Tracking Ovulation After Miscarriage
- Date: 2010-06-06 - Word Count: 726
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Tracking ovulation after miscarriage is surprisingly easy, as long as you know the tricks. By finding out just when you're ready to conceive again, you can work on recovering from the tragedy and try once more. With a little luck aided by proper timing, you'll be able to get past the loss and work on creating your own little miracle. Here's how to track your ovulation after losing a pregnancy:
Make Sure the Timing's Right After You Miscarry
You should expect your system to still be a little thrown off from the changes left behind by a lost pregnancy. Since you're just coming off a state in which your own body was telling itself not to ovulate, it will take a bit of time to get your cycle back to normal. What happens is that your body rapidly produces a hormone called Human Chorionic Gonadotropin (hCG) when you get pregnant. This hormone is responsible for a great deal of things, one of which is telling your pituitary gland to hold off on the hormones that stimulate ovulation. You'll need your hCG levels to drop low enough to lose its influence on your pituitary gland before you can expect to produce viable egg cells again. This generally takes 2-4 weeks after a miscarriage, but it varies from person to person. After you've given your body the minimum two weeks to regulate itself, you can start tracking your ovulation for a second try at conception.
Checking Your Cervical Mucus to Predict When You Will Ovulate
When a woman is fertile, the cervical mucus itself undergoes a few changes. It starts to resemble uncooked egg white, in that it becomes wet, clear, and it should stretch a little between your fingers. Start off by washing your hands; you'll want to keep as many germs away from your cervix as possible. Dry them off, and insert a finger into your vagina. Making sure not to scratch the surface, reach in and try to obtain a sample of the mucus from as close to your cervix as possible. From least fertile to most fertile, it should range from not much mucus, to creamy, to the egg white-like consistency described earlier. Keep track of the changes. When you've hit the point where you're producing fertile cervical mucus, you'll be at the best time to have intercourse and try to conceive.
Monitoring Your Basal Body Temperature
If checking your cervical mucus isn't your thing, you can always keep track of ovulation by monitoring your basal body temperature. A rise in progesterone as you become fertile causes a rise in your basal body temperature as well. Because of this, it becomes possible to find out if you're fertile simply by tracking your temperature.
You can do this by taking your temperature with a basal thermometer every day. It's best to do this first thing in the morning, ideally at the same time each day, so that the results are most accurate. Record each of your findings on a chart for easy reference. Once your temperature consistently hits a 0.4- to 0.6-degree Fahrenheit increase, you may very well have ovulated. It is at this point where you should try to conceive again immediately!
Using an Ovulation Predictor Kit (OPK)
OPKs are another good way to track your ovulation. These tests work by detecting the amount of Luteinizing Hormone (LH) in your urine. A rapid rise in LH, known as the LH surge, is what triggers ovulation in the first place, so it makes sense that high levels of LH means the height of your fertility.
You can start using OPKs in the 2-4 week window in which hCG drops after a miscarriage. Unlike pregnancy tests, don't use first morning urine - there's a natural LH surge in the morning, and this can lead to a false positive reading in your LH. Give your LH levels a few hours to stabilize; anytime between 12 p.m. and 8 p.m. should be fine, if you wake up before office hours. Depending on the type of test your purchase, you can either dip the stick or place a few drops of urine on your test. Wait a few minutes, and if the test reads positive, you should try again on the day of your surge itself, or at least in the two days that follow. This will give you the highest chances of conceiving.
Make Sure the Timing's Right After You Miscarry
You should expect your system to still be a little thrown off from the changes left behind by a lost pregnancy. Since you're just coming off a state in which your own body was telling itself not to ovulate, it will take a bit of time to get your cycle back to normal. What happens is that your body rapidly produces a hormone called Human Chorionic Gonadotropin (hCG) when you get pregnant. This hormone is responsible for a great deal of things, one of which is telling your pituitary gland to hold off on the hormones that stimulate ovulation. You'll need your hCG levels to drop low enough to lose its influence on your pituitary gland before you can expect to produce viable egg cells again. This generally takes 2-4 weeks after a miscarriage, but it varies from person to person. After you've given your body the minimum two weeks to regulate itself, you can start tracking your ovulation for a second try at conception.
Checking Your Cervical Mucus to Predict When You Will Ovulate
When a woman is fertile, the cervical mucus itself undergoes a few changes. It starts to resemble uncooked egg white, in that it becomes wet, clear, and it should stretch a little between your fingers. Start off by washing your hands; you'll want to keep as many germs away from your cervix as possible. Dry them off, and insert a finger into your vagina. Making sure not to scratch the surface, reach in and try to obtain a sample of the mucus from as close to your cervix as possible. From least fertile to most fertile, it should range from not much mucus, to creamy, to the egg white-like consistency described earlier. Keep track of the changes. When you've hit the point where you're producing fertile cervical mucus, you'll be at the best time to have intercourse and try to conceive.
Monitoring Your Basal Body Temperature
If checking your cervical mucus isn't your thing, you can always keep track of ovulation by monitoring your basal body temperature. A rise in progesterone as you become fertile causes a rise in your basal body temperature as well. Because of this, it becomes possible to find out if you're fertile simply by tracking your temperature.
You can do this by taking your temperature with a basal thermometer every day. It's best to do this first thing in the morning, ideally at the same time each day, so that the results are most accurate. Record each of your findings on a chart for easy reference. Once your temperature consistently hits a 0.4- to 0.6-degree Fahrenheit increase, you may very well have ovulated. It is at this point where you should try to conceive again immediately!
Using an Ovulation Predictor Kit (OPK)
OPKs are another good way to track your ovulation. These tests work by detecting the amount of Luteinizing Hormone (LH) in your urine. A rapid rise in LH, known as the LH surge, is what triggers ovulation in the first place, so it makes sense that high levels of LH means the height of your fertility.
You can start using OPKs in the 2-4 week window in which hCG drops after a miscarriage. Unlike pregnancy tests, don't use first morning urine - there's a natural LH surge in the morning, and this can lead to a false positive reading in your LH. Give your LH levels a few hours to stabilize; anytime between 12 p.m. and 8 p.m. should be fine, if you wake up before office hours. Depending on the type of test your purchase, you can either dip the stick or place a few drops of urine on your test. Wait a few minutes, and if the test reads positive, you should try again on the day of your surge itself, or at least in the two days that follow. This will give you the highest chances of conceiving.
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