Fertile Phase
Ovulation occurs 14 days before your next period is due. If your periods are occurring regularly every 28 days, your fertile phase will be from day 7 to day 15. If the cycle is irregular, you have to allow for your shortest and longest cycles. If, for example, a woman has a cycle varying from 21 to 35 days, then the potential fertile phase could be somewhere between day 1 and day 22; this is assuming that the current cycle could not be longer than 35 days although in reality one cannot be certain.
Unlike the vast majority of other species, we humans do not have breeding seasons. An interesting observation once quoted by an expert at The Royal College of Obstetricians andGynaecologistsrelated to the monthly cycle. The best suggestion he could find was that in primitive ages, fertility would be enhanced if the woman released her monthly egg at a time when there was no moonlight for her man to go out hunting for food! Whereas in other species, such as the rabbit, coitus induces ovulation there is no evidence that this occurs in humans.
The cervical mucus (the fluid in the neck of the womb) becomes more fluid and stretchy under the influence of the unopposed oestrogen before ovulation. It is only around the time of ovulation that the cervical mucus permits sperm through at other times it is hostile.
Please click on the required question.
- 1 How important is effective contraception for the world's population?
- 2 How long can my partner's sperm survive in me?
- 3 How long are my eggs capable of fertilisation?
- 4 How long does my fertile phase last?
- 5 What is an ideal contraceptive?
- 6 How can the effectiveness of a contraceptive method be measured?
- 7 Can knowledge of the fertile phase be used for effective contraception?
- 8 I am breast-feeding my baby. Do I need contraception?
- 9 How effective is coitus interruptus?
- 10 How effective are condoms (sheaths)
- 11 What are the advantages and disadvantages of condoms?
- 12 How long have vaginal methods of contraception been available?
- 13 How can I get a diaphragm (cap)
- 14 How can the cap be checked?
- 15 How effective are diaphragms and caps?
- 16 What are the advantages and disadvantages of vaginal methods?
- 17 What is the contraceptive sponge?
- 18 How effective is the contraceptive sponge?
- 19 What is the female condom?
- 20 What are the advantages and disadvantages of female condoms?
- 21 How effective are spermicides?
- 22 What are the advantages and disadvantages of spermicides?
- 23 Which contraceptives are appropriate for an adolescent?
- 24 Which contraceptives are appropriate for a woman in her forties?
- 25 If I am taking the combined oral contraceptive pill or cyclical HRT, how can I tell when I have reached my menopause?
- 26 How effective is the Persona Unipath Personal Contraceptive System?
- 27 Where can I obtain further information about contraception?
- 28 Support Groups.
Thank you for choosing to visit us.
This is the personal website of David A Viniker MD FRCOG, Consultant Obstetrician and Gynaecologist at Whipps Cross University Hospital, London - Specialist Interests - Reproductive Medicine including Infertility, PCOS, PMS, Menopause and HRT.
I do hope that you find the answers to your women's health questions in the patient information and medical advice provided.
