Am I fertile if my period is regular?
It's a common conception or misconception that having a regular period automatically means you are fertile or in reverse, that the absence of a regular period means you are infertile.
While it is true that a regular cycle is far more likely to have ovulatory cycles, and an irregular cycle is more likely to be anovulatory (lack of ovulation), there are a few deviations from this that can also be true.
Ovulation typically occurs around day 14 of your cycle. It largely depends on a hormone signalling cascade. This starts in the brain (specifically the hypothalamus), which signals the ovaries to mature and then release an egg from a follicle. So without this process of ovulation, there is no egg ready to be fertilised and implant in the uterus. Your period or bleed is separate to this. There is a feedback loop that stops menstruation if a pregnancy occurs. Elevated progesterone and HCG tell your hypothalamus to cease menstruation, however, if no embryo has implanted, progesterone declines and the hypothalamus triggers the uterus to shed it’s lining ready for the next cycle.
So you can see, if there are errors in the hormone signalling cascades or feedback loops, a period could be absent whilst ovulation may have occurred. Or in reverse, an egg may not have been released, yet because of the feedback loops, a period can result without ovulation.
So Am I Fertile?
There’s no easy way to definitely say, especially through a blog, if you are fertile just because you do or do not have your cycle. As a generalisation, however, if you have a regular cycle, you are more likely to ovulate regularly and have a higher likelihood of fertility. In reverse, if you haven’t had a period in years or have an irregular cycle, there is less likelihood of regular ovulation and as such likelihood of being fertile is lower.
Irregular cycles really deserve their own blog to explore underlying causes and contributing factors.
Exceptions To Typical Ovulation
However, it is common to see and hear about women falling pregnant again after giving birth, yet before their cycle resumes because ovulation has resumed without them realising or they may be ovulating without a bleed (due to hormones being altered by breastfeeding).
Another common scenario is in PCOS or cases of weight-related amenorrhea (absence of period). When weight is released, proper hormone signalling and ovulation can be restored. However, a period may not have resumed yet or pregnancy occurs before the period resumes.
How Can I Tell if I’m Fertile?
The common theme here is how to identify if you are ovulating regardless of your cycle regularity.
Blood Tests
These can be a great place to start, however, there may be costs involved through doctors or specialists. They will often test your FSH (follicle stimulating hormone), LH (luteinising hormone), oestrogen and progesterone.
The downside is, that you’ll need to know when you believe you ovulated to test roughly 7 days after (to catch progesterone levels to determine if an egg has been released), or have a regular cycle to test on days 5 and 21 (to compare ratios of oestrogen to progesterone for hormone health). If you have an irregular cycle, you may be up for a few blood tests (every couple of days after the suspected ovulation) to check when ovulation occurred and if an egg was released.
OPK’s (Ovulation Prediction Kit)
These tests are fairly easy to do at home. They are very similar to a home pregnancy test. You either urinate onto the test or dip it into urine (depending on the type). Typically these are used to detect an LH surge that occurs about 24-36 hours before ovulation. However, it can take around 12 hours to enter the urine. These need to be tested daily and in some instances twice daily closer to the ovulatory window. This can become time-consuming and pricey. It has also been found to be unreliable for those with PCOS due to hormone imbalances.
Temperature Charting
Temperature charting with symptom tracking (Thermosympto method). It’s a simple, yet effective way to identify what may be occurring within your cycle and identify ways that could assist in optimising it for fertility and health.
Ready to learn more?
Let’s do this! I’m releasing a course very soon to teach this very thing!
