Fertile period, how to recognize it

To guess (or avoid) the fertile days, ideal for procreation, it is necessary to know how to recognize the signals that the organism sends.

There are couples who can’t wait to expand the family, others who prefer to postpone the arrival of a baby. In both cases, at the base of the success of the enterprise, there is the ability to identify the right time to do, or not to do, love, that is, the fertile period.

Every month the female body releases an egg ready to be fertilized: in a woman with a regular cycle of 28 days ovulation occurs 14 days before the arrival of menstruation, but not all of them have the same rhythm.

How then to recognize one’s peak fertility? In addition to the products that can be purchased at the pharmacy (ovulation test), you can rely on some predictive techniques based on the observation of your body.

Basal temperature

A challenging system, which consists of measuring the vaginal or rectal temperature with a thermometer every morning, at the same time. During ovulation, in fact, the internal temperature increases by about three tenths of a degree due to the rise in the level of progesterone.

You need to keep a diary for at least a couple of months before you have some confidence about your body’s behavior. It is preferable to start from the first day after the end of the menstrual cycle.

Changes in cervical mucus

The amount and consistency of cervical mucus changes depending on the time of the month. Absent or not very copious after menstruation, it becomes more abundant, fluid and viscous during the ovulatory phase to allow sperm an easier ascent towards the egg. To verify the actual greater quantity, however, a manual check is necessary, for example before proceeding with intimate hygiene.

But be careful, because some drugs, for example antihistamines, can inhibit the production of cervical mucus.

Other signals from the body

The increase in breast volume during the ovulation period is a rather frequent phenomenon, but not common to all women. To be taken into account is also another type of tension, the sexual one: biology and the instinct of reproduction, in fact, would program the female sexual desire in conjunction with the ovulatory period, in order to increase the chances of starting a pregnancy.

How many fertile days are there

But how long does the phase favorable to conception last? The egg that has nested in the uterus waiting to be fertilized has a receptivity of about 24 hours. In reality, the period in which it is possible to get pregnant is greater, as the vitality of the spermatozoa can reach up to 96 hours: in short, a pregnancy is very likely if you have unprotected sex starting from the day before ovulation, after which it will be the task of the male semen to be able to fertilize the egg in time.