Do I ovulate and how do I know I am ovulating?

The most accurate method to verify if you are ovulating is to take an ultrasound ova test. However, it is not necessary if you have a regular periond which normally lasts around one month, and already strongly indicates you ovulate. In addition, there are some other symptoms which confirm that you are ovulating.

Firstly, if you are recording your basal body temperature (BBT) daily, an increase in body temperature gives the sign of ovular release. The bbt thermal shift is caused by corpus luteum, which starts to jet progesterone into your body at the time it expels the egg. Your ovulation date can be identified by taking bbt record the first thing each morning. The body temperature increase is noticeable and measurable on the day after you ovulate.

Secondly, physiological symptoms like ovulation cramping and/or mittelschmerz (midcycle pains) are indicators of ovulation. Ovulation cramping is a sharp pain in the lower abdomen.Besides, some women also experience a mittelschmerz and even less women experience very light and rarely observed ovulation spotting, when the egg breaks from the ovarian follicle.

Thirdly, a positive result of an LH test highly suggests an impending fertility. The test strip or midstream test piece detects luteinizing hormone (LH), which is a reproductive hormone. By indicating the rise and fall of LH, whether your period is proceeding as expected can be determined.

Lastly, changes in cervical mucus (CM) and location of cervix are great indicators of fertility. The abundance of fertile quality CM is a great fertility symptom which occurs right before your fertile window. After ovulation, rising levels of progesterone and decreasing estrogens will result in less CM, and lower quality of mucus (sticky, opaque,white/yellowish, hold its shape) and thus less fertile.