Confused about ovulation??

[summerly]

Just a quick question for you all. When is ovulation supposed to occur in a 28/30 day cycle? Is it 15 days after your period starts or 15 days before your period is due? Someone mentioned this earlier in another thread and now I am all mixed up. :confused:

[cosmic]

Hi Summerly,

It's different for everyone but the standard in a 28 day cycle is that you ovulate on Day 14 with Day 1 being the first day of your period. If you have a 28-30 day cycle it might be anywhere between day 14 and day 16.

The time between your ovulation and AF is always the same so if your cycle is shorter or longer it is because your ovulation date changed for whatever reason - but the 2nd half of the cycle stays the same... does that make sense?

And the day 14 rule isn't always accurate. I have had a 26 day cycle fairly consistently but my O date was Day 15 and my luteal phase was 11 days.. the month I had a 28 day cycle it was because my O date was day 17 (not 14 as you would expect) and my luteal phase still a consistent 11 days.

Hope that helps. Temperatures are the best way to see what is 'normal' for you - otherwise you could be doing it on the wrong day!! :o

C x

[kelbel]

Hi summerly,

In a regular cycle when you actaully ovulate, its suppose to take place on day 14 of your cycle. Day 1 being the start of AF. There is also something about the Luteal (sp?) phase. but im not sure about any of that. Cosmic is a huge source of info and would be your best bet to find out what you need.

I hope i helped. But there a many variable in a womans' cycle.
Goodluck.

Cheers

[sweetangel2811]

Hi Summerly

I think I recall waaaaaay back Cosmic posting info on ovulation and luteal phases (other wise know as the "two week wait").

I am pretty sure she mentioned that regardless of how long your cycle is, the luteal phase is always 14 days. So if your cycle is 28 days, your ovualtion should be on day 14. If your cycle is 30 days, o should day 16, etc.

Saying this, and not trying to confuse you, I recall some August ladies having sworn that they ovulated around day 11????

Generally speaking though, you could maybe couple this info with charting either your temps or CM, just to make sure. Your body will normally always give you signs of when you are o-ing.

Hope this helps
K

[cosmic]

Hi again,

To clarify any confusion - the luteal phase (2ww) is always the same but it is not always 14 days. Like I said, mine was 11 days. That's why it is so important to find out whats *normal* for YOU. Because your ovulation day can change depending on circumstances such as stress, so your cycle length can change (though many people are very consistent) - but it is ovulation that changes not the luteal phase as I said before.

If I had followed the standard 'rule' of counting back 14 days from AF to pinpoint O, with my 26 day cycle I would have been BDing up to and including Day 12 - when my ovulation is actually Day 15. :eek: So it is veeery important to work out what is right for you!!!

Summerly, is that clear as mud to you now?? :)

Oh, and as a point of interest, the month I conceive, I ovulated on Day 14 - not my usual day 15. Luckily I was BDing up to that point but it was only because of temperatures and my maybebaby that I knew it had been and gone.

C x

[AM]

Your cycle is divided simply into two parts.
The first part, being from the onset of bleeding until ovulation can be incredibly variable, and can be affected by things such as sickness, stress, or other things which may be happening for you out of the ordinary, and will usually accout for a woman having cycles of differing lengths from month to month.
Now the second part of your cycle, from ovulation to your next period, is *generally* fixed and is something which is specific to your body.

A lot of women do have a 14 day second part or luteal phase, and also a lot of women have a 14 day first part of their cycle, which is where most of the confusion come in I believe.

From memory, for a woman to be properly fertile in a cycle, the lutel phase needs to be from 12 days to 16 days long.

If you are a reader, there is a wonderful book called

Taking charge of your fertility - By Toni Weschler which is readily available in most libraries, and is pretty much "The Bible" for lots of women wanting to shed light on their cycles.

Angie

[JanetF]

Try this website for animations of your menstrual cycle and a lot of very clear explanations on how our cycles work. :D
http://www.woomb.org

"Taking charge of your fertility" is a great book too!

