Welcome to Her Fertility, the podcast for women navigating infertility who want to feel like themselves again while they do it. I'm your host, Jess Tims, researcher, educator, and somatic practitioner, and I've been exactly where you are. I know what it feels like to be in the waiting, in the not knowing, in the relentless hope and grief of this journey, and I know there is a way to move through it fully alive without losing yourself in the process.
Every week, I bring you honest conversations, real research, and the kind of support your clinic can't prescribe. This is Her Fertility. Come on in.
Dear Jess, how do I know when I'm ovulating? I love this question because whoever asked it knows the importance of understanding ovulation, because ovulation is truly the only time in the cycle when conception can occur. And yet, as human being bodies, our ovulation is super discreet. And in our defense, we were never really taught about when we're ovulating.
We were taught a lot about periods and safe sex maybe, um, but definitely not about ovulation. And so if you have this question, "How do I know when I'm ovulating?" You are not alone, and it is something that you were probably not taught. Um, there is a fabulous book called Taking Charge of Your Fertility by Toni Weschler.
I believe that this book is... Also, like side note, this book is massive. Like, it's a massive book. It's very big, but don't let that deter you. I believe that this book is such a foundation that all women should understand. I wish I had been given this book when I got my period, because it- she does such a great job of breaking down what's going on with the female cycle, and it's really empowering to understand what our beautiful cycle is doing.
And of course, in it includes ovulation and the signs of when you're ovulating. Now, if you're someone who has an irregular cycle or you've been d- diagnosed with a fertility disorder, then still having this information is essential because this is what you want to be looking for ultimately. However, I want to call it out here because if you do have a diagnosed fertility-related disorder that is impacting your cycle, then your first job is to get to know that, right?
Like, get to know- your endometriosis, get to know what's going on with whatever's going on in your body and work on that first because that is also impacting your chances of getting pregnant. And even with a fertility related disorder, you can still get pregnant. So, um, whoever asked this question, I don't know your specifics and of course, please work with your trusted healthcare practitioner.
Um, but, but on your own at home, you can absolutely get to know your beautiful body's ovulation signs. And so in a sweet little nutshell, um, you wanna look for three main things. These are like biological markers that every s- body that has... I should say, that, that the body will show you when you're ovulating.
So this is what you wanna look for. The first, and I believe the most important, is cervical fluid. Now s- I... If you were anything like me growing up, I did not understand cervical fluid. I was never taught what healthy cervical fluid looked like, that it actually changes. I really thought it was only like a sex response that the, you know, the, the vaginal canal produced when
Anyway, but I'm so wrong. Like, I did not know. So that the vaginal canal produced when, when there was, like, sexual arousal, but that is not true. In fact, the female body is so intuitive, and it does change its cervical fluid throughout your cycle. And so to give you the short version of this, you have your period with menstrual bleeding.
After your period, there's a couple days of nothing, like, literally, like, no cervical fluid. Then you enter your follicular phase, and your body's preparing for ovulation, and in that preparation, cervical fluid goes through a couple different stages. So on one day you might experience, um, like a flaky or kind of dry cervical fluid, like there's something there but not a high water content fluid.
Then as you get closer to ovulation, it's going to become more of a creamy texture, kind of like lotion, and at ovulation, that cervical fluid will change to an egg white like cervical fluid. So you might hear or see online like egg white or like aloe vera gel. Like, your cervical fluid becomes a conduit for sperm to move past the cervix for pregnancy, right, for conception, and on its own, sperm can't do that.
It needs a conduit to get past the cervix, and so that's why I say that cervical fluid is the most important because one, it changes, so it's a really good indicator of like in real time when ovulation is happening. But also, it's really essential for sperm to have that healthy cervical fluid to move past the cervix so that you can get pregnant.
So if you're not seeing cervical fluid changes, that is where you want to start. It's ... It is import- It's, it's a fluid that does have a high water content, so hydration is super important. Avoiding dehydrating things like drinking coffee, um, even things that dry up mucus in the body, like an allergy medicine, they will dry up mucus down there, too.
So you wanna be aware of what am I putting in my body that could be impacting this amazing cervical fluid? Also, if the fluid down there is not any of these things, if it's smelly, if it has a color, if it is burning or itching or any of that, that is a sign of an infection or something greater, and you want to get inspected by your doctor because the normal pattern of cervical fluid doesn't have any of those s- like, side effect symptoms, qualities to it, right?
So that's the first thing you can look for. Typically, in women, ovulation on average is around day 14. So your period is maybe five to seven days. The week after your period, you wanna look out for these changes, and it happens pretty quickly. In our normal, you know, busy day, we can miss ovulation pretty easily.
And so when you tune into that, um, know that it's not gonna last forever. Once ovulation happens and you have that egg white-like beautiful fluid and ovulation ends, the body moves into the luteal phase, progesterone spikes, and it kind of, like, shuts down everything down there. So you should see, like, no cervical fluid.
It's a dry consistency. Like, there's nothing really going on. The cervix itself closes pretty tightly, um, and which we'll talk about in a minute. And then that ... And, and all of that is to protect the potential of life that could be, you know, multiplying in the uterus. So that brings me to the next thing you can look for is the cervix itself changes its quality.
