luteal phase / ovulation period - how do you work it out?!

[NorthernNanny]

I'm trying to work it all out and have tried a couple of calculators online but to find out each one, you need to know the other one?! I thought that the period of ovulation was the most important? If anyone could please explain each and tell me how to work it out, it'd be greatly appreciated! Thank you.

Hi Northern nanny . Luteal phase is the second half of your cycle from ovulation to the start of your period and should be at least 12 days long. The average luteal phase length is 14 days and so if you have a 28 day period, you will ovulate around day 14. But don't assume you have the average length of 14 days.to know your true LP length, you should use ovulation sticks with charting your morning temperatures to get a more accurate idea of when you ovulate. Or look out for egg White fluid to get an idea of when you are gearing up for ovulation. If you have no reason to suspect anovulution then keep an eye out for the ewcm which indicates to you that these are the key days to bed down. Once the ewcm has dried up, ovulation has likely occurred. If you are just starting out TTC and you have regular periods, you may not wish to go down the whole charting route to begin with and you may wish to just enjoy the whole process. Good luck!

As joy has saidyour LP is the time form ovulation to arrival of your period, I chart and through that I have discovered I ovulate anytime between CD10-CD17 and my LP can be anything from 10-16 days. If I wasnt charting and monitoring my fertility signs it would be impossible to pin point ovulation and easy to miss it.

Working out ovulation is important because you can get pregnant probably roughly 5 days before it and up to day of ovulation if conditions are ideal then sperm can live for these 5 days. It will be different for everyone - and therefore you need to work out when you are ovulating.

Can I recommend Taking Charge Of Your Fertility by Toni Weschler to you?

Other people have explained that your luteal phase is the time between ovulation and your period. A 'normal' luteal phase is between 10-16 days and remains fairly fixed from cycle to cycle. One that differs by a large margin month to month can indicate a problem such as not ovulating (anovulation).

Firstly, if you have no known fertility issues and you are starting out trying to conceive, having sex every other day is the maximum you need. No reason not to just have lots of sex and see what happens. But...

If you do want to work out when you ovulate to be more precise, I wouldn't go out spending a lot of money on ovulation sticks and the like right away (they don't tell you that you've ovulated, just indicate hormonal surges). Read the book I mentioned, perhaps try the fertilityfriends website and learn the body's signs. One step up from that is taking your temperature daily. Start small. I think you can get sucked into it all very quickly and the joy of ttc soon dies a very sad death.