The Blog

 

Trying to get Pregnant? Signs You're Not Ovulating

hormone health menstruation pregnancy Aug 02, 2022

If you're new around here, welcome! I'm a menstrual health expert and ND. I have helped thousands of women welcome in healthy periods and balanced hormones with my program Period Reboot! Be sure to hop on the waiting list so you're notified the next time the doors open!


 

Ovulation HAS to happen for conception and pregnancy to happen but it's not talked about enough in my opinion. I've heard so many stories from women who were told by their doctors to just "have more sex" while trying to get pregnant but VERY few women are told "please start tracking to confirm your fertile window and then be intimate in that window." 

Having sex 20-25 days of the month cannot get you pregnant. 😮 It's only a small window where intimacy even matters!

Yep, I said it! You can only get pregnant during your fertile window. If you have sex outside of your fertile window, it will never get you pregnant! 

You can see why the old advice to just "be intimate more often" makes my eyes glaze over. Sex only matters IF the patient is ovulating in the first place and knows how to time intimacy with their fertile window. 

 


Did you know?! 🔍 

When you ovulate, the egg is only viable for conception for UP TO 24 hours. That's it. Sperm however can live in healthy cervical mucus for 5-6 days which is why your fertile window is considered 5-6 days. If you were intimate four days before ovulating, some sperm may still be in your body and could still find the egg. Incredible, right? 


 

But what if a woman isn't ovulating? While many women assume they're ovulating, often I find with clients that they actually are not even though they may be seeing cervical mucus and feel like they are! While this may sound disheartening, it's actually really helpful for us to know if you're not ovulating because we can then focus there. Until ovulation is happening, pregnancy cannot occur. 

And don't worry, you CAN help your body ovulate. 

 

Signs you may not be ovulating:

  • you have short cycle lengths with your total cycle length under 25 days
  • you don't see much if any cervical mucus during your monthly cycle
  • your cycle lengths are VERY long or your period is very irregular
  • you spot mid cycle
  • you deal with intense PMS and symptoms during your luteal phase
  • your period is missing (like in cases of amenorrhea)

 

Those symptoms listed above may be matching some of what you've been feeling or experiencing 

 

But don't lose hope! The best way to confirm if you're actually ovulating is by tracking your Basal Body Temperature (BBT). If you're ovulating, you'll see a significant temperature shift around the middle of the month. If you are not ovulating, you'll see your temperatures fluctuate up and down and up and down all month long before you may ultimately have a withdrawal bleed. 

 


Random fact:

Technically, a period must follow ovulation. If you bleed but did not ovulate that month, this is called a withdrawal bleed.


 

Tracking your BBT is easy! You just need a thermometer. 

My favorite thermometer is the Tempdrop and you can read my blog post all about it here. But you can also use a simple oral thermometer. By tracking your temperature daily, you'll be able to see if you are ovulating. 

You can also track cervical mucus to determine when your fertile window OPENS. Your BBT will tell you once ovulation has already happened or when your fertile window CLOSES. Between the two things, you'll be able to:

-determine if you're ovulating

-time intimacy in your fertile window 

 


My Cycle Tracking 101 workshop goes into this in depth! You'll learn how to interpret your basal body temperatures, see real examples of ovulatory cycles and anovulatory cycles, how to track your cervical mucus, fertile mucus vs. infertile mucus and so much more!

Buy Cycle Tracking 101 now!


 

Confirming ovulation is essential to support your conception journey! If you're checking the boxes on many of the anovulatory symptoms, it's time to look deeper and see if you're truly ovulating or not. If you are, you can now start to time your intimacy more precisely. 

And if you're not ovulating, it just means it's time to look deeper 🔍 Ovulation requires lots of energy and nutrients so we now get to replenish our bodies to help turn ovulation back on. Remember too, if you were on hormonal birth control for a while and recently got off, it can take 6 or so months for ovulation to turn back on while intentionally remineralizing your body.  

 

This is what my program Period Reboot is all about - how to encourage ovulatory cycles, balance your hormones and restore your metabolism

In Period Reboot, students learn how to work WITH their biology and how to support their hormones so they can welcome in regular periods, ovulatory cycles, balanced moods and symptom free cycles. I believe this information is VITAL and the aha moments and amazed faces in every live workshop I lead within Period Reboot are so powerful to see. 

 

Excited to join the next round of Period Reboot? Make sure you're on the waiting list here!

 

Was this information helpful? Let me know! And best of luck to you on your pregnancy journey!

Do you have a hormone imbalance? Take my FREE quiz!

Take the free quiz now