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When's the best time to get pregnant? Use our interactive ovulation calculator to work out when you're most fertile and most likely to conceive.

Conception

If you have a 25 day cycle what day do you ovulate?

29 replies

eenybeeny · 01/06/2008 13:45

Thats it really!!

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ScaryHairy · 01/06/2008 13:50

It's hard to say.

An average which is often quoted is that most women ovulate 12-16 days before the first day of their period.  If that average applied for you, you would be ovulating between days 9-13 after the first day of your previous cycle.
Have you heard about looking for differences in your cervical fluid?  When you wipe and it is stretchy and like raw egg white, this is fertile fluid (which helps sperm).  You can have patches of this "EWCM" through your cycle, but many women have quite a bit around when they ovulate.  When it disappears, that is because you have already ovulated.  This might be a useful non-invasive way for you to figure out when you normally ovulate.

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beaniesteve · 01/06/2008 13:53

Eenybeeny, I have a 24/5 day cycle and I ovulate around day 15 giving me a luteal phase of 9 - 10 days. I don't think it's an exact science to be honest and I do get frustrted by the assumption that a person ovulates 14 days before their period, it's certainly not the case for me.

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eenybeeny · 01/06/2008 13:54

thanks scary. I have heard of that and when I was trying for DS I did notice a difference but this time not so much. I will pay closer attention. Am worried I am not ovulating.

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Twiglett · 01/06/2008 13:56

I am so relieved to see so many more people understanding their own cycles

you need to test with OPKs or chart temps/cervical fluid

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Twiglett · 01/06/2008 13:57

under 10 days luteal phase can be problematic if trying to conceive .. recommend high dosage vit B (100 - 200mg a day)

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beaniesteve · 01/06/2008 14:00

I am taking b6 and b complex but wonder if I should up the dose?

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Twiglett · 01/06/2008 14:01

100 - 200 mg you need to ask for specifically as conventional OTC are much lower dosage

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eenybeeny · 01/06/2008 21:22

thanks beanie you have given me some hope!! it took four years to have DS and now I am trying for DC2. my specialist has given me 6 months to get pregnant before fertility treatment.

sorry to be thick but I dont know what luteal phase means and also this vit B - at the normal or high dose - is it something you can buy or is it on prescription? and what exactly does it do?

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ScaryHairy · 01/06/2008 21:45

Luteal phase is the time between ovulation and your next period. (The bit before ovulation is called the follicular phase).

If you are not convinced you ovulate, then it might be a good idea for you to chart your temperature so that you can at least confirm whether you have ovulated each time.

If you are up for a bit of reading, you might want to get a copy of "Taking Charge of Your Fertility" by Toni Weschler which explains how to chart, and also describes the sorts of changes in cervical fluid that you might look for.

Vitamin B (not sure whether it is B6 or B12 or both) is supposed to help extend the luteal phase. Women who have a LP which is 10 days or less may find it hard to conceive because a fertilised egg may not have time to implant. So they take Vit B to help extend their luteal phase.

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daftpunk · 01/06/2008 21:47

isn't it 14 days before? so day 11

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ScaryHairy · 01/06/2008 21:52

Unfortunately it's not that simple. The 14 day thing doesn't apply to a lot of women - just as many of us don't have "standard" 28 day cycles either.

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beaniesteve · 01/06/2008 21:53

Eenybeanie, I am still trying to concieve. The luteal phase is the days between ovulation and your period. Because it can take up to 10 days for the fertiised egg to implant, less than ten days can be a problem. On the other hand there are loads of women on here who have achieved pregnancy with a short luteal phase. My doctor said ten days wasn't a concern but the more you read about trying to conceive the more you can freak yourself out about what may be wrong.

How long have you been trying? I had one month where I didn't ovulate (according to my Ovulation tests) apparently sometimes it happens but it doesn't always mean it's a fertility problem, infact if you weren't ovulating I think you would have a longer cycle.

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daftpunk · 01/06/2008 21:56

oh i know sh..but i thought once you ovulate you get your period 14 days later? maybe not.

