How to calculate your ovulation day

Any of the both ovaries can release ovules. To calculate your fertile period, we must know the moment of ovulation, the same is related to regularity and the type of menstrual cycle that you have.

To know the fertile days is ideal for women that want to get pregnant, because in those days you must have sexual relations, its better if you do it 2 or 3 days before ovulating and until 1 day after ovulating. It must be done this way because it has been proven that the sperm can live around 72 hours inside the uterus and the ovules only 24 hours.

By the contrary, if the cycles are short and last from 23 to 25 days, you will have to subtract 10 to 13 days to the next menstrual period. And in the case of long menstrual cycles, from 30 to 35 days, you will have to subtract 17 to 20 days to the next menstrual period.

Other methods to know your ovulation cycle

- Ovulation test: the previous method of subtracting days is efficient when we are dealing with regular cycles, not in the case of irregular cycles, because it's harder to know how many days should we deduct if we don't know the date of our next menstrual period for sure. In these cases ovulation tests are more safe and convenient; they measure the luteinizing hormone in urine. You can buy them in pharmacies and they are really easy to use.

- Basal temperature: This method is really simple, normal temperature is from 97.7º F to 98.06º F before ovulation, we must take our basal temperature every morning, since the last day of our period, and if we notice that our temperature has increased 32.9º F, it means that ovulation has occurred the day before.

- Vaginal discharge: during our period, if we pay attention, we've noticed that our vaginal discharge changes, mainly in amount and consistency. During the days that we don't ovulate and we are not fertile, this discharge is almost imperceptible or there isn't a discharge. When we have some discharge, it has a viscous and dense consistency, and as we get closer to our ovulation, the discharge turns clearer, less viscous, until it almost looks liquid. In this moment we are ovulating. This type of discharge helps the sperm to reach the ovule in order to be fertilized. As days go by, it will become sticky, this means that our fertile cycle has finished.

We can use all these methods individually or at the same time, one independently for the other; because all of them will indicate us the moment of ovulation and using all of them at once won't affect the same.