And in the book, Taking Charge of Your Fertility, they ... She goes through in detail the different things to look for, how to check your cervix in a safe way, um, and outside of your ovulation window, the cervix feels more like your nose. Like the c- if you were to touch your nose, the cartilage of your nose, it's kind of like spongy, a little bit hard.
It has a form, and that is the feeling of the quality of the cervix outside of ovulation. Now, during ovulation, the cervix softens and it opens up a little bit, and with that beautiful cervical fluid, it's allowing sperm to come through for conception. And it actually changes its quality to feel more like your lips.
So if you feel, if you feel... I'm, like, touching my lips. If you feel the difference between what your lips feel like on your face and your nose, that gives you a sense for what the cervix is doing when it's changing around ovulation. Now, the third sign is basal body temperature. After ovulation, the female body actually warms up about a degree, so like half a degree to a degree, and stays warmer until the start of the next cycle.
What I love about basal body temperature is it can give you a lot of data when you truly understand what it's telling you about your whole cycle health, not just ovulation. The other thing I love about basal body is You will know if you're pregnant before a pregnancy test because your temperatures will stay high if you're pregnant, and they will drop if your period is about to start.
So I love that little hack. I tell all of my clients about it because I know that feeling of just wanting to know if you're pregnant or not. Um, I will give a little word of warning with basal body. If-- I do think it's important to understand, however, it can become all-consuming, and it's something that you're tracking every day.
It has a lot of variables in it, so whether, you know, you're sick, if you've drinken alcohol, depending on your sleep, like there's a lot that can impact your body's temperature in general. Um, so it can become this all-consuming thing for the mind. So some people love it, and some people don't love it. And so I say, you know, give it a try if you've never tried it.
I do think knowledge is power, and it is fascinating the data that you can get back. Um, but if it starts to take over, then maybe it's not the best thing for you, and there's other ways to know if you're ovulating. Now, those are the three things that your body gives you for free. Um, if you were to ask your practitioner, they're likely going to recommend you use ovulation predictor kits, and those are those little pee sticks that measure your LH and your FSH, so your luteinizing hormone and your follicle-stimulating hormone.
Um, I am not the biggest fan of LH sticks, um, or ovulation predictor kits for a variety of reasons, um, because your body's already giving you indicators. Um, however, some people love the ovulated-- ovulation predictor kits because they seem like a more convenient way to tell if you're ovulating or not, so you could give them a try.
I'm not personally a fan of them. I think that sometimes they create more problems than solutions. Um, for example, I'll give you one example. Um, a student I was working with, she had been using ovulation predictor kits for a very long time, um, but she didn't have any all-- like other information about her cycle, and she was feeling really frustrated because she wasn't ovulating according to the sticks, and that was all she was doing for months on end.
And when we started working together and started tracking her temperatures and started looking at her cervical fluid, she had so many more things going on with her cycle that went undiagnosed because she was just relying on the ovulation predictor kits, um, and kind of this cycle of like, "I'm gonna take it.
I'm gonna hope that I ovulate this month. I'm gonna take it. I'm gonna hope that I ovulate this month," but there was so much more going on. So I say that as if y- so I say that because they can be a good tool, but if you are not seeing, you know, the little indicator on the strip or something is confusing about it, then working with your practitioner is super important and maybe understanding, and understanding what else is going on in your body and with your cycle is a must sooner than later.
Like, don't waste months using ovulation predictor kits when you might have a bigger thing going on. So not to scare you, but just to say use those with a word of caution. Now, there are a bunch of products out there that can be really expensive to tell you when you're ovulating. Choose to use those if you want to.
Um, I don't... I'm not affiliated with any of them. Um, I've worked with enough women to know that some people love them and some people don't love them. So it's really up to you if you wanna use them. You don't need them. Um, you can absolutely learn your own body's ovulation signs all on your own, and it's a really beautiful place to start when you are getting to know your cycle and getting to know your body and how it shows you when it's ovulating.
Um, so I'm a big fan of that. Now, if you aren't seeing the signs for ovulation or you have other things going on in your cycle, then absolutely go talk to your practitioner. Your practitioner might not know about, you know, basal body temperature. They might not wanna see your basal body temperature charts, and that's okay.
They have their own tools that they're going to use to help understand what's going on with your cycle. It's data for you to use, but if something is not feeling aligned for you, if something feels just off in your body, if you have this inner sense that something bigger is going on, then absolutely start asking questions of your practitioner because they have different tests that they can run, like blood tests and hormone panels and all these things that will give you different data on your body.
So, um, that is a good place to start, but trust your inner knowing on what to do next. And, and if you have a question about anything related to fertility, infertility, getting pregnant, the experience of really wanting a baby, then send me your question, and I would love to answer it here on the Her Fertility Podcast.
I will-- And I look forward to bringing you another question so soon
Thank you for being here today. If you would like to submit an anonymous question for Dear Jess, please see the show notes for the link. I would love to support you with answering your question. And if you're ready to go deeper, the Her Fertility Support Portal is where this work continues. It's a monthly membership built for women who want to feel genuinely supported, not just medically, but emotionally, somatically, and in community with women who actually understand.
You can find everything at www.herfertility.support. And if today was your first time here, welcome. Come back. There's more where this came from. Until next time, give yourself love. You are doing more than you know.