Welcome to Making Babies

Your cycle may be short, long, regular or irregular. What ever your cycle, if you are Trying to Conceive (TTC) then it’s best to start figuring her out. What is totally normal for one woman can be totally opposite for another. Yet all cycles pretty much work the same.

Very important, the length of your cycle is calculated by the number of days between each period (AF). Day one is considered full flow red blood. Many women make the mistake of counting “spotting” as day one. This will throw your cycle out, and most likely you will be timing ovulation wrong too.

So your cycle begins on the first day of bleeding, Cycle Day One (CD1) and continues up to but not including the first day of the next AF. Make sense?? If you start AF on CD29, then your cycle is 28 days long.

Another big debate is when is CD1 if you start in the evening? I’ve tried reading as much as possible about it. It seems the most favorable answer is: CD1 is considered day 1 if you start AF anything before midnight. So if you start 10pm then you consider that day as CD1.

AF can last anything from 1-8 days, with the average being 4-5 days. Each woman has their own amount of flow and some even have a few days of spotting after AF.

How does your cycle work?

Just before AF starts, estrogen and progesterone levels are at their lowest. The lining of the uterus starts to shed, hence the bleeding you experience. This is considered the beginning of a new cycle, i.e. AF. More or less at the same time, you start releasing a hormone called FSH(follicle stimulating hormone). This hormone triggers the follicles in your ovaries to start maturing, getting ready for this new cycle. This is known as your follicular phase. Once ovulation occurs, you enter your Luteal phase (LP) which is approximately 12-16 days, with average being 14 days. If fertilization doesn’t occur, the egg starts to “disintegrate” within 24 hours after ovulation. Once the egg has broken down completely and there are no more hormones being released, AF is triggered and there starts your next cycle. 

Follicular Phase

The follicular phase can vary in length. Ranging from 6 to 21 days, with the average being 14 days. You may notice that the length of your follicular phase can differ each month. This is not unusual. Since you can ovulate a day later or earlier each cycle (even as much as 2-3 days later.)

Now we know that the follicular phase begins on CD1. After AF has ended the lining of the uterus is at its thinnest. Levels of estrogen and progesterone are very low. During the first half of this phase, we have FSH being secreted helping in the eggs in your ovaries to start maturing. Approximately 10-20 follicles start to develop. Only one(sometimes two) follicles/egg(s) will mature fully.

Round about day five of your cycle you enter the second half of the follicular phase. This is when the estrogen level secreted by the ovaries start to increase. The uterine lining starts to thicken and prepares itself for possible implantation of fertilized egg.

Towards the end of the follicular phase, estrogen reaches a certain level that triggers the pituitary gland to release a surge of LH(Luteinising hormone). This causes the mature follicle(s) to burst open and release the egg into the fallopian tube. Bringing the follicular phase to an end, and OVULATION takes place. 

Ovulation

Ovulation, the big O. We now know what happens in the follicular phase, so the next step is ovulation. This is the process when your ovary releases a mature egg from your follicle. The egg “floats” down to the fallopian tubes and is hopefully fertilized by the waiting sperm.

Ovulation takes place, on average, about two weeks before your period, though it can vary from 10-16 days before the onset of menstruation depending on the length of your Luteal Phase (LP).

Just before ovulation occurs, a hormone called the Luteinizing Hormone(LH) is produced. It is the LH surge that causes the egg to be released. This is the hormone that the Ovulation Prediction Kit(OPK) picks up. You can ovulate 12-36 hours after your LH surge.

Once you have ovulated, the egg can survive for about 24 hours. In which the sperm must be present to fertilize the egg. Fertilization takes place in the fallopian tube. The fertilized egg then travels down towards the uterus and implants in the uterine wall.

If within 24 hours the egg is not fertilized, it will “disintegrate” once reaching the uterus prompting the arrival of your period (AF) towards the end of the 2ww.

Signs of ovulation:

1)    Change in cervical mucus – it should turn into a more watery texture, or even resemble raw egg whites

2)    Some women get ovulation cramps, although the cramps can happen before, during or even after ovulation has occurred.

3)    Sensitive breasts

4)     Increased sex drive

Luteal Phase