There are 2 primary signs of ovulation, namely fertile quality cervical fluid and a soft, high cervix.  There are other possible symptoms of ovulation that you may or may not have. 

Cervical fluid monitoring can help you determine when you are approaching ovulation.  Your cervical mucus changes from an infertile quality to a fertile quality as you approach ovulation.  Infertile mucus may be rubbery, filmy, lotiony, or even gooey and be whitish in color.  But fertile cervical mucus is slimy, super wet, stretchy and often times clear or streaked clear. 

Your cervix is in the back of your vagina.  It has a little opening, so the face of it almost feels like a donut with an indentation instead of a hole.  If you check your cervix daily with a clean finger (why not check both cervical muucus and the cervix at the same time?), you will notice how it changes position and texture as you approach ovulation.  Namely, it gets harder and harder to reach the mouth.  It's position gets angled back when you are fertile.  This makes it easier for the sperm to be deposited at the mouth of the cervix during intercourse.  The mouth also loosens up and doesn't feel as tightly closed as before.  Right after ovulation, your cervix will come forward and be closed. 

Other symptoms of ovulation may include pain over your right or left ovary during ovulation, spotting at ovulation, and increased sex drive. 

To get detailed instructions on how track the signs of ovulation, confirm ovulation occurred and confirm conception, sign up for our free fertility e-report.  Get your fertility e-report here.

Even if your cycle length is 28 days, that does not mean you will ovulate on cycle day 14 because your luteal phase may not be 14 days long. Your luteal phase is the number of days between ovulation day and when your period starts again. The luteal phase length hardly changes. A normal luteal phase can be anywhere between 10 and 16 days. It must be at least 10 days in order to sustain a pregnancy (if you find that your luteal phase is less than 10 days, than you may need progesterone therapy.) Therefore, if you had a 28 day cycle, with a 10 day luteal phase, that means you ovulate on day 18! Or if you had a 28 day cycle with a 15 day luteal phase, that means that you ovulate on day 13. This is why you cannot rely on the calendar method and why so many that do, fail to get pregnant. Their cycle is not the "standard" 28 day cycle with a 14 day luteal phase.

You must check your basal body temperatures to determine the length of your luteal phase.  The fertility awareness method discusses how to check this and other fertility signals.  To learn how to check your luteal phase and discover when you are most fertile, sign up for our email club.  Get your free fertility e-report here.

There is a difference between fertile and ovulation.  Ovulation is when your body releases an egg that can be fertilized if a sperm penetrates it. When that egg is released, it usually lives for up to a day. That day is called Ovulation day. For several days just prior to ovulation, your body produces "fertile" cervical fluid. Sperm can survive in fertile cervical fluid. Therefore, you are fertile during the time that you have fertile cervical fluid up through the day of ovulation. Fertile cervical fluid is wet, slimy and slippery (and even stretchy) like egg whites or kind of like semen. I check my cervical fluid by inserting a clean finger in my vagina and swiping around in there while I am squatting in the shower. You get a good sample that way.

You must check your fertility signals to find out when you ovulate each month. Your cervical fluid will tell you that you are "approaching" ovulation. By checking your morning temperatures, you will confirm that ovulation indeed past.

To confirm that ovulation has past, you need to take your morning temperatures every morning before getting out of bed and observe at least a .2 degrees shift up in temperatures than any of the last six temperatures before it. My pre-ovulation temperatures usually run between 97.0 and 97.9. After ovulation, my temperatures usually jump up to between 98.1 and 98.4. You have to find out what's normal for you, but my temperatures are pretty "normal" and can give you an idea.

To achieve conception, strategically time intercourse to occur at least every other day during your "fertile" window and on ovulation day. In order to keep up with this, you must chart your findings on a fertility chart.

Are you trying to figure out when fertile days are approaching in your monthly cycle?  You don't have to guess.  And you don't have to buy expensive equipment to find out.  You are considered "fertile" during the few days before ovulation day and including ovulation day. How do you know when those days are? You have to check your cervical fluid and know when you have "fertile" cervical fluid.

Checking your cervical fluid does not involve any supplies. Some suggest just swiping the opening of the vagina with a finger or toilet paper, but I have found it most helpful to insert a clean finger within the vagina and swipe around inside. I usually do it when I am in the shower squatting. This way, I get a good sample of what kind of fluid I have.

Cervical fluid changes throughout the month. After your period is over, you may find that your finger comes out pretty clean. That's normal. Within a few days, you will probably start observing some type of cervical fluid. It starts off "not fertile", which is usually sticky or gooey or dry. Then it will start to get wetter (another few days or so) and become more gooey wet or creamy. Then when you have reached your "fertile period", it will become slimy and slippery with a clear or streaked coloring. Your fertile fluid looks and feels a lot like egg whites or semen. You may even be able to stretch it between you fingers. How long fertile? you may wonder.  Your body will produce this fertile fluid for up to 5 five days or so before ovulation day.  When you find this fertile fluid, your body can support the life of sperm, which can live in this fluid for up to five days. It is during this time, that you are fertile and therefore should aim to have intercourse at least every other day throughout this time up through ovulation day.

How do you know when ovulation day is? You will observe a shift in your morning temperatures of at least .2 degrees to a higher range the day after ovulation day. You need to be taking your temperature every morning around the same time before you get out of bed to even go to the bathroom. Record these temperatures. They will stay in a low range before ovulation. My low range is between 97.0 and 97.9. After ovulation day, my temperatures rise to 98.1 to 98.4. (Each person's temps are different, but mine are pretty normal.) The last day of low temperatures is ovulation day. Your cervical fluid will dry up either the day of ovulation or the day after ovulation.

In summary, you are fertile during the days that you have fertile cervical fluid before the shift up in morning temperatures.   Join the Bonded From Birth email club and receive your special e-report to learn more about how to track your fertility signals.  Get your free fertility e-report here.