Understanding fertility and your menstrual cycle is the first step in successfully becoming pregnant or preventing pregnancy.
Knowing how long your period lasts is often all the further people investigate or try to understand the reproductive system of a female. This is why, when it comes to preventing pregnancy or conceiving a baby, the question sometimes arises: How long is an egg viable after ovulation?
In this article, we’ll have a crash course in ovulation education. We’ll cover the menstrual cycle, a woman’s fertile window each month, and how long the woman’s egg remains viable after ovulation.
The menstrual cycle
Not all women have the same 28-day menstrual cycle. For some women, it’s shorter; for others, it’s longer.
Ovulation occurs when a mature egg travels down through the fallopian tube. This occurs once a month, and this monthly window is known as the fertility window for women.
Ovulation occurs once a month for most women, and it is called the fertile window because, during this time, you are most likely to become pregnant if you have unprotected sexual intercourse.
When is my fertile window?
There are many ways to track your ovulation, but it’s the first step in understanding when you will most likely get pregnant each month.
Many people assume (incorrectly) that every woman has a 28-day menstrual cycle. Therefore, every woman has a fertile window of about two weeks into their menstrual cycle.
However, this is not accurate, and simply assuming that you fall into the category of a 28-day cycle can result in either getting pregnant when you don’t want to be or missing your fertile window because you didn’t calculate it correctly.
How to track ovulation
As stated above, there are several ways to track your ovulation so that you know when, during the month, you are ovulating.
However, you should understand and be advised that if you do not have regular periods, you will most likely have to track ovulation every month rather than relying upon the first month or two to predict ovulation.
The following are some fairly effective ways to track and predict ovulation.
1. Basal body temperature
If you break down that term, it means “your body’s base temperature.” It is your body’s temperature when you are at complete rest.
Taking your basal body temperature every morning, as soon as you wake up, for several months will give you a fair idea of when you ovulate and have that fertile window each month.
On the days you are ovulating and the days leading up to ovulation, your basal body temperature is often a little higher than it will be for the rest of the month.
So the idea is that if you take your temperature with a digital thermometer every morning before you even get out of bed for a few months, you can figure out when your fertile window is based on elevated temperature each month.
2. Ovulation predictor kits
When ovulating, the luteinizing hormone, or LH levels, rises in anticipation of your egg traveling down the fallopian tube. These hormones surge to increase your cervical mucus levels to keep a woman’s egg viable.
The released egg is most likely to become a fertilized egg if there is ample cervical mucus for the sperm cells to travel through.
Ovulation predictor kits work by measuring that luteinizing hormone in your urine, and letting you know, via test strips, when those hormones are highest.
Many women use this method to predict ovulation rather than trying to keep track of their menstrual period and do the math each month.
3. Cervical mucus method
Some women choose to discover their fertility window by tracking their vaginal discharge.
As your ovulation date gets nearer each month, vaginal discharge increases and changes in consistency to a thin, clear, and stringy discharge that resembles egg white.
This happens so that the released egg stands a better chance of being fertilized by sperm cells for as long as you have eggs viable after ovulation.
Simply feeling with your fingers is all that is needed. Women who employ this method often pick up a few tricks along the way, such as logging the consistency of vaginal discharge in a journal.
How long is an egg viable after ovulation
If you’ve wondered how long eggs viable for fertilization remain healthy after ovulation, the window is relatively small.
The period immediately following ovulation is typically a menstrual period, in which the uterine lining is shed. Once viable eggs and the uterine lining are shed, you will not likely become pregnant again until the following month.
How many days after ovulation is an egg viable?
Your fertile days are not so much after ovulation takes place. You only have about one day after ovulation in which viable life can occur and a fertilized egg can be produced.
Suppose you have missed your window and have already ovulated but wish to become pregnant. In that case, you are probably better off waiting for your next period to pass and then tracking your fertility and natural menstrual cycle using the fertility awareness-based methods discussed earlier in this article and trying again when you are next ovulating.
How fertility works
When you are about to ovulate, the uterine lining thickens, and the immature egg, now a corpus luteum, has come through the fallopian tube and remains viable for about 24 hours after ovulation occurs.
The luteinizing hormone level rises, the amount of discharge from the vagina increases and becomes more elastic in consistency, and this cervical fluid is there to help facilitate a successful attempt of fertilization.
A day after ovulation transpires, your levels of progesterone fall, decreasing that luteinizing hormone, and you no longer remain capable of becoming pregnant via sexual intercourse. That’s the way that a fertility window works.
How many days before ovulation can you get pregnant?
It’s not just the female body that has some pretty amazing capabilities.
Now, let’s talk about the sperm cell.
The sperm cell is a hardy thing built to swim upstream to fertilize the female egg.
Because there is such a small window of opportunity, the sperm cell can survive in the vagina for up to five days before it dies.
Therefore, you can have sex daily for up to five days to ovulation, and those few consecutive days leading up to ovulation can result in pregnancy.
How long does it take to get pregnant?
It can be very disheartening to try month after month, and your next period just keeps coming.
Some couples get pregnant quickly, but for others, it takes longer.
Many factors go into this, such as whether the woman is a healthy weight before conception, the woman’s age, health, and more. Rest assured, though, that it’s generally only a matter of time before it happens.
You can always speak with your doctor, healthcare provider, or fertility specialist if it’s taking too long.
However, most couples find that once they stop stressing so much about it and simply try to enjoy themselves through sex, the process becomes much easier, and they see more success.
Preventing pregnancy
There are many ways that you can prevent pregnancy if you are sexually active and trying to stay childless. The following are some ways in which to go about it.
1. The natural method
The only known natural method of birth control, or family planning, involves tracking your ovulation either with an app, with an ovulation predictor kit, or with a simple diary method, and avoiding sexual intercourse during the days in which a female is fertile.
This method is often employed for religious reasons and can undoubtedly fail, but it can be fairly effective for couples dedicated to correctly tracking ovulation.
2. The barrier method
The barrier method uses condoms or another physical barrier to keep sperm from actually getting to the egg or the inside of the female body to keep from fertilizing an egg.
Condoms are inexpensive and can be purchased in many places. They are also a great way to protect yourself from sexually transmitted infections.
3. Birth control pills and female birth control methods
Birth control pills, intrauterine devices, hormonal shots, and other female methods of contraception are administered and prescribed by doctors.
They are highly effective birth control when taken or used correctly and on time each day.
However, they don’t protect against STIs, and some women have complained that the side effects of some female birth control are quite unpleasant.
4. Abstinence or sterilization
The only real way to keep from becoming pregnant is by not having sex at all. For many couples, this is not a feasible solution, so the sterilization of either party may be decided upon.
You should make this decision after much thought and careful discussion with your doctor, as it can be costly and sometimes impossible to reverse if you change your mind.
Conclusion
Hopefully, this article has given you the information you need to either help you get pregnant if you are trying to conceive or to help you prevent pregnancy if that’s your intention.
Understanding how the female anatomy works and tracking your ovulation is the best course for most couples.
Remember that you can always speak to your doctor about fertility testing and services if you or your partner have an issue.