Written by Gemma Rigby, Tempdrop Ltd.
(HINT: It’s not just to get pregnant)
We talk about ovulation a lot at Tempdrop and the importance of it but we feel it’s time to take our top 5 reasons and share them with you.
So why is it important to track ovulation?
We’re often led to believe that our cycles are all about our periods, but ovulation is the event that dictates the length of our cycle and when our next period will occur. When we talk about tracking ovulation, we are talking about more than just using a period tracker - a period tracking app cannot predict when ovulation happened, it can’t even tell you IF you did actually ovulate, because not all bleeds are true periods.
This can lead to confusion and sometimes anxiety - we may think our period is late when in fact, something has caused a delay in ovulation instead. However, if you track your ovulation you will know when ovulation is confirmed, this enables you to accurately calculate the number of days to your next period.
This may surprise you but your fertile window (the time when it’s possible to get pregnant) is only about 6 days long. This includes the few days leading up to ovulation and the day of ovulation.
This means that when you have confirmed ovulation has happened you cannot get pregnant anymore, it’s literally impossible.
Sometimes we may feel that having a period is too much hassle and if we block ovulation, it won't matter. But there are huge health benefits to regular ovulation.
After we ovulate, our bodies releases progesterone. Progesterone helps regulate our sleep, enhances our mood, supports bone health, promotes anti-aging, and boosts our metabolism. Ovulation is the only way our body produces natural progesterone, and having a regular dose will counter the effects of high estrogenic load. There are many more benefits which you can read about here.
Ovulation is indicative of overall health. When we track our ovulation (and full menstrual cycle) we can observe the impact of lifestyle and health changes
Over a longer period of time you will be able to observe your long-term cycle changes, and this can indicate that treatments or lifestyle changes are working.
Now this reason might sound a little crazy, but as we’ve already shared above ovulation is the only way our body can make natural progesterone, and progesterone has huge health benefits.
In short, regular ovulation is essential for our health and tracking our ovulation puts us in control of our bodies.