PCOS causes hormonal imbalances that make ovulation harder to predict, making cycle tracking apps and ovulation testing kits (OPKs) which use hormone levels to detect fertile days challenging.
But to increase your chances of pregnancy, timing ovulation correctly is of the utmost importance. Here’s how you can do it:
Track your cervical mucus
With PCOS, ovulation can be hard to predict; however there are ways you can get an estimate. One popular approach is monitoring cervical mucus, or tracking changes in its consistency over your menstrual cycle. As you near ovulation it thickens up and becomes slippery-like like egg whites – this lubrication allows sperm cells to easily enter your uterus at this time of the cycle.
Tracking cervical mucus can be an excellent way to predict ovulation in Pcos, especially when combined with basal body temperature tracking. Cervical mucus can respond quickly to sudden surges of LH hormone, released during ovulation. Traditional ovulation tests may detect such spikes but this doesn’t always result in actual ovulation, making it important to keep an eye on both basal body temperature and cervical mucus monitoring at once.
Tracking cervical mucus can be a useful way of predicting ovulation in PCOS; however, it should not be relied upon solely. People living with PCOS tend to experience irregular cycles that make it more difficult to be certain you’re ovulating. Furthermore, women experiencing PCOS often experience multiple LH peaks that make determining when exactly you ovulated and your fertile window arise difficult.
As well as tracking your basal body temperature and cervical mucus levels, an at home ovulation test is another tool you can use to ensure you ovulate. Although there are various tests available, only certain ones work effectively for women with PCOS; progesterone based or core body temperature tests tend to provide more accurate results than LH tests.
As well as using ovulation prediction methods, IVF treatment may also help women conceive naturally. Since most issues associated with PCOS hinder conception naturally, this option may provide another option to those struggling to become pregnant naturally.
Track your basal body temperature
When trying to conceive, knowing when you’re most fertile is crucial. Knowing this information can help prevent pregnancy or plan when to start birth control if one does occur. Unfortunately, with PCOS-induced irregular cycles it can be hard to predict when exactly you will ovulate; however there are ways you can track your cycle and pinpoint when most fertile windows occur through methods like basal body temperature monitoring (BBT) and cervical mucus monitoring.
BBT (Basal Body Temperature) measures the lowest temperature you experience over 24 hours. When ovulation hits, your BBT may increase slightly – something which a digital or special basal thermometer can detect easily. Although BBT can provide useful predictions of when to ovulate, its accuracy may also be affected by factors like illness, sleep patterns, stress and alcohol intake – rendering other methods more accurate prediction methods more useful.
Another effective method of tracking ovulation is monitoring cervical mucus. At most points in a menstrual cycle, cervical mucus remains dry and stringy; however, around ovulation it changes to wet and stretchy material that often resembles egg whites resembling it resemblance. When combined with basal body temperature readings cervical mucus monitoring can provide accurate predictions for when ovulation will take place.
Ovulation kits provide another tool to identify the surge of luteinizing hormone that signal ovulation; however, elevated LH levels commonly seen with PCOS can result in false positives if their threshold is set too low. When selecting OPKs to minimise false positives when using OPKs. If using an OPK kit instead of testing strips directly using BBT, make sure that its LH threshold exceeds your average BBT for best results.
Tracking methods may be useful, but it is essential to keep in mind that pregnancy can still happen even if ovulation doesn’t happen on schedule. You can increase your chances of ovulation through healthy diet and supplement use; certain medications can even promote it in women with PCOS. If you are having difficulty predicting when you will ovulate, talk with your physician about possible solutions – getting proper treatment could make all the difference when it comes to fertility and getting pregnant!
Track your follicle stimulating hormone
Predicting ovulation when living with PCOS can be challenging. Tracking your cycles, however, can provide insight into reproductive health and make birth control or medications to stimulate ovulation easier to use. In addition, knowing when you are most likely to ovulate will allow you to time sexual intercourse to maximize chances of conception.
At each menstrual cycle, eggs develop within each ovary in follicles before being released via one of the fallopian tubes. When ovulation takes place, cells lining follicles collapse and secrete progesterone into the uterine environment – increasing fertility and increasing chances of conception.
At-home tests to predict ovulation include ovulation predictor kits (OPKs) and cervical mucus tracking. OPKs detect an increase in LH levels in urine and can help determine your fertile window; testing should begin a few days prior to expected ovulation for maximum accuracy. Mucus tracking observes changes to your cervical mucus which rises and widens around ovulation while remaining soft to touch.
Women living with PCOS often don’t ovulate or close the ovulation window early due to hormonal imbalances, so OPKs with a high LH threshold are usually best. Another way is monitoring urine for post-ovulatory progesterone (PdG), which can be detected with a simple home test and confirms ovulation just like OPKs do.
Regular periods indicate you may not be ovulating regularly and require medical treatment to correct it. Your general practitioner (GP) is the first port of call, who may refer you on to a gynecologist or fertility specialist if needed. To increase chances of conception, they may prescribe ovulation induction medications which stimulate your ovaries to release an egg which can then be fertilized through sexual intercourse or intrauterine insemination.
Track your luteinizing hormone
PCOS can cause irregular menstrual cycles and make it harder to predict ovulation. Affecting one in ten women, PCOS has been linked with infertility due to its hormone imbalance – often with high levels of androgens and reduced progesterone – leading to irregular periods and sometimes disrupted ovulation as a result.
Predicting ovulation involves tracking cervical mucus levels and using ovulation tests. Ovulation tests detect LH in urine samples to help you pinpoint when you’re ovulating. They’re most reliable when combined with basal body temperature testing (BBT), which helps pinpoint your most fertile window every cycle.
When trying to conceive with PCOS, it is crucial that you monitor ovulation and cervical mucus regularly in order to identify when you ovulated and increase the chances of conception. Birth control may also be useful if you wish not to become pregnant through sexual encounters that could potentially result in pregnancy.
PCOS makes ovulation hard to predict due to its effects on hormone production. An imbalanced hormonal environment may result in higher androgens and lower progesterone levels; as a result, an LH surge that typically signals ovulation may not take place.
As PCOS often occurs with irregular cycles, tracking symptoms may become even more challenging due to shorter ovulation days each month and their potential different locations each cycle.
PCOS women looking to predict their ovulation can use a fertility monitor, which offers more precise predictions of when you will ovulate. The device uses a small oral sensor placed under their tongue first thing in the morning before eating or drinking anything, measuring core body temperature to detect even minor increases just prior to ovulation.
OvaCue Fertility Monitor has been found to be 98.3% accurate at detecting ovulation, according to studies overseen by the National Institutes of Health. For optimal success, it should be combined with a BBT chart.