When Does Ovulation Occur?

If you choose to use the natural rhythm method of birth control, you need to know when does ovulation occur. While there are many methods of birth control, most require using an artificial device, such as a condom or IUD, or require the use of a pharmaceutical product such as the pill or a skin patch. All of these methods don’t depend on any sort of timing on the part of the participants, although you can still determine your ovulation schedule in order to be even safer when preventing pregnancy.

Understanding when does ovulation occur involves understanding how the ovulation cycle fits into a woman's reproductive cycle.

From the first day of the menstrual cycle, the woman’s body is shedding the lining of the uterus that would have been used if she had become pregnant. Following the completion of the menstrual cycle, the follicles in the ovaries begin to develop as a reuslt of the flux of hormones that are being delivered by the woman’s body.

After a few days of development, one follicle will dominate over the rest and, at about the midpoint of her cycle, will be released by a surge of Luteinizing Hormone. The process of releasing the egg is called ovulation.

Where Does the Egg Go?

The egg is released from the surface of the ovary and flows down the fallopian tube towards the uterus. The sperm resides in the uterus awaiting the egg’s arrival. When the egg arrives, the sperm has only a short time to fertilize the egg.

The sperm is viable in the uterus for approximately four to five days. The egg itself only has a life span of 36 to 48 hours before it starts to decompose. The cycle ends on the first day of the next cycle.

Timing Ovulation

The fertile period for the woman begins about four days before ovulation and continues until one day after ovulation. The rest of the month it is safe to participate in sexual intercourse without the fear of becoming pregnant.

Timing ovulation can be very difficult though, as many factors can throw off your ovulation date.  If you are under a great deal of stress, become ill, change your diet or increase your level of physical activity it can change how your body reacts to your monthly cycle.

If any of these or other factors occur that change your cycle, it can change your ovulation date. If the date changes, then your calculation of which days are safe for sexual activity or which days you want to engage in sexual activity if you want a child, can be severely off. If there is ever any question as to how fertile you may be, hedge on the safe side and utilize another method of birth control.

On the other hand, if you are trying to get pregnant, you can find ovulation test kits in the drug store. These kits work in much the same way as pregnancy tests; you can urinate on the test and it will tell you whether you are ovulating or not.

Ovulation Timing as a Method of Birth Control

For couples who have decided that they do not want a child now, the use of a dependable method of birth control is imperative. The pill is the most proven form of birth control but it isn’t without its own set of hazards. Many women have reactions to the medications in the pill.

The rhythm method of birth control involves abstaining from sexual intercourse during the woman’s fertile time of the month. A woman’s most fertile time of the month is the day before her ovulation and the day of ovulation since the male sperm is able to survive for roughly four to five days within the female’s uterus.

There are six days around the ovulation date where the female may become pregnant if the partners have sex with each other during that period. Even though there may be other methods of birth control available using modern pharmaceuticals, the safest method in relation to your health is the rhythm method. However, to reliably count on this method you must know for you, when does ovulation occur?

Other methods of birth control may not be as convenient but their reliability rate is very high. The use of condoms is perhaps the simplest and adds protection from STDs to the protection against pregnancy. While they are very reliable, they are not foolproof. They have been known to fail and result in an unwanted pregnancy. As such, combining these birth control emthods with a schedule of your ovulation can be the best way to prevent an unwanted pregnancy.