How Can You Tell When You Ovulate? Some Insights That May Help

!±8± How Can You Tell When You Ovulate? Some Insights That May Help

One of the tips that I give parents-to-be who are trying to influence their baby's gender is to conceive following ovulation if they want a boy and to conceive before ovulation if they want a girl. There are many things to influence your baby's gender and the previous sentence is greatly over simplifying things, but it's a good place to start.

It's obviously very important to know when you are ovulating to be successful in this aspect of the plan. I'm often asked how a woman knows when she is about to (or has already) ovulated. There are several ways to accomplish this. Some of them, in my opinion, are a waste of time because they are not accurate enough to be worth your efforts. Plus, if you rely on inaccurate information, your results could likely be the exact opposite of what you were hoping for. I will discuss this more in the following article.

Ways To Tell That You Are Ovulating By Reading Your Body's Cues And Looking At The Calendar: Many women will just gauge their ovulation period by counting forward from the last day of their period or menstruation cycle. Many of us have been told by our mothers and grandmother's that ovulation occurs mid way through our cycles. So, assuming you have a 28 -30 day cycle, you'd then assume that your fertile period begins around day 14 or 15. This method is easy to accomplish, but it leaves something to be desired in terms of accuracy. Few women have such a repetitive cycle that it always follows the same path month after month. And, in my opinion, it doesn't make much sense to stop here when you can very easily confirm or refute your estimations. Why guess when you really don't have to?

Another thing that women try to do is to assume that if they are cramping of feeling abdominal twitches mid cycle, this means that they are ovulating. I've had women tell me that they can "feel their egg being released." I suppose that this can happen for some. But, unless you test this for yourself, it's pretty much impossible to know if those cramps are happening before the egg's release, during it, or after it. This can be important to know if you are trying to influence your baby's gender.

Finally, some women will try to gauge their cervical mucus as an indicator of upcoming fertility. The theory goes that as ovulation approaches, your cervical mucus becomes more plentiful. When this process is actually happening, the mucus becomes thin and slippery. And, as this period passes, the amount of mucus returns to normal and it's color becomes white rather than see through. Personally, I found this method to be much harder than it sounds. To me, this is a risky method because it leaves too much room for you to interpret what you are seeing completely incorrectly. I personally prefer to use the tools that will give me a much more accurate and easy to read answer. I trust science more than I trust myself, I guess.

Using Tools And Science To Tell You When You Are Ovulating: The reason that I think trying to read your body to tell you things about your fertility cycle is not the best way to go is because it's so easy and inexpensive to know for sure. It just makes sense to take it that one step further to make sure that you are right. There are handy little gadgets that measure your body chemistry to indicate that ovulation is approaching, has happening, and is passed. Your body undergoes changes that can be measured during this process. These changes can be seen in bodily fluids like blood, urine, and saliva. I don't know many people who think using blood is the easiest way to go, especially when you can painlessly and easily use urine or saliva. Not surprisingly, these two methods are the most popular.

The ovulation predictors that use urine are easy to find and purchase. You can get them at most pharmacies and grocery stores. They are not that expensive and work best for couples who are trying for a boy because they are best at telling you when the egg has already been released. For a girl conception, I like the saliva models the best because they show you the changes days before they actually happen. You learn what you need to know much earlier and this is necessary for those wanting to conceive a female. I've also found that many women who are not getting a positive with the urine ovulation predictors tend to be more likely to have success with the saliva predictors. My theory on this is that the saliva models are just a bit more accurate, at least in my own experience.