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As a young lady, I believed that having a period meant that I must be ovulating and was able to get pregnant. Many women have had "the talk" with their mom about their period, fertility and how they could get pregnant if they had intercourse. This made me come to the conclusion, getting pregnant was easy. Now teaching Creighton and my life experience has shown this simply isn't true and having a period is not an indication of ovulation.
Having a period is important, but there are other clues which indicate whether ovulation is happening or not. If your menstrual cycle is regular, it would be an indicator of ovulation. Irregular cycles could be an indicator ovulation is not happening due to various reasons. Some of those include but are not limited to endometriosis, PCOS, thyroid issues, premenopause, stress or illness, undereating, and high prolactin.
Another indicator we look at and chart in Creighton is the mucus cycle. This is unique to Creighton. It looks at the quality and quantity of the mucus. In Creighton we have 5 categories to describe the mucus cycle, dry, limited mucus, intermediate limited mucus, intermediate regular mucus, and regular mucus cycle. These are what we call the mucus cycle score and it can help a NaPro medical consultant decide what tests and procedures someone may need for a fertility workup.
Lastly, there are tests which are done at home or by a doctor. At home you could start monitoring your basal body temperature to watch for a temp increase or LH strips to look for a LH surge. A doctor may draw labs for hormones or order a follicle ultrasound series to see if ovulation is happening. If you are trying to get pregnant and have heard something like "Well you're having a period so you'll be fine, don't stress". The truth is you probably need to see a doctor and get an evaluation done. I do recommend to start with the charting process using the Creighton to look at your cycles and start observing mucus which is vital to evaluating ovulation.