Lots of women have a pretty decent chance of getting pregnant within six months to a year, barring any underlying health issues that might get in the way. But if you want to optimize your chances of becoming pregnant, it’s time to get familiar with the details of your monthly menstrual cycle — and the key to conceiving is figuring out when you ovulate.
Ovulation is your ticket to joining your egg with sperm since it’s that special timeframe when a mature egg sets sail from your ovary. If you can successfully track your cycle, you’ll know when you’re ovulating. The most fertile times are the 48 hours leading up to ovulation, and you can use that information to time when to jump into bed.
Here’s more about this exciting process, plus all the ways to track ovulation. And remember, after ovulation has occurred, you have to wait until next time to conceive.
How many days after your period do you ovulate?
If you’re wondering how you know when you're ovulating after your period, the answer lies with a tiny bit of math. To figure out how many days after the onset of your period you’ll ovulate, you need to know the length of your typical menstrual cycle. For some women, the timing of periods is a bit of a mystery, which means you may have to do a little more detective work to discover when you're fertile.
But if your periods are as regular as clockwork, you're in luck. Figure out when the first day of your period might be and count backward 14 days. The two to three days before that day in your cycle will be your most fertile window.
Keep track of your periods to see if you can detect a pattern. Maybe you think you're often late, for example, but you really just have a long cycle (32 days or even more). You can also try to watch for some ovulation symptoms, such as a change in the consistency of your cervical mucus (it’ll feel like eggs whites) or a slight dip and then uptick in your basal body temperature (your body temperature when you're fully at rest after a night of sleep, typically taken when you first wake up).
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How long does it take to get pregnant if you track ovulation?
On average, depending on your age and health, women in their 20s to early 30s have a 25 to 30 percent chance of getting pregnant during each monthly cycle. These percentages are rather high even though your egg is only viable for about 12 to 24 hours. Here’s why: Sperm can survive much longer, typically up to three and sometimes as long as five days, so these little swimmers are keen to zip about as they wait to meet your egg.
Still, watching for ovulation signs or using a calculator for your cycles won’t always increase your chances of success — and getting pregnant while tracking ovulation doesn’t have a typical timeline. Even if you do pinpoint your ovulation moment, there’s no guarantee that you’ll actually conceive that month. The bottom line: Patience is necessary as you try to get pregnant.
How to track ovulation to get pregnant
Fortunately, there are a variety of methods you can use to track ovulation so your baby making efforts will be well-timed. Here’s a bit about each one you can try:
- The calendar method. Also known as the rhythm method, this simple, inexpensive type of natural family planning relies on tracking your menstrual history to predict ovulation. To use it, note the length of your last half-dozen menstrual cycles, count the shortest and longest ones and do some simple subtraction to determine which days are your most fertile ones.
- Standard days. This one is similar to the calendar method and it’s ideal for those with regular cycles between 26 and 32 days. If your cycle falls in this category, your most fertile days are between days 8 and 19.
- Basal body temperature method. Using a special thermometer, you can track your basal body temperature (BBT) to learn your personal pattern of ovulation. When your BBT dips to its lowest reading and then rises right after by about half a degree, you’ll know that ovulation has occurred.
- Cervical mucus method. Yup, a change in your cervix’s discharge is another indicator. As you near ovulation, the mucus you feel will be slippery, thin and clear, and it can even stretch between your fingers.
- Ovulation predictor kits. These nifty kits are up to 80 percent accurate (or more in some cases), as they’re capable of measuring levels of LH, or luteinizing hormone, in your urine. As LH rises and your ovary releases an egg, you just check the test strip after you pee on it and look for the darker line or digital readout, depending on the type. A positive result means you should be ovulating in the next 12 to 24 hours, so it's an optimal time to try to conceive.
- Ovulation tracker apps. Hurray — tech to the rescue! There are a wide range of apps that can count the days of your cycle and then use an algorithm to serve up when you’re likely to be ovulating. Also on the market: thermometers and various digital and wearable fertility monitors too. You can also use the Ovulation Calculator on the What to Expect app to find your estimated ovulation date and fertile window.
- Saliva ferning. This inexpensive, reusable ovulation predictor is a test that allows you to check for a leaf pattern, similar to a fern’s, in your saliva using the kit’s eyepiece.
- Talk to a doctor. If you’ve been trying to conceive for a year and you’re under 35, it may be time to check in with the doctor. Irregular periods or trying to track ovulation when you have polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), which is a hormonal imbalance, can be very tricky without some professional guidance.
Should I track my period too?
Tracking when your period starts and ends is another way of looking at your monthly cycle. Once you’ve nailed down your cycle length and when your period should arrive, simply determine what the midway point is — or 14 days before the expected starting day of your period — and this is your ovulation window.
Keep in mind that while the chances of conceiving when you have your period are low, they’re not zero either. The reason? You could have sex on the last day of your period and you might ovulate early, which means live sperm could be on deck inside and you just might get pregnant.
Options abound when you’re trying to get pregnant. Check out all the ways you can track your cycle, see which one is best for you and then be patient as you learn to pinpoint your ovulation window and work to conceive.
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