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ScaryHairy · 01/06/2008 22:10

Nope... 13 days in my case, but there seems to be loads of variation out there! Apparently anything between 12-16 days is "average" but of course that means some women will fall outside of those averages and have shorter or longer luteal phases.

It's a bugger it isn't just 14 days, frankly (as that would be much simpler). But then think how many less threads there would be on here!

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eenybeeny · 01/06/2008 22:38

well it took 4 years to have DS who is now 22 months. We have only been officially trying for DC2 for about... 6 weeks. Our specialist said if we didnt get pregnant in 6 months (of which we are 6 weeks in to) then he would give us fertility treatment.

A very kind MNer sent me some OPK after she conceived - I used several last month and they never showed me ovulating. I have 2 left and I am going to try them soon as I hope to be ovulating soon. I am on day 5 of my cycle.

I am going to look into the vit B ASAP. I will call my specialist tomorrow and see what he says and try to get some right away. Thank you SO MUCH for explaining it to me.

beanie and scary - do you have any children already or are your ttc your first? I was just wondering. Whatever the case I hope you have all the babies you want. I know how heartbreaking it is to lose them.

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ChoChoSan · 02/06/2008 08:26

I have a 26 day cycle and I ovulate on day 18, so I would strongly advise that you do OPKs or temparature charting.

By the way, the most useful information that I have got about all this fertility malarkey has been from mumsnet contributors - GP hasn't really given any useful advice at all, so I would recommend that you post a question up here if there is anything you need to know, rather than waiting to see your GP. It seems that often GPs don't really know much about the ins and outs (scuse pun) or they supply you with their own opinion without letting you know that theirs is one of many.

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ScaryHairy · 02/06/2008 09:33

Eeeny

I have a daughter who is nearly two and we've been trying for our second for about a year.

I did get pregnant earlier this year but it was ectopic, so I had to have a termination and am now waiting for three months until I am allowed to try again. The time limit will be up in a few weeks, thank goodness. It is very frustrating to have had an ectopic when it takes me several months to get pregnant anyway... I am just hoping it will be a faster process this time.

Re OPKs, it is possible to miss your LH surge if you only test once a day. It is best to test in the afternoon at, say 4pm, as that is when the LH is most likely to show up in your wee. I recommend that if you are going to use OPKs you use digital ones - I have always found it very hard to read normal ones. Also, I did buy some OPKs from Access Diagnostics on the internet and never got a positive, even though by every other sign my body was screaming that I was about to ovulate. Clearblue digitals were positive though.

There are some circumstances where OPKs are not that helpful - e.g. if you have PCOS. And it is possible to have an LH surge without ovulating, so bear those facts in mind.

It is also possible and normal to have the occasional anovulatory cycle, so please don't worry too much about not having seen a surge in one cycle. If you start charting your temps/looking at your cervical fluid that might give you a better idea of what is going on.

I hope you get what you want soon. It sounds like your specialist is helpful though. Is he/she going to look into why it is that it takes you a while to conceive?

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beaniesteve · 02/06/2008 11:14

eenybeeny - trying for my first and am now 38 I have been trying about 8 months.
Am at the point now where I will be going back to my doctor, though I did have an encouraging scan the other day where they seemed to say my ovaries were fine (they could see I was ready to ovulate)so it may not be that I have serious problems.

I echo what ChoChoSan says, posting here has taught me so much. Months ago, while I didn't think it would be easy, I didn't know there was so much to learn about fertility.

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eenybeeny · 03/06/2008 08:18

ok... so can someone explain to me what I am supposed to do re: checking temperature?

beanie I really hope you have a baby soon! I bet after you got that scan you and DH/DP got um... busy!!

Scary - thanks for all the info. The thing is I cant really afford to buy OPK's every month. I am only using them now because like I said a lovely MNer sent some to me for nothing. I avoided saying that yesterday because I was afraid someone would say "If you cant afford OPK's you cant afford another baby"

I am so sorry about your ectopic pregnancy. How sad for you. I have never had one of those though I have miscarried. My specialist is very good - I think he is going to look into why it took so long to get DS. I think I am prone to losing babies though because several times I have had EVERY sympton of pregnancy in the book and felt exactly like I felt with DS and then got a very heavy period and this awful empty depressed feeling. I dont know. Its just my instinct. I had a terrible pregnancy with DS as well and awful birth etc. I just think the whole process is hard for me. I dont know.

