6 Myths about Ovulation You Need to Stop Believing

Eggs are quite the hot topic on the internet right now! I figured I'd jump on the bandwagon in the egg discussion... but talking about a totally different kind of egg - yours!

Before we start debunking some common myths about ovulation, let's define what ovulation actually IS.

A woman is born with all the eggs she'll ever have. As a matter of fact, your ovaries and eggs develop as you grow inside your mother. So if you ever have a daughter, all of the eggs that will create your future grandchildren first grow inside YOUR body as your baby grows and are present by weeks 16-20 of fetal development! Mind blowing!

These eggs live in the ovaries in an underdeveloped state. At the beginning of a woman's cycle, an egg is selected to develop and mature towards ovulation. This maturing process happens on the ovary inside a cyst called a "follicle". When the egg is fully matured, the cyst ruptures on the surface of the ovary and releases that egg, THAT is the event called ovulation.

Now, let's talk about some of these commonly-believed ovulation myths!

1. Ovulation happens on day 14 of my cycle.

It might! But it very well might not. There are a symphony of hundreds of tiny events that take place within a woman's body for ovulation to occur and it's actually impossible to perfectly predict at the start of a cycle what day a woman will ovulate. Sometimes, women will rely on historical data to predict ovulation, meaning that she'll use the cycle day that she ovulated from previous cycles to predict when she'll ovulate this cycle. This may be somewhat accurate for a time, but it's actually not a reliable way to predict ovulation especially if you're trying to achieve or avoid pregnancy.

Once you DO ovulate, the second part of your cycle (post ovulation) is a very stable and predictable length of time. It's normal for this period of time to be anywhere from 9-17 days long but once you've identified how long that period of time is for YOU, you can count on that being quite stable. For example, if your post-ovulatory phase is typically 13 days long, that shouldn't vary by more than a day or two in a woman of normal fertility from cycle to cycle.

One reason for this myth might be the way that a typical OBGYN will date a pregnancy. The vast majority of women are aware of the first day of their last menstrual period but are not aware of the date of their last ovulation. It makes sense then to date a pregnancy by asking a woman for the first day of her last period, assuming ovulation on day 14, and dating from there. However.... shameless plug for Creighton Model here, if you do become pregnant we have a process for pregnancy evaluation where we look at the charting of the cycle where you became pregnant and help you really narrow down the exact dating for your pregnancy. This is not only really cool but can be very medically useful as well!

2. I can ovulate more than once per cycle.

Yes and no. You can ONLY have ONE ovulatory event per cycle. Let me explain.

Once ovulation occurs and the egg is released, that's it. There is now a series of events kicked off that are carrying your body towards the end of that cycle. Ovulation CANNOT happen again.

However... you CAN release more than one egg during that singular ovulatory event. If your body prepares two (or three) eggs toward maturity, then you would ovulate multiple eggs. That's where fraternal twins or triplets come from! But when this occurs those eggs are all released within 12-24 hours of each other. Hence, ONE ovulatory event.

It's also possible that your body could do all the things it usually does to prepare for ovulation and give you all those signs of fertility that you may be using to identify your time of ovulation but then NOT release that egg. This principally occurs in response to stress. In a time of great physical or emotional stress (positive or negative!), your body may hang onto that egg and not ovulate just yet.

When this occurs, then typically after the stress is relieved or decreased, your body will then start giving you all those signs of fertility again and THEN that egg will be released. This could be one reason why sometimes women think they've ovulated more than once. If they're tracking their fertility and watching their body for signs of ovulation, they may notice a cycle from time to time where that happens twice. But in those situations, the actual event of ovulation has only occurred once.

You might be thinking... ugh. This ovulation fake-out would make it really tricky to track my fertility if I'm wanting to achieve or avoid pregnancy. You're right! BUT Creighton Model Fertility Care Practitioners are experts at helping you learn how to navigate these very situations!

3. Women can ovulate in response to sexual stimulation.

Nope! As you may have gathered by this point, there is a complex and delicate series of events that takes place within a woman's reproductive system, and truly her whole body, that leads up to the event of ovulation. Sexual stimulation doesn't effect this one way or the other. There are some mammals whose fertility does work like this. They're called "reflex ovulators". Humans are not among them!

Stay tuned for next week for the debunking of 3 more commonly held ovulation myths! And if you're reading this before the publication of part 2 and have a question about ovulation you'd like addressed, comment on our social media posts and I'll address it next week!

In the meantime, check out these other great posts about what's normal and not normal about your period or your overall cycle.