Podcast EP 49
===
[00:00:00] So how do you know if you are ovulating properly and what does ovulating properly even mean? Recently one of my clients asked me how come her ovulation results, so the number in the app was lower this time than it was last time. And does that mean she ovulated? Today we are gonna talk about what ovulation looks like when you're tracking with OPK.
When to know if it's working, if it's not working, and what to do about it. So let's dive in.
Hi, I'm Sophie Byfield and when I decided I was ready to be a mama, I thought it would be so easy. Get off birth control. Baby dance, like no one's watching. And poof, I was pregnant. But like many of you, that wasn't my story. After months of negative tests, endless treatments, and more supplements than you can count, I realized that getting pregnant isn't about fixing one piece of your fertility puzzle. It's about bringing your whole body. Back into balance so it feels safe enough to conceive. And this is where we focus on what really matters. Healing your whole body so that you can see those two pink lines. Welcome to the Heal to Conceive podcast.
Hi everyone. I am fertility coach. Sophie and I help women who are struggling to conceive get pregnant. Today we are talking about proper ovulation yeses. I said proper ovulation because I don't really know if there is such a thing as proper [00:01:00] ovulation. But your ovulation apps and digital sticks and fertility technology can make you feel overwhelmed, confused, and like your body isn't really doing what it's supposed to do.
We're gonna talk about what proper ovulation looks like, why sticks can be misleading, and what you should be looking for. So what does proper ovulation mean? Proper ovulation isn't just about dropping an egg. Proper ovulation is actually referring to these steps. Of confirming ovulation. So proper ovulation means releasing a mature follicle, seeing a nice elite surge, progesterone rising and staying U risen, and then having at least 10 DBO in your luteal face.
That's what the doctors [00:02:00] consider proper ovulation. Girl, I had to look this up because I don't really believe that there is a proper ovulation. There are steps we want to achieve, things that we are looking for, but I wouldn't call it proper or normal. Maybe it's just the term I don't like, I don't know. But ovulation, we do want a mature follicle.
We want an LH surge, a nice healthy surge to tell us the egg is gonna drop. We wanna confirm it with progesterone rising or a change in your BBT. And then we wanna make sure our LAL phase is long enough for that egg to implant. So now that we know what proper ovulation is, let's start talking about OPKs.
When I first started tracking with P Op Ks girl, I was confused. It took a minute. It took a minute. The first thing that you wanna know is that you are at peak [00:03:00] when the testing line. Is as dark or darker than the control line on the stick . That means peak. You wanna test in the afternoon to start, and as you see the line get darker.
You're gonna test multiple times a day, morning and afternoon, morning, afternoon, evening until you learn your rhythm and your pattern. Some people peak at night, some people peak in the day. You can miss peak completely if you're not testing multiple times as you get closer. But here's the caveat. You see those period tracking abscess and those numbers on the side, do not read them, throw them away.
They're misleading, they're confusing. They are not your friend. The problem with those numbers. That when you're taking the picture, where [00:04:00] you're taking the picture, the angle of the picture, the sunlight in the room, the cloudiness of the day, all of those things play a factor in how the stick is read by the algorithm.
So unless you put it in a box and take the picture the exact same way, the numbers can be misleading and lead to more confusion. So really go by your naked eye and looking at the control line versus the testing line. Now there's gonna be some of you out there that are using the digital op Ks and girl, that is awesome for you.
Those just stressed me out, like it went from solid to flashing. I felt like I had no lead up. Whereas with the sticks, because I could see the line gradually getting darker. It made me feel a bit more in control where the happy face was just like spring go, go, go. It was too much. There was already so much going on.
That was [00:05:00] just too much. At the beginning I mentioned what proper ovulation looks like and that there's steps to that. There are patterns. Your body has these magical patterns that can tell you the doorway is open, the egg is about to drop, and then confirm that the doorway is closed and the egg has dropped.
These patterns can help you predict if you have proper ovulation. So here are the things you're looking for. You wanna see cervical mucus. That tells us that your estrogen is rising and that the doorway is about to be open. The next thing is we wanna see that LH surge, so we are looking for that control line to be just as dark or darker of the testing line on the Opks.
Next up, we are gonna confirm that you dropped that egg by watching our BBT and looking for the rise. [00:06:00] Now some people may not do BBT. Some people will use fertility technology and confirm with a progesterone rise, which is something we're looking for anyways, and we wanna make sure that that implantation window is long enough for that fertilized egg to come down the fur fallopian tubes, and burrow into that lining.
So we want your luteal phase to be 11 to 14 days or longer. So a fertilized egg has enough time to come down the fallopian tube and burrow into that nice juicy lining. And the last thing we are looking for is no spotting before your next period start. So if all of these things line up and come together beautifully, that usually means that ovulation has happened and you have enough progesterone to sustain implantation.
Now, even with positive op Ks, there can still be some red flags that your ovulation is an [00:07:00] optimal. So here are the flags on the play. If you see multiple LH peaks, no BBT shifts. A shorter than 10 day luteal face spotting before your period. No cervical mucus or super watery cervical mucus and big cycle swings from month to month.
These are all flags on the play that your egg may not be releasing properly or that you may not have enough progesterone to sustain implantation. So what do we do to make sure we are ovulating properly or have proper ovulation? It just makes me giggle every time. We are going to track for two to three cycles and really see the pattern and trend.
I want you to track BBT. LH and cervical mucus. The next thing we're gonna check for is that our luteal phase is 11 to 14 days long. On the flip side, to make sure our lining is juicy enough and our [00:08:00] progesterone is high enough to support implantation. And if you like, you can go and get your progesterone blood work done on seven days post ovulation, which is a key number to making sure everything is good for implantation.
Inside the Heel to Conceive system, I have a module called Restore It and Restore It is all about bringing your ovulation back online. So first I teach you what a healthy, strong ovulation looks like. We, uh, look at your trends and your patterns to see if they're optimal, and then we heal it to make sure it is.
Okay. Ovulation isn't just about dropping an egg, it's making sure you have all of the pieces so that you can get pregnant. If you'd like to learn more about the Heal to Conceived system, the link is in the description. And [00:09:00] remember, I want you to know you got this. You're gonna bring your baby home.
Understanding what your body is doing is the key to seeing your two pink ones. We wanna heal any misalignments. We wanna master our trends and patterns, and then we wanna bring our baby home, sis. And I know that you got this. I know you do. And when you don't got this, I got you baby dust for all.
