Do you need to know EXACTLY when you ovulate in order to get pregnant?
The short answer is no and for many people that will be a surprise. Allow me to explain.
The first thing many women do as soon as they decide they want to get pregnant is to buy some ovulation strips so they can see when they’re ovulating. More on ovulation strips and why you may not need them in a moment.
If you’re trying to get pregnant, determining if you’re ovulating is IMPORTANT. However it’s more complicated than just peeing on ovulation strips.
How to tell if you’re about to ovulate
Leading up to ovulation, your body, specifically your cervix (the entrance to your uterus) produces fertile fluid. Thanks to gravity you may feel it at the entrance to your vagina (your vulva) and when you’re wiping after urinating. The tissue may glide smoothly instead of feeling dry.
You may even see it on your underwear or be able to feel it with your fingers at the entrance to your vagina. It feels slippery and is often clear and stretchy like uncooked eggwhite.
What’s this fertile fluid doing exactly?
The purpose of this fertile fluid is to keep sperm alive. It literally changes the pH of your vagina to make it hospitable to sperm leading up to ovulation. Most of the month except for a few days leading up to ovulation, your vagina is inhospitable to sperm as it maintains a certain level of acidity in order to kill any bacteria that may find it’s way there.
The fertile fluid also feeds the sperm providing them with nutrition on their travels towards the egg and opens up channels helping the sperm to get to their destination.
Isn’t your body simply amazing!!!
It really is and the more you understand the amazing changes that happen each month, the more you will be more impressed by your body and your fertility.
Back to ovulation
Once you can confidently recognise when your body is producing the fertile fluid I described above, you can know with a fair degree of confidence that your body is approaching ovulation.
Having unprotected sex when you see fertile fluid is the KEY TO GETTING PREGNANT.
More about ovulation strips (and why I don’t like them)
The strips measure Luteinizing Hormone (LH) levels in urine. LH surges immediately before ovulation but only for a very short period of time. And that’s the tricky part.
Often women start testing too early in the cycle and can spend a lot of time and money peeing on sticks in the hope of catching the LH surge without success.
Or their timing is correct but because the increase in LH hormones is so short they just don’t happen to pee during that time and miss it. Either way it’s frustrating.
The other issue is that even if you manage to get a positive result on the ovulation strip (ie you caught the LH surge) it doesn’t guarantee ovulation.
So what is important to know if you want to get pregnant asap?
Once you learn to recognise your fertile fluid you will always know when ovulation is approaching and it will be pretty hard to ignore. Most of my clients have told me they were shocked once they learned to identify it and that they hadn’t noticed it before. And then they were angry they were never taught this before. Especially when you can waste precious time when you’re trying to conceive.
If you have unprotected sex a few times in the week leading up to ovulation (ie when you see fertile fluid) you are timing sex correctly to increase your chances of conceiving.
If you’re interested in learning more, be in touch with me. I’d be happy to teach you how to recognise your fertile signs so you can get pregnant faster.
I’m a holistic therapist and I am here to help you!
I love helping women to overcome their fertility challenges and other issues related to your cycles, pregnancy, periods and/or anxiety.
I treat women with abdominal and womb massage techniques known as Sobada (formally the Arvigo Techniques of Maya Abdominal Massage) and reflexology.
I’m also an Advanced EFT Tapping practitioner and I work with women in particular issues around anxiety, depression, stress levels.
I teach Fertility Awareness to help women better know their bodies and improve their chances of conceiving or prevent pregnancy naturally.
I live in Modi’in, Israel and that’s where I spend my days helping women during their fertile years, pregnancy, menopause and other hormonal conditions. Bodywork sessions (massage and reflexology take place in my clinic in Modi’in but EFT Tapping sessions and Fertility Awareness education can take place online or in person).
Learn more about working with me here.