a day starting on day 5—whatever makes you feel more confident in understanding this process in your body!
Initial results will show minimal changes in the line color, and your spike in LH will occur when your testing line gets the darkest it possibly can. You’ll record when your LH levels start to rise, the spike, and when they finally disappear again to get better context for your ovulation window.
How to Make Your Own Ovulation Tracking Chart
This is also why we recommend keeping your LH tests for comparison throughout the cycle and for each subsequent one. Logging your at-home ovulation test results early and often ensures that you’ll have as much data as possible to determine your body’s unique menstrual cycle. It will also empower you to have more confidence about when you are most fertile.
Find Your Window with PherDal’s Ovulation Chart
I know how frustrating it is trying to track your ovulation window each month, hoping against all hope that this will be the time you’re able to get pregnant. My own experience with infertility had me frantically searching for the best tracking method. We don’t realize how much goes into conception until we’re crossing our fingers and counting days on a calendar!
But you can confidently measure your fertility status by reading the chemical changes in your body with the PherDal Method, which revolutionizes the traditional calendar method with the important bonus of LH testing to really clarify ovulation.
Now here’s the best part: PherDal’s Ovulation Journal is free to download! We want all of our hopeful PherDal users to have the best possible shot with our award-winning ICI kit, and that starts with the best possible ovulation tracking chart available.
With the ovulation guide, you probably won’t make the same early mistakes I did when trying to track ovulation. Instead, our guide will steer you onto the right path from the get-go using scientifically sound methods that support you every step of the way.
