Best Day to Ovulate?

By MyMonthlyCycles.com

With 1000s of votes tallied on our Ovulation Day Poll, Saturday is the most preferred day to ovulate, with Friday a close runner up. But are those ovulation days really your very best trying to conceive days?

Did you pick Friday or Saturday as your fave ovulation day because, with the weekend here, there'd be more relaxed time for intimacy? Well, if you do happen to weekend ovulate, you've got to act FAST!

Once you ovulate, your egg typically only has from 12 to 24 hours to live. Within those 24 hours, it needs to find a viable sperm to fertilize it. And that's not as easy at it would seem.

Sperm seeking egg to fertilize Typical ejaculate contains HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS of sperm! But it's a long, competitive journey to your egg. And very few sperm are up to the task - they take wrong turns and get lost, can't swim well, drop dead of exhaustion, and possibly even tail-duel one another to the death (no one, especially not your egg who is likely watching aghast, said they were smart!).

And all the while, time ticking, our egg slowly moves up the Fallopian tube to meet one of these princes!

So...if that sperm journey does not start until the day you ovulate (for example, Friday or Saturday), you potentially decrease your conception odds. Too much has to happen to quickly.

Sperm fertilizing egg Increase your odds of getting pregnant: prepare in advance of ovulation! Since sperm can live up to 5 days, and can idle about patiently waiting on your egg, knowing in advance when you're likely to ovulate gives you more time to bring the swim team -- or, ideally, several swim teams -- on board 2 to 3 days in advance.

It just takes 1 good sperm to complete this dance!

Indeedy, then, your must-must know: when will I be ovulating?

Are your cycles generally regular? Use MyMonthlyCycles.com Free Ovulation Calendar to forecast your fertile days.

Do your cycles vary by a few days? Use WhenMyBaby.com Free Conception Calculator

Detecting, in advance, when you will ovulate:

  • Ovulation Prediction Tests (also referred to as OPKs - ovulation prediction kits) - which detect a surge in Luteinizing Hormone (LH), which usually occurs about a day to a day and a half before you ovulate. Generally very accurate, OPKs help you know when to expect ovulation.

  • Chart Your Ovulation and Fertility Signs - in particular, your cervical fluid, which, unlike basal temp, provides advance notice of ovulation when it becomes EWCM (egg white cervical mucus: thin and slippery which is due to estrogen breakdown around the time of ovulation -- the perfect consistency to help sperm swim more easily toward your egg).