Tracking Your Ovulation
An ovulation test is a specialized sort of pre-pregnancy test designed to help a woman estimate her most fertile time period, or the time period immediately before and after her body ovulates. Like all mammals, women ovulate according to a fairly strict biological rhythm.
Generally speaking, most women ovulate approximately two weeks after their menstrual flow has stopped. They are most fertile from about five days prior to ovulation to about 2 days after. Not all women have the exact same pattern of ovulation, however, and this is where an ovulation test can come in handy.
What is Ovulation, Anyways?
During the two weeks after a woman's menstrual flow has stopped, small fluid-filled sacs called "follicles" inside one ovary begin to develop, and over several days one or two of them become dominant while the others atrophy and die. Release of the Luteinizing Hormone (LH) is triggered, which in turn triggers the dominant follicle to release an ovum, commonly referred to as an egg. The egg is released two to four days after the Luteinizing Hormone, and survives for another twenty-four to thirty-six hours. If the egg is not fertilized during that time period, it dies off, and approximately two weeks later the menstrual flow returns, shedding the endometrial lining that would have housed the fertilized egg.
How an Ovulation Test Works
An ovulation test, or ovulation predictor kit, works by measuring the amount of Luteinizing Hormone (LH) present in a woman's urine. A brief surge of LH regularly occurs in women two to four days before they ovulate. A pregnancy test and an ovulation test are looking for two completely different hormones in the body; also, a pregnancy test can only give a "yes" or "no" answer, whereas an ovulation test actually attempts to measure the quantity of LH in the woman's body. An ovulation test, therefore, is not the same as a pregnancy test, but a sort of pre-pregnancy test that tries to depict the ideal window of time in which to attempt reproduction.
An ovulation test is necessarily a bit more complicated than a pregnancy test. The results involve interpreting two lines, one of which is a reference/control line indicating the test is functioning correctly, the other indicating the presence and levl of LH in the woman's urine. Whenever you take a pregnancy test or other reproductive test at home, be sure to read the directions carefully so that you will understand your results.
The Question of Accuracy
Unlike an at-home pregnancy test, which may or may not come with multiple tests for accuracy, ovulation tests typically include seven tests for an entire week's worth of testing. When used in accordance with the brand's directions, it can be 99% accurate.
If you're on a hormonal contraceptive, it could take weeks or months for your ovulatory cycles to return to normal. You should stop using contraceptives about six months before you anticipate getting pregnant, to ensure that their effects have worn off and your reproductive cycle has balanced itself out. This will help reduce 'false positives' on a pregnancy test.
An ovulation test cannot guarantee conception, but it can be a useful and valuable family planning tool when used along with a pregnancy test and regular visits to the doctor. If nothing else, it can increase a woman's awareness of her own fertility.
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