[aardvark]

My cycles are all over the place. I have PCOS.

For baby #1, I used Billings method after 18 months of no success, and caught the first month we tried it. The other two pregnancies I resorted to the ovulation kits from the supermarket, and caught first month I used those both times. The ones from the chemist are over $60, the ones in the supermarket are under $20.

[lizzymcfizzy]

why not just have sex between day 14 and 20 ! :) thats what I try and do to make things easier

[min]

OK, ladies, I have a doozy of a question for you: is it possible to ovulate twice in one cycle???

I only ask because I have some weird symptoms going on. Seven days ago I was sure I'd ovulated - egg white cm, strong urge to bd (always a sure sign for me!) and my Maybe Baby was full of fern leaf patterns. (I've found Maybe Baby to be very accurate for me, and it was instrumental in me falling pregnant in June.)

But I noticed lots more egcm today, got suspicious and I've just checked Maybe Baby again - and huge fern patterns again.

Can anyone help with interpreting this?? (I'll admit, part of me wants to believe today is another, or the real, O day - I was trying to wait until next cycle to bd, but would love to bring it forward if possible!).

Maybe I'll just see if DH is feeling inclined after choir practice tonight ...?

A Confused Min

[brideofjabba]

Min - i have done lots of research on this because my SIL swears blind she ovulates twice a month(just because she 'feels' it not because of any other sign!) and as far as i have read you cannot ovulate twice a cycle unless it is within 24 hours of each other as in the case of twins.
I know you can get ewcm even after you have ovulated, especially just before af. Not sure about the ferns though, i don't know much about that.

Andrea

[sunflower]

hey min i started using maybe last month and i got full ferns and other signs around o but then 2 days and up to af i got full ferns again and egwcm also so i assumed that it meant af was on her way, i don't know if that answers your question coz your ferns were close together?? for me it was prob due to estrogen coming back to give me af

[min]

Thanks, Andrea and Sunflower. Thinking logically, I reckon I can now conclude that either (a) I was wrong last week and O'd yesterday; or (b) I O'd a week or more back, and AF is just around the corner. Which means I'm either (a) waiting for news about conception ('cause we bd'ed last night, just in case!), or (b) on the way to a new cycle, which is also good news.

OK, even though I don't know quite what's going on, none of it seems to be bad news! I can calm down now - I think!

Min

[cosmic]

Min, you got me curious so I did a google and found this....

http://www.ivillage.co.uk/pregnancyandbaby/fertility/contraception/qas/0,,3_160220,00.html

Seems you can't ovulate twice (at least not a week apart)...

I think many other things can affect the maybebaby (it measures electrolytes I found when I looked it up) and you can definitely get more than one patch of ewcm through your cycle, so I'd go with the signs that were more likely to be when you would normally expect to ovulate (in my case when I got the signs on Day 14.. ).

Of course to be safe, you just need to make sure you BD whenever you see the signs! :D Nothing to stress about I'm sure...

[sweetangel2811]

Min - i got confused this month as well as I had the exact same thing happen to me as what you had!

I had no idea what was going on, and I was pretty sure that you couldn't o twice, but with what was going on I got thoroughly confused!

Like you also - we did some extra bd-ing as well just in case! ;)

It was really good to read everyones posts. Has put my mind to rest a little.

AF is still 5 days late though. The M/C seems to have stuffed my cycle around a fair bit. I didn't think it would considering I was only 5.5 weeks!

talk to you soon! K

[min]

Thanks, guys!

Cosmic - I also googled and found the same site! Yes, it's pretty clear that you can only O once (although I did find another site that questioned that - but I'm happy to side with conventional medical opinion on this occasion!).

Sweetangel - yes, I was wondering whether my m/c had made my cycle a bit crazy. Part of the problem is that I haven't had AF yet since the m/c, so it's impossible to know what day of my cycle I'm on - I do think I'm somewhere btw O and AF, but that's as accurate as I can be! Maybe your 5 days late is a good thing?? I'll keep my fingers crossed for you.

Min