Whether you want to get pregnant or want to avoid a pregnancy, you need to know when you ovulate. Even though it is said that we usually ovulate on around day 14, the mid-point of a 28-day cycle, everyone is different, and every cycle is different. So when do you ovulate exactly?

Recently a few of my girlfriends got off birth control bills because of their side-effects. So when we girls got together, we talked about various alternative birth control methods, including the natural way, which is to have sex without protection during your safe periods, i.e., when you are not ovulating.

However, the safe period is only safe if you know when you ovulate, accurately. You can use ovulation strips available in the market, which are very affordable these days. Click here to take an ovulation test.

Alternatively, you can track your basal body temperature, because your body temperature changes throughout your cycle, and there are significant changes around the date of ovulation. Since I’d never tested it before, so I decided to investigate to see for myself. For a few dollars, I bought a digital basal thermometer.

I began to measure my body temperature beginning with the first day of my last cycle. I put the thermometer next to my bed and measured my temperature the moment I woke up every morning. It’s important to measure it before any daily activities, and at the same time every day, in order to get consistent and accurate measurements. So I did.

And ta-da! I completed the exercise for a full cycle. When my temperatures were plotted on a chart, I was amazed to see how clear the pattern was. I didn’t ovulate on day 14. It actually happened on day 19. I wouldn’t have guessed that!

On day 19, my temperature took a sharp dive to below 96.5 F, rose to over 98 F through the premenstrual days, and then leveled off to my normal temperatures again when I began my next cycle.

And I had a PMS mood day the day after my ovulation, which was interesting. Perhaps this information will also give us more accurate indicators of our premenstrual periods. Perhaps PMS is not as unpredictable as one may think.

Once again I am fascinated by our bodily intelligence and the wonders of Mother Nature…

So do you know exactly when you ovulate? Use this simple method to check it out and see it for yourself. Get your digital basal thermometer today. It's a small intestment worth making. 

And sign up for a free Period and Ovulation Tracker to input your body temperatures and plot your own the chart, among with many other cool features.