The eggs are super tiny — too small to see with the naked eye. During your menstrual cycle, hormones make the eggs in your ovaries mature — when an egg is mature, that means it's ready to be fertilized by a sperm cell.
The egg travels down the fallopian tubes. If pregnancy doesn't occur, the egg is reabsorbed into the body. Levels of oestrogen and progesterone fall, and the womb lining comes away and leaves the body as a period (the menstrual flow). The time from the release of an egg to the start of a period is around 10 to 16 days.
When the egg reaches the uterus, it may attach itself to the uterine lining (the endometrium) and pregnancy will begin. Many fertilized eggs are never implanted and are flushed out of the body with the next period.
You ovulate one egg per month, usually. This is the single egg that makes it through the whole ovulatory process: the egg follicle is activated, the egg grows and matures, and then—once it reaches maturation—it breaks free from the ovary and begins on its journey down the Fallopian tubes.
If you notice on heavy days of your period that blood seems extra-thick, and can sometimes form a jelly-like glob, these are menstrual clots, a mix of blood and tissue released from your uterus during your period. They can vary in size and color, and usually, they are nothing to worry about.
your cervical mucus – you may notice wetter, clearer and more slippery mucus around the time of ovulation. your body temperature – there's a small rise in body temperature after ovulation takes place, which you may be able to detect with a thermometer.
Around Day 14 (in a 28-day cycle), hormones cause the mature follicle to burst and release an egg from the ovary, a process called ovulation. Over the next few days, the egg travels down the fallopian tube towards the uterus.
Longer cycles are an indicator that ovulation is not occurring or at least not in a regular manner which can make conception difficult. What Causes Long Menstrual Cycles? Longer cycles are caused by a lack of regular ovulation. During a normal cycle, it is the fall of progesterone that brings upon bleeding.
A released egg lives for less than 24 hours. The highest pregnancy rates have been reported when the egg and sperm join together within 4 to 6 hours of ovulation.
Cervical mucus changes
To test for ovulation, insert a clean finger into the vagina and remove some of the mucus and then stretch out the secretion between the thumb and finger. If it is sticky and stretchy or very wet and slippery, then it is a sign that you are in the fertile phase.
A decidual cast is a large, intact piece of tissue that you pass through your vagina in one solid piece. It happens when the thick mucus lining of the uterus, called the decidua, sheds in the near exact shape of your uterine cavity, creating a triangular “cast.”
When it's expelled, a decidual cast will be red or pink. It will be somewhat triangular and close to the size of your uterus. This is because the entire lining of the uterus exited as one piece. The decidual cast will also appear fleshy because it's made up of tissue.
The tissue you pass may look dark red and shiny — some women describe it as looking like liver. You might find a sac with an embryo inside, about the size of a small bean. If you look closely, you might be able to see where the eyes, arms and legs were forming.
The main symptom of infertility is not getting pregnant. There may be no other obvious symptoms. Sometimes, women with infertility may have irregular or absent menstrual periods. In some cases, men with infertility may have some signs of hormonal problems, such as changes in hair growth or sexual function.
The most common causes of female infertility include problems with ovulation, damage to fallopian tubes or uterus, or problems with the cervix. Age can contribute to infertility because as a woman ages, her fertility naturally tends to decrease.
You ovulate about 12 to 14 days before the start of a new menstrual cycle. Your fertile window is the five days leading up to ovulation, plus the day of ovulation and the day after ovulation — so about seven days in total.
You might not be ovulating. Your male partner may be experiencing infertility. You may be experiencing age-related infertility. You may have blocked fallopian tubes.
Infertility testing includes physical and ultrasound exams to evaluate the health of the reproductive organs. It includes chemical and hormonal tests to evaluate the health and number of the eggs in a woman's ovaries.
Most at-home FSH tests are very similar to pregnancy tests administered at home. For easy testing, use a small cup to collect urine from the first urination of the day. Then dip the testing stick into the urine sample and place on a flat surface while the test results register.
The sperm rapidly swim up and into the cervix, where they can survive in the mucus for up to five days before an egg is released.
Ideally, you want to have sperm ready and waiting for the egg. This is why most ovulation signs appear in the days before the egg is released. The two to four days before you ovulate are your most fertile time.