How to calculate ovulation period

Fertility Specialist Richard Marrs, MD, shares advice for women on a few different methods for calculating your ovulation cycle
How To Calculate The Ovulation Cycle
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How to calculate ovulation period

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A woman can determine her time of ovulation by some very simple methods. The simplest method is just a temperature chart. Before she gets out of bed each morning, she takes her temperature, writes it down on a chart. And at the time of ovulation, the temperature is at a baseline level, it's kind of consistently low until ovulation, and it shifts up and stays up after ovulation. That's probably the oldest method that was used for ovulation determination. Today we have some very simple, very direct, and very accurate means of determining ovulation. It's by doing a little urine dipstick. Women can check a urine sample starting on about day 10 or 11 if they have a 28 day cycle. And each day they do a little dipstick and there's either two lines or a smiley face that shows up the day that their LH surge occurs, that's the hormone that's released from their pituitary gland that precedes the release of the egg by about 24 hours. So if they test each day, the day that's it's positive that's when they have intercourse that day and the next day and they'll be hitting right at ovulation time for pregnancy occurrence.

Fertility Specialist Richard Marrs, MD, shares advice for women on a few different methods for calculating your ovulation cycle

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Richard Marrs, MD

Fertility Specialist

Dr. Richard Marrs is a board certified Reproductive Endocrinologist. He studied medicine and trained in Obstetrics and Gynecology in Texas before moving to Southern California to study Reproductive Endocrinology. While at the University of Southern California, he developed one of the country’s first IVF programs, which is responsible for the second IVF birth in the United States and the first birth from cryopreserved embryos in the United States in 1986. He is internationally recognized for his contributions to the development of IVF. He has published over 200 papers and books in the area of Reproductive Endocrinology and In Vitro Fertilization and is a prominent figure in the national and international infertility communities. In 1996, he published a book for couples called the Dr. Richard Marrs' Fertility Book: America's Leading Infertility Expert Tells You Everything You Need to Know About Getting Pregnant.

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Transcription: 
A woman can determine her time of ovulation by some very simple methods. The simplest method is just a temperature chart. Before she gets out of bed each morning, she takes her temperature, writes it down on a chart. And at the time of ovulation, the temperature is at a baseline level, it's kind of consistently low until ovulation, and it shifts up and stays up after ovulation. That's probably the oldest method that was used for ovulation determination. Today we have some very simple, very direct, and very accurate means of determining ovulation. It's by doing a little urine dipstick. Women can check a urine sample starting on about day 10 or 11 if they have a 28 day cycle. And each day they do a little dipstick and there's either two lines or a smiley face that shows up the day that their LH surge occurs, that's the hormone that's released from their pituitary gland that precedes the release of the egg by about 24 hours. So if they test each day, the day that's it's positive that's when they have intercourse that day and the next day and they'll be hitting right at ovulation time for pregnancy occurrence.