Hi girls, this will be useful reading material for all of us trying to detect "O" from Baby Center website:
How can I tell when I'm ovulating and most fertile?
Figure out when your next period is due to begin and count back 12 to 16 days. This will give you a range of days when you will probably be ovulating. For women with a 28-day cycle, the 14th day is often the day of ovulation. To use this method, you must know how long your cycle usually lasts. Try BabyCenter's ovulation calculator if you want us to do the math for you.
The best way to determine your most fertile time, though, is to pay attention to your body and learn to spot the signs that ovulation is imminent.
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Change in cervical mucus. As your cycle progresses, your cervical mucus increases in volume and changes texture. The changes reflect your body's rising levels of estrogen. You are considered most fertile when the mucus becomes clear, slippery, and stretchy. Many women compare mucus at this stage to raw egg whites.
Normally the mucous is a protective barrier, but during the most fertile time of your cycle, it allows sperm to get through the cervix, up to the uterus, and then to the fallopian tubes for a rendezvous with your egg.
A rise in body temperature. Following ovulation, your temperature can increase by 0.4 to 1.0 degrees. You won't feel the shift, but you can detect it by using a basal body temperature (BBT) thermometer. This temperature spike indicates that you've ovulated, because releasing an egg stimulates the production of the hormone progesterone, which raises body temperature.
You're most fertile in the two or three days before your temperature hits its high point. A few experts think you may have an additional 12- to 24-hour window of fertility after you first notice the temperature creep up, but most say that at that point, it's too late to make a baby.
"It can take one to two days after ovulation for progesterone to build up enough to raise your body temperature. But since the egg can only survive for about 24 hours, at that point, it's too late for fertilization," says Tracy Telles, an ob-gyn at the Permanente Medical Group in Walnut Creek, California. That's why experts recommend that you chart your temperature by taking it each morning for a few months to detect a pattern and pinpoint your likely ovulatory date. Then you can plan to have sex during the two to three days preceding the day your temperature normally rises.
Lower abdominal discomfort. About one-fifth of women actually feel ovulatory activity, which can range from mild achiness to twinges of pain. The condition, called mittelschmerz, may last a few minutes to a few hours.