How Do I Know When I Ovulate?

1. What are some of the reasons I might be unable to become pregnant?

The time that ovulation occurs depends upon the length of a woman’s cycle. Most information about ovulation is based upon a 28-day cycle, with ovulation presuming to occur 14 days after the first day of the menstrual cycle.

If your cycle is 32 days or 36 days, the ovulation time will occur later than the standard 14 days after the first day of your period. Or perhaps your cycle is variable? Or if you have polycystic ovary syndrome (elevated androgens and irregular periods), you may go months without having a period.

2. How can I know when I ovulate?

The 28-day cycle is the idealized cycle length. Each cycle is divided into the first half and the second half separated by ovulation between the first and the second half. Therefore, with a 28-day cycle, ovulation should occur on day 14 by subtracting 14 from 28. If you have a 25 day cycle, ovulation should occur on day 11, subtracting 14 from 25.

One of the old tried and true methods of determining when you ovulate tracks your body temperature before you get up in the morning. Just before ovulation, your body temperature will go down briefly.

Another way to track ovulation is to measure what is called ferning. When during your cycle estrogen increases in preparation for ovulation, your body responds by increasing sodium. This causes the ferning that can be seen microscopically. The sodium in the form of salt in a woman’s mucous and saliva crystallizes and forms fernlike patterns in mucous fibers. This pattern is known as ferning. The Knowhen saliva kit provides a convenient and very easy way to track ovulation with your saliva.

Dr. Georgios Papanikolaou, the inventor of the PAP smear, discovered ferning in 1945, but it has taken modern technology to create a way for women to check ferning at home with the Knowhen saliva testing kit.

3. For how many days are you fertile and which days would these be?

A fertile window includes those days in which pregnancy can occur when your egg is exposed to sperm. These fertile days surround ovulation by as much as five days. So, if you have a 28-day cycle and you ovulate on day 14, days nine through 14 would be your fertile window and would be the best days for you to conceive. A simple rule of thumb is, if you want to get pregnant, you should have relations when your mucus is favorable. During this ovulation window, your cervical mucous will be thin, clear, copious, and long and stretchy and you will see ferning on your Knowhen microscope.

4. What devices are available to track ferning?

There are many devices on the market which track fertility. Some require urine be collected on a disposable stick. Your pituitary gland produces luteinizing hormone to stimulate a woman’s ovaries to produce an egg. The urine stick tracks the increase in luteinizing hormone in urine, which will be reflected with the appearance of ferning in a woman’s cervical mucous and saliva. Many of these devices require the continual purchase of the special urine sticks to record the hormone shift which produces the luteinizing hormone surge.