Ovulation. What is it? What is an ovulation?

Ovulation – what’s this? Many women know, that it is one of the days during their menstrual cycle, when the possibility to become pregnant is high, but, unfortunately, they know about their physiology not enough and they don’t understand what changes are happening during the menstrual cycle of a lady at the reproductive age. Let’s have a more precise look at the phenomena of ovulation as well as at the changes taking place in a healthy woman’s body each month. You may believe this information is very important and every educated woman must know it.

 MENSTRUAL CYCLE PHASES 

Menstrual cycle consists of 2 stages. During the first one menses take place, as well as leading follicle becomes matured in ovary, where a matured egg will come from ready for fertilization with semen. The second stage of menstrual cycle is luteal. The duration of this phase is about 2 weeks. If the fertilization of the ovary takes place, then it, the ovary, moves along the fallopian tube towards the metra to implant into its paries. Meanwhile, not depending on whether the fertilization took place or not, metra gets ready for accepting the embryo – its endometrium becomes much thicker and loose. If there is no pregnancy, then the level of luteal hormone and estrogen lowers and this leads to exhaustion and detachment of the endometrium, which means new periods begin. So is ovulation the same thing as menses?-you ask. The answer is NO. This is a very short phase of the cycle (somebody doesn’t even consider it to be so) that lasts only for 48 hours, when the egg is alive and ready for fertilization. This very phase is right between the first one – follicular and the second one – luteal.

However, not during every menstrual cycle ovulation and pregnancy are possible. Every woman has the so-called “infertile” months, when the egg doesn’t become matured and there is no possibility to fertilize it. As a rule, such cases can be observed when a woman has given birth to a baby not long ago, when a woman is breast-feeding and also this can happen to representatives of the gentle sex at the age of 35-40.

WHY WE SHOULD BE ABLE TO DEFINE THE OVULATION? 

• To become pregnant faster. According to the statistics, some healthy young couples can’t father a child during a year of their sensual life without means of contraception. Why this happens so? To answer this question we should revise the definition of ovulation – what it is, when it happens and what for. As the egg become matured not each month, so women can become not each month, besides, the chances of sexual intercourse and favourable date for conception to be at the same time are rather small, unless you use additional treatments to define the date of ovulation. Thus being aware of the date of ovulation, one can have a desirable baby sooner. It is crucial to be able to define this date to those couples who were diagnosed with infertility. By the way, is it for sure, that the result of the unprotected sexual intercourse during the period called ovulation is pregnancy or impregnation may not take place? Unfortunately, the second statement is true. Even in case of the sexual intercourse taking place at the right time, the conception may not take place due to a number of reasons. This we will leave to medical doctors.
• For the purpose of contraception.  As a rule such method of contraception is used by “sophisticated” teenagers and women who think there are no suitable means of contraception for them (such thoughts usually occur to those who are not aware about up-to-date means of contraception). However, one can define ovulation accurately only with the help of ultrasonography. Monitoring your cycle all the time is rather expensive and takes a lot of time, moreover, women prefer to use domestic means of diagnostics ( about them we’re going to speak later in details), often let them down.
• There are a lot of couples who not only know what ovulation is, but also how to use their skills for rather peculiar practical purposes, that is to anticipate the sex of their future child. There is an opinion, of course, not proved by the scientific facts, that on the day of ovulation a sexual intercourse can lead to giving birth to a boy, but if it happens a little bit earlier – 1-2 days before – it will be a girl. It is considered to be connected with some features of motion activity and “endurance” of sperm cells. It is said that Y- chromosome carriers are much faster, but die sooner, X- chromosome carriers are, on the contrary,  slower, but maintain viability in woman’s muliebria for a longer time.

 Methods of ovulation definig  

How can one find out the ovulation date at home? 

• Taking temperature per rectum. For doing this, one is going to need a different thermometer. For infertility treatment as well as finding out its causes, one may need to measure BBT during a few months, scrupulously, following all the rules and constantly putting down all the acquired data into a special graphic. Then a doctor will have a look at the curve and make his conclusion why the woman doesn’t manage to become pregnant and whether there is ovulation at all. At the time of ovulation the temperature per rectum grows by 0,4 degrees at least and comes to not less than 37 degrees. However, in some cases even with the correct measurements thermometer shows an even curve, type – anovulatory cycle. Such situation is the most unpleasant and can have some consequences for the women, who are using this method as a kind of contraception.  
• Ovulation tests. Their appearance doesn’t differ greatly from the ones people use to diagnose pregnancy. There is only one difference – ovulation and pregnancy develop under the influence of different hormones. Before ovulation there is a sudden emission of luteinizing hormone that after ovulation dramatically decreases, whereas the positive result in a pregnancy test depends on chorion gonadotrophic hormone.
• Many people know that in the middle of the menstrual cycle, there can be ovulation but not everyone knows that this can cause some unpleasant feelings. In case with some women the time, when the egg comes out of the ovary, may be noted by considerable pains from the side of the corresponding appendage. Absolutely all women during this period of time have clear rheuma from the vagina. There is one more subjective sign, this is the increase of sexual vigor. If you watch your organism carefully in the middle of the menstrual cycles, you will probably find out and take note of the symptoms that appear together with ovulation. In future this will be very useful.  
• When you need to be very precise, it is recommended to do a ultrasonography several times ( the doctor will tell you what days you’d better to choose). Thus your doctor will be able to find out even before the ovulation when it’ll begin and whether there the ovulation will take place at all during this cycle. If it is an anovulatory cycle there won’t be a leading follicle, it means there will be no ovulation. If there is such a follicle in one of the ovaries, doctor observes its development, as soon as it gets out of sight; it denotes the beginning of ovulation.

These are the main things connected with this process. We hope it has become clear to you how ovulation happens, what it is and how to define it.