How to Track Your Ovulation and Menstrual Cycle

How to track your ovulation and menstrual cycle so you know exactly when you ovulated and when your period is coming?

Watch the super quick video below to find out! Or, keep reading..

Why You Should Track Your Ovulation and Cycle

Tracking your ovulation and cycle is important for these reasons:

 1. You find out if you actually ovulate. It's great if you got your period back if that was gone for a while, but are you actually ovulating between two periods? Ovulation is the time where we get all the health benefits from our cycle. Ovulation makes it possible to increase our bone mass again (remember, if you had hypothalamic amenorrhea, you have likely lost bone density), make the feel-good hormones, and of course, are fertile and have better sex drive.

2. You know when to expect your next period. By knowing when you ovulate, you can also predict when your next period should come. In general, you should have 14 days between your ovulation and your period. If it's less than 11 days, something might be going on with your hormones. You may be overtraining, stressed out, not take in enough nutrition, have problems with progresterone… It's not a bad idea to get your progesterone levels checked. Remember that you can't do it at any time – 5-7 days after your ovulation is the right time (another reason why you should know when you ovulate!).

How to Track Your Ovulation

The simplest way to track your ovulation is to take your body temperature every morning, and pay attention to your cervical mucus. Here's how:

1. Your cervical mucus should increase significantly in your mid cycle. That means, you start seeing more white, clear or yellow-ish fluid when you wipe in the bathroom. You are most fertile when the amount of cervical mucus is the highest. This is the time when you ovulate.
2. In addition, get yourself a simple thermometer so you can take your daily temperature. Keep that thermometer by your bedside. Every morning before getting out of bed, take your body temperature. After a few days of seeing increased amount of cervical mucus, the temperature goes up. This confirms your ovulation. Meaning: You already ovulated.
3. Use a simple fertility tracker to put in the information there. I use Kindara app. It helps to keep things simple for you and you have all the data in front of you, so you know when to expect your next period.
4. If you want to get pregnant, start taking action when you notice that increased cervical mucus. The more often you have sex during that time, the better your chance of getting pregnant. Once the temperature is up, ovulation has already happened and you won't be able to get pregnant anymore on this cycle and have to wait for the next cycle.
5. You can also use ovulation predictor kits to know when exactly you are ovulating. However, paying attention to your cervical mucus is an easy and effortless way to tell that as well.

When you track your signs consistently, you should start seeing patterns: You'll see if and when you ovulate, when to expect your next fertile time and period, and how long your cycle is.

I hope this was helpful! Let me know if you have any questions about tracking your ovulation and cycle!