How to use an ovulation test?

When a woman seeks pregnancy frequently, it is usually because she wants to achieve immediate results, so it is of great help know what are the fertile days and thus increase the chances of conceiving. In this sense the Ovulation Test plays an important role!

What is an ovulation test?

Ovulation tests detect LH hormone spikes or luteinizing hormone in the urine.

During the first phase of the menstrual cycle, estrogens are secreted that mature the ovum that will be expelled at the time of ovulation. When the ovum is mature, the pituitary gland secretes a large amount of luteinizing hormone (LH) that concentrates in about 6 hours and is detectable in urine. All this will cause the ovary to dislodge an egg for fertilization in the next 24-36 hours.

Types of ovulation tests

• Test strips that are immersed in a urine sample, or pencil type like pregnancy tests, if they detect the LH surge, a line is drawn on the strip or in the pencil window.
• Others more sophisticated, digital, mark with a symbol the days in which they detect LH above certain levels of hormone, which can vary from one brand to another.

How to do an ovulation test at home?

These tests can be easily do at home with a urine sample (same as a) that will tell you which days you are ovulating. It is about performing at least a daily test in the days after ovulation until the peak is detected, and at that time plan sexual intercourse to try to conceive that day and the next day.

Ovulation tests are useful and reliable but they have some drawback: the cost, the difficulty of use in women with irregular cycles, it is usually necessary to do several tests a day and, finally, another negative point is that it conditions the sexual relations of the couple.

What is the menstrual cycle?

To understand how it works, it is essential to know the physiology of the. The menstrual cycle is the time frame what happens andBetween the first day of a period and the first day of the next period and it is divided into two parts. The first It goes from the first day of menstruation to ovulation, it is the most variable of the two. The second It goes from ovulation to the next menstrual period and is fairly constant, usually lasting about 14 days.

• Women with 28-day cycles ovulation occurs on day 14 and the two phases have the same duration (28-14 = 14)
• Women with longer cycles (31 days) the follicular phase is longer and ovulation usually occur on the 17th day cycle (31-14 = 17)
• Women with shorter cycles (25 days) the follicular phase is shorter and ovulation usually occur on the 11th day Cycle. (25-14 = 11)

How and when does ovulation occur?

Ovulation is the time when the ovary lets out an egg, which will begin a journey through the fallopian tube to the uterus and will be available for two or three days to be fertilized. Likewise sperm can remain viable inside the uterus and tubes during 24-48 hours waiting for ovulation, with which it can be four or five days, even longer.

To detect ovulation the first thing is count the duration of the cycles and calculate on the calendar the average moment in which it occurs by subtracting 14 days from the first day of menstruation. Another data to take into account are the changes that occur during the cycle, and the most evident are the changes in the characteristics of the cervical mucus that during the fertile days it becomes much more mucous, stringy, transparent like egg white. There are women who notice these nuances more than others.

Some may also notice a slight abdominal discomfort and occasionally some women stain a little blood in the discharge. Before the era of ovulatory tests, the control of body temperature upon awakening, before getting out of bed, since after ovulation the average temperature increases between 2 and 5 tenths of a degree.

Conclusions.

Although it can be helpful, gynecologists are generally not very supportive of its use without a medical indication. On the contrary, they are in favor of having sex regularly and frequently and not obsessing over it because it must be borne in mind that, despite having relationships at the right time and none of the members of the couple have any fertility problems, the pregnancy rate is approximately 30% per cycle. There are many factors involved, and we should try for at least 6-12 months before starting to do extraordinary tests.

CALCULATE YOUR PRICE Specialist in gynecology and obstetrics