Mini-Lesson

For all you teachers out there, you know what a mini-lesson is. A short lesson. I could give you a very detailed lesson, or I can use bullet points for those of us who(like small children) have short attention spans.

Kim, don't read this. It is about reproduction and you have no interest. Consider yourself warned.

So here is my mini-lesson on the female reproductive system:

• The official first day of a woman's monthly cycle begins on the first day of her period.
• The cycle "typically" lasts for 28 days.
• Estrogen levels rise until there is enough estrogen built up to cause a surge of Luteinizing Hormone (LH) that causes the ovary to release an egg.
  
• This is called ovulation.
  
• As soon as an egg is released from the ovary the follicle containing the egg collapses in on itself and begins releasing progesterone.
• Also, if charting basil body temperature (temp. before rising in the AM, after at least 3 hrs of sleep) you will notice a fairly steady temp. until the day after ovulation--then there will be a rise in basil body temperature.
  

• As soon as ovulation occurs, a woman begins the next part of her cycle: the Luteal Phase.
  
• The luteal phase lasts from ovulation until the start of the next monthly cycle.
  
• The average length of the luteal phase is just over 12 days.
  
• A woman's luteal phase does not vary more than a couple of days from cycle to cycle. So if Woman A's luteal phase is typically 12 days, it may occasionally be 11 days or 13 days.
• A luteal phase shorter than 10 days will not allow the fertilized egg time to implant before menstruation.
  

Now that you have survived my mini-lesson, I can move onto my point.

This was my first cycle that I was able to use my handy new little Clearblue Easy Fertility Monitor. My fertility monitor told me that I was at Peak fertility on cycle days 18, 19, and 20 which were August 7, 8, and 9. My book, Taking Charge of Your Fertility, told me that the last peak day is the actual day of egg release. It is desirable to "try" the day before ovulating for the best odds because of the time the egg takes to travel, blah, blah, blah.

I also had some pain in my right ovary area on the 9th, so I am fairly positive that is when I ovulated. My fertility monitor told me on the 10th on that I had low fertility, further confirming my guess at my ovulation date. (The only way to really know the date of ovulation is to have daily ultrasounds while the egg is being released.)

So that would make me on day 8 of my luteal phase today, April 17th.

I had some very light spotting evening of day 7 and morning of day 8 (implantation spotting???). I am praying that if I get my period this month that it won't come until at least Tuesday the 20th so that I do not have to deal with a short luteal phase in addition to endometriosis.

It would be even better if my period doesn't show up again until December 20th in the form of a little baby ;o)

Anyway, just needed to get all of that off my mind and documented somewhere so I can stop thinking about it!