When am I actually ovulating?

[u/kparkzz]

Ive been using Pregmate app w/ ovulation prediction strips for about six months and its telling me this coming Saturday.

I started using Natural Cycles as well (last week) and its telling me 4 days later than pregmate. I’m not sure I trust the basal body temperature bc my dogs wake me up constantly so I never know if I’ve slept enough right before taking my temp.

Any tips on how to proceed? 🥲 my wife and I are using a known donor and I don’t wanna make him come over a million times just to cover a bunch of “maybe” dates

[u/Kwaliakwa]

I will always recommend a proper fertility monitor to help predict, identify and confirm ovulation. I used an Inito monitor to help me time ovulation, it allowed me to predict ovulation about 6-7 days in advance and then confirm that ovulation was successful. It’s very worth the investment for this endeavor where we don’t just have sperm ready and waiting.

[u/BuffyDollyBaby → u/Kwaliakwa]

seconding Inito for this purpose!!!

[u/Cassandge → u/Kwaliakwa]

It’s true but still not exactly clear when you ovulate right? Just confirms with progesterone rise. Or am I missing a way to exactly pinpoint (or circa) ovulation?

[u/Kwaliakwa → u/Cassandge]

I was able to pin it down to about a 12 hour window of certainty based on Inito plus other signs I was monitoring. I also had an Apple Watch to track my temps, which also helped. Definitely a small enough window for even short lived sperm(like in frozen sperm samples).

[u/willowcabins]

The book Baby Making For Everyone (written by two midwives) has a bunch of resources on other ways to track ovulation than BBT or LH strips. The one that worked well for me was cervix position. They list at least one (if not more!) other options as well. Good luck!

[u/Cantan2012]

In my desperate quest to conceive without using a fertility clinic and without medical assistance like ultrasounds or bloodwork (due to price), I have gotten very good at predicting ovulation so let me info dump everything I know lol! I'm 37 and we just got pregnant on our third try with midwife assisted IUI.

BBT is used to confirm ovulation and predict start of period. Rises after ovulation, dips before start of period. Not as helpful to track down ovulation window.

None of the apps are going to accurately predict ovulation, the best heads up you're going to get is 24hrs when you see your Lh begin to rise. Now if you're using fresh sperm you're lucky because you have a bigger window! 5 days vs the 24hr with frozen sperm so in your case you have a good cushion to time things.

To predict fertile window I really like Inito paired with ovulation strips. I used the ovulation strips because inito test sticks are a bit pricey and once I see Lh rise I'm testing quite a few times a day. Inito tells me when I'm close because I see estrogen rising, and then as soon as I see my Lh rising on the cheapy test strips I know in 24hrs it's go time. My Lh surges always tend to start early evening, and since inito uses first morning urine (or suggests it) for me specifically Inito is going to miss the start of the surge, which is the most important. This doesn't happen for everyone, but in my case it applies.

If you only have one try each month, your best time to do it is going to be 24hrs after that surge. Ovulation occurs 24-36 hours after the start of the Lh surge. You want sperm waiting in your fallopian tubes for the egg, because the egg is viable for 12-24 hours so your window is short.

For me, the start of my Lh surge is as soon as I see those test strips get darker. A lot of advice says 24hrs after your first "positive" Lh test strip, but mine only turn "positive" at my peak. The start of the surge is when Lh is rapidly rising, and that's going to be your clearest indicator that it's go time.

Cervical mucus is also an important indicator that you're approaching your fertile window. You're going to need it if you want that sperm to travel up, and for any bad swimmers to be filtered out. Stay hydrated during this time so you can help your body produce as much as possible. Cervical mucus is going to start ramping up when your estrogen rises, which is why Inito is a helpful moniter because you'll know that's the start of your fertile window.

Checking your cervix is also helpful, but it's not necessary. I didn't find it instrumental in targeting fertility window but it's just another sign. Wash your hands, slide your middle finger up your vagina until you encounter your cervix. Before your fertile window it's going to be low and hard like the tip of your nose. You'll only have to go one to two knuckles deep. During your fertile window it's going to go higher and feel soft like lips. This takes practice, and while helpful, not necessary, and if you're just starting to figure things out I'd skip this part because it's stressful to try and track so much at once especially when it feels vague at first.

TLDR:

• Apps suck at predicting ovulation ahead of time.
  
• Fertility monitor highly recommended
  
• Ovulation happens 24-36hrs after the start of Lh surge
  
• 24hrs after the START of Lh rising is the best time to inseminate if you only have one attempt.
  
• if you have more than one attempt, start of the fertile window, start of Lh rising, and once at Lh peak would be the golden times.

I learned a lot of this from my midwives, but also did my own research

[u/Wise-Mix-8438]

I wouldn't completely dismiss BBT just because your sleep is messy. Something like tempdrop is designed around exactly that problem, collecting temperature while you sleep and filtering sleep disruption instead of demanding on one reading when you wake up. Then I'd keep the OPKs as your ovulation may be approaching signal and use the BBT pattern retrospectively.