Ovulation occurs when an egg is released from one of your ovaries and travels through the fallopian tubes to await fertilization. On average, the egg will live approximately 12-24 hours awaiting fertilization from sperm. If conception doesn’t occur, the unfertilized egg, uterine lining, and additional blood will be shed during menstruation. If conception does occur, the egg will implant in the uterine wall within about 6-12 days.

Understanding ovulation is very important if you are trying to conceive. Here are a few common myths and misconceptions.

A Woman Can Get Pregnant Only One Day During Her Cycle. It is true that ovulation (meaning the dropping of one or more eggs) generally only occurs on one day of the cycle, but a woman can actually get pregnant from having had intercourse 4-5 days before ovulation occurs. The reason for this is that sperm can live for up to 5 days in a healthy reproductive tract.

A Normal Menstrual Cycle is 28 Days, and Ovulation Occurs on Day 14 of the Cycle. The reality is that every woman’s cycle is different, and generally ranges from 24-36 days. Ovulation days can also depend on the woman and can occur many days before or after the 14th day of her cycle. You will not necessarily be fertile on the 14th day of your cycle. Fertility Charting, and the use of ovulation microscopes and other predictor devices are recommended to test for your window of fertility.

Women Can Ovulate More Than once During Her Cycle. This is not true. Ovulation only occurs once during the cycle of a healthy woman. It is true that more than one egg may be released during ovulation, but this almost always occurs within 24 hours of each other.

Women Ovulate on the Same Day Each Month. While most women ovulate towards the middle of their cycle, the actual day can change month to month, even in women with regular cycles. This is one reason that tracking for ovulation is so important!

Many store-bought pregnancy tests recommend waiting to test for pregnancy until after a missed period. In contrast, early-detection pregnancy tests (often used in fertility clinics) may detect pregnancy as early as just six to eight days after conception!

Early pregnancy tests can come in the form of a test strip (like the ones clinics use to dip in a cup of collected urine) or a midstream test (the same style you would find at a drug store where you urinate directly on the test stick). Both test types are capable of detecting human chorionic gonadotropin or hCG (a hormone present in women’s urine during pregnancy) at very low levels (i.e. ~20 mIU/ml/hCG). This means that instead of waiting for a missed period to test for pregnancy, you can begin testing about a week before your missed period.

Many women don’t realize that the same pregnancy tests found in your neighborhood drugstore are available to purchase online for a fraction of the price. A store we recommended is early-pregnancy-tests.com. They have an excellent reputation, offer free shipping, and they also supply fertility clinics and hospitals around the country.

Progesterone is a female sex hormone that is secreted by the corpus luteum to prepare the endometrium for implantation of the fertilized egg. Without continuing progesterone production, the endometrium would shed and menstruation would ensue. Therefore, progesterone plays a significant role in reproduction. Thus, progesterone…

• Helps create a fertile, warm environment in the womb and promotes the survival of the fertilized egg through healthy implantation.
• Strengthens and maintains the secretory endometrium which sustains the embryo throughout pregnancy.
• Prevents the premature shedding of the secretory endometrium (menstruation).

During a woman’s cycle, progesterone levels rise rapidly at ovulation to provide a fertile environment for the fertilized egg. Here, progesterone is also responsible for the increase in body temperature at ovulation that lasts through most of the luteal phase. Beginning with ovulation, the corpus luteum produces progesterone for several days (and the concomitant temperature increase is in most cases easily measurable through methods of BBT/fertility charting).

If fertilization and implantation take place, the placenta takes over the role signaling progesterone production and in further maintaining a supportive environment for embryonic and fetal development. If fertilization does not occur, progesterone levels fall dramatically (usually after 10-12 days) triggering the shedding of the secretory endometrium (menses).