Let’s talk ovulation
Ovulation is the lifeblood of your cycle.
Typically occurring around the midpoint of your cycle, ovulation is the true test of your body’s overall function.
When you get into cyclical living, you’ll hear everyone talking about how amazing ovulation is. A bunch of reels will hit your instagram of people talking about how they’re glowing from the inside out.
But what if your ovulation doesn’t feel that way?
How do you know if you’e ovulating?
What is ovulating?
Moreover, there is a big misconception about “late periods…”
Let’s get into it.
But first, feel free to check out this video of what’s really happening when you ovulate…
What is ovulation?
You may have been taught in sex ed that you’re fertile every day of the month (or, at least, they made it SOUND like that). This is actually far from true. Ovulation is an event that (hopefully) happens every month. It is also your “fertile window.”
Your “ovulatory phase” is typically a five day window, this is the phase of your cycle when you are fertile. But the event of ovulation is actually only 12-24 hours.
Ovulation is when a mature egg is released from an ovary, travels down the fallopian tube, and becomes available for fertilization.
You are fertile for as long as the egg can stay alive (three days before, one day during, and one day after).
If you watched the video above, you know that ovulation is actually a pretty intense event.
Here’s the deal:
A period tracker cannot tell you if you’ve ovulated.
How can you tell when you’re ovulating?
Ovulation is typically day 14 of your cycle, but it can vary greatly. So how can you definitively tell when it’s happening?
Basal Body Temp
Cervical fluid
Ovulation test strips
Basal body temp:
This is your body temp right when you wake up, before you move. You can use a basal body temp thermometer or a wearable device.
Cervical fluid:
Have you ever felt like you started your period SUPER early, then went into the bathroom and found soo much cervical fluid in your underwear? Congrats! You ovulated. Cervical fluid while ovulating doesn’t separate when you pull your fingers apart, cervical fluid during the rest of your cycle does. This is a quick and easy test!
Incredibly easy to use and affordable, but these will only test positive on the day before the event of ovulation, they will not indicate your full window. (You can easily use these to do the math and come up with your window.)
Late ovulation...
We’ve all heard 100+ times that our periods are late because of stress, travel, routine change, blah blah blah, and it’s honestly wildly unhelpful when you’re sitting there, deep in luteal, waiting to bleed.
Every day, our brains have to make a choice:
Produce stress hormones, or sex hormones.
Cortisol, estrogen, and progesterone are all made from the same basic building blocks. Your brain cannot make both at the same time.
If cortisol production is needed, (remember, cortisol is responsible for managing stress, it does not create it) then the “glamour” of reproduction (which your body sees as a privilege) is shut down.
But here’s the thing: it’s not usually your period that’s delayed, but your ovulation. If you’re having all the signs of impending ovulation, cervical fluid, time of cycle, body temp, but the luteal phase doesn’t come, it’s because ovulation failed, and your body is trying to ovulate again.
There is no fixed number of times your body will attempt ovulation, it really depends on your body. Only under duress will you have an anovulatory cycle.
What does duress look like?
Adrenal fatigue & high cortisol
Vitamin deficiency (overshooting & undereating)
Unstable blood sugar
Gut & liver distress
Inflammation
Emotional stress
Fixes:
Adrenal fatigue & high cortisol
daily adrenal drink, box breath, and orgasm
Vitamin deficiency (overshooting & undereating)
Get blood tests for deficiencies, or eat & recover more
Unstable blood sugar
follow blood sugar protocol, and add metaglycemix supplement
Gut & liver distress
Dandelion tea, NAC, and probiotics
Inflammation
Emotional stress
Cry. Sit with it. Feel. Meditate. Prioritize warmth.
I’ve said it before but I’ll say it again:
Your body has to feel safe to bleed, and it has to feel safe to ovulate.
Ovulation cramping
Period and ovulatory cramps are triggered by something called prostaglandins. They cause muscle contractions, and bring a sensation of heat to the area they’re called to action in.
In order to ovulate, there needs to be a spike in prostaglandins, as they are responsible for rupturing the ovarian follicle.
People who experience ovulation cramping typically produce 2-4x more prostaglandins than in people who don’t.
(But WHY?)
Systemic inflammation leads to overproduction of prostaglandins, as does excess estrogen, as does chronic physiological stress.
Fixes:
Systemic inflammation target: omega 3s
Excess estrogen target: liver & gut microbiome support
Stress & cortisol target: orgasms, box breathing
Benefits of ovulation
Cardiovascular protection
The surge of estrogen leading up to ovulation keeps blood vessels flexible, relaxes arterial walls, and helps optimize cholesterol levels. Long-term, consistent ovulatory cycles drastically reduce a person’s baseline risk for cardiovascular disease, strokes, and heart attacks later in life.
Bone Density and Skeletal Strength
Estrogen and progesterone work symmetrically to build a strong skeleton. While estrogen stops old bone from breaking down, the progesterone produced only after a successful ovulation activates osteoblasts—the cells responsible for building brand-new bone tissue. Missing ovulation over your reproductive years greatly increases the risk of osteoporosis and fractures.
Brain Health, Mood, and Anxiety Control
After you ovulate, the ruptured follicle transforms into the corpus luteum, which floods the body with progesterone. Progesterone crosses the blood-brain barrier and converts into allopregnanolone, a neurosteroid that binds to GABA receptors in the brain. (This is where PMDD comes into play, as afflicted people have an adverse reaction to allopregnanolone. excuse my oversimplification for the sake of time)