Does it hurt to ovulate?

[delilah89]

Really stupid question but half way through my cycle I get terrible pains in my abdomen and a bit bloated. Is this ovulation?
Thanks

[keepswimming1]

OH YES,
Mine hurts like hell - Just remember its a good sign at least you know roughly when your ovulating

[ZingWantsCake]

yep, painful.
I can even tell which ovary is active.

[ShowOfBloodyStumps]

Yup. I find I get bloating and it is accompanied by a headache and it evolves into a one sided sharp ache with a constipated, poker up arse type sensation. Useful but bloody annoying.

[delilah89]

ah - interesting.
For how many days after this are you fertile?

...or does it not work like that?
Thanks!

[DeathMetalMum]

We concieved both dc this way, I think the evening I had the pains and the morning after both quite quickly after thinking of 'trying' too.

[delilah89]

So you reckon just 24 hours after the pains-ish?

[ShowOfBloodyStumps]

You are generally fertile for a few days before you ovulate, you should notice a change in cervical fluid a few days before you ovulate and it is ideal for sperm to survive in. Once you've ovulated the egg deteriorates pretty quickly. It's dependent on a few factors but you're talking hours only. Certainly after 12 hours you'd expect the egg to be pretty much unusable.

Problem is, you don't know if the pain you're experiencing is ovulation or something leading up to it. I know from experience that I get the bloated, bruised feeling while I'm gearing up for ovulation and a sharp pain while actually ovulating. I am then left with a weird, irritated, constipated type feeling (which my obstetrician reckons is probably the effect of having ovulated, v common in his experience and he says that the slight bleeding caused by the egg releasing can irritate the pelvic cavity and that feels like a weird, constipated sensation).

[VJONES1985]

I'm now feeling like a bit of a weirdo for not having terrible pains and symptoms! Yesterday I was tired and queasy with a headache and it was around ovulation but may not have been linked to it at all. Other than that, I sometimes get a sharp pain on one side but mostly nothing...

[bonzo77]

i get this. when I started charting I realised that the pains are actually in the run up to ovulation, and stop about 2 days after. Theoretically makes it easy to work out my "fertile" days.

[delilah89]

Ah - so the idea is to have the sperm waiting around, as it were, for the egg's release?

[VJONES1985]

Yes, sperm can live for up to five days in the right conditions so it's best to start dtd one or two days before ovulation, then continuing for the next few days just to cover all bases!

[delilah89]

Thank you - I understand now. Think we missed the boat this month.

[VJONES1985]

Delilah - how are you tracking your cycle? Are you looking at cm and cp? Using opks? None of the above?