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ScaryHairy · 03/06/2008 10:26

The process can be hard, I know.

Re OPKs, although some women do find them helpful as I have said before they are not great for everyone. Personally I think charting is better and, together with checking cervical fluid, can tell you just as much (actually more, since if your temp goes up you have ovulated whereas a positive OPK does not mean you will definitely ovulate). And a pee on a stick habit can get very expensive.

If you want to start taking your temps, you need to buy a basal body thermometer, which goes to 2 decimal places. Access Diagnostics do these pretty cheaply.

You take your temperature every morning at the same time, immediately on waking up and before you do or say anything. I keep my thermometer right by the bed so I hardly have to move to get it in my mouth and I take it at 6:30 which is the earliest I am ever likely to wake up.

Then make a note of the temperature.

When you have ovulated you will see your temperature shift upwards (some people say by at least 0.2 degrees but I think this depends on the woman), and it will stay high for at least three days. What you should see is a phase when your temp is lower (during your period and before ovulation) and then a second phase when it is generally higher. It is important to see a sustained rise as you can get one off high temps if you have, for example, had disturbed sleep or if you have a sore throat.

Your temp then stays high until your period is due and if you are not pregnant, it drops back to pre-ovulatory levels. If you are pregnant it stays high.

Does that make sense? To put it into context, my temps pre-ovulation are generally below 36.6. I ovulated on Sunday and now they have gone up to above 36.75.

The downside to charting your temps is that it won't predict ovulation - you can only confirm it retrospectively after getting 3 consecutive higher temps. But after a 2 or 3 months you may well come to see a pattern which allows you to work out what is likely to happen.

It will also help you in identifying if you are not ovulating as then you would not see a thermal shift where your temperature goes up.

You can get a lot of help from Fertilityfriend.com. You can set up an account and put your temps on. It will draw a graph for you and will try to work out when you have ovulated. It is not always right, but is a helpful tool. You can also put in other signs, such as what is going on with your cervical fluid, so that you can see all of your data on one chart and start to learn when you are most fertile.

I hope this is helpful. Some women find that charting their temps is too stressful and I have been told by a Dr that I shouldn't chart because it will "add to your stress level" and make it harder to conceive. She picked a pretty bad moment to tell me this, as I was having an internal scan to diagnose the ectopic. In fact she was missing the point because I knew that there was a problem with that pregnancy in part because of how weird my chart was (temps were high but not as high as they should have been on a normal pregnancy chart), so regardless of what my silly Dr said, it definitely has helped me, and may even have saved my life or at least my fallopian tube.

Let us know how you get on.

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anniemac · 03/06/2008 10:26

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eenybeeny · 05/06/2008 22:26

scary - thank you very much for posting all that. I really appreciate that you took the time to explain it to me. I need to get a proper thermometer to be sure. Also I am going to start taking the vitamin B which one is it I am supposed to take and how much?? Twinkie knows doesnt she. Anyway sorry to ask you all the questions!

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ScaryHairy · 05/06/2008 22:31

You're very welcome. I hope it helps

Twiglett knows about Vit B, so if you start a thread with her name in the title she might come along and help you out. Alternatively I bet there is loads of info about it on the net if you google.

Good luck with it all

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eenybeeny · 05/06/2008 22:57

duh I said twinkie not twiglett! will sort it out I would like to start taking it tomorrow.

And thanks!

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MissJayne86 · 14/06/2017 14:44

Ttc... for months iv got 5 healthy children never mc or anything we long for 1 more 💜 i have a 25 day clycle every month with out fail boom my p comes on 25 days iv dine everything real right this month done a test im sure its neg but is it to soon to test its an amazon onestep strip 10m ones plzzz help im 30 years old also xxx

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