Peri-menopause Phase 1 is distinguished by the continuation of normal menstrual cycles as well as reduced progesterone levels. Some months, progesterone may be slightly lower. However, in other months, you may not ovulate, and your progesterone levels may be much lower. How do you know if you’re having anovulatory (non-ovulatory) cycles if you’re still bleeding?
Tracking several of your body’s signals, similar to those who track ovulation while attempting to conceive, will let you know if you ovulated that month.
- Checking cervical mucous
- Monitoring Basal body temperature
- Urine Hormone Testing.
Checking Cervical Mucous
- It’s an essential marker for determining when you ovulate.
- It’s produced on average for 2-7 days of your cycle, right up to ovulation.
- Cervical mucous is clear, stretchy and lubricative and resembles raw egg whites.
- And it’s with the help of your cervical mucous that sperm can stay alive while in the vagina and cervix for fertilization.
The cells in the cervical canal are very sensitive to both estrogen and progesterone. As Estrogen rises towards ovulation, it stimulates the cervix to begins to produce “E” type Cervical Mucous. When healthy, you produce E type cervical mucous for about 5 days before ovulation.
And then once you ovulate and progesterone levels start to rise, the cervical mucous is no longer produced.
Thus if you see cervical mucous for 2 days up to a week in the follicular phase of your cycle (around day 7-16) and then you most likely ovulated.
If you see cervical mucous after when you think you should have ovulated (mid cycle around day 12-16) you most likely did not ovulate and progesterone levels are very low.
How to check for cervical mucous…
Rewire your self awareness, to make checking a daily practice. To keep it simple we are asking you to add just a couple seconds to your normal bathroom routine. To make this a habit, each time you go to the bathroom, just as you wipe from front to back after urinating, you are now going to wipe PRIOR as well. Again, I’masking you to wipe PRIOR to going to the bathroom each and every time. Feel what it feels like to draw the toilet paper across your body. Does it feel dry, smooth or glide/lubricative as you wipe. Look at the toilet paper and see if you see mucous on the paper. and then record your data. If it is dry or smooth and you do not see enough mucous on the toilet paper that you could pick up then it is a dry day. On a mucous day you will actually see mucous that you could stretch between your fingers on the toilet paper OR it feels lubricative on the toilet paper. When you do this each time you go to the bathroom, it will become a habit very rapidly. RECORD WHAT YOU SEE! Observing but not recording will not help you gain insights into your hormone health.
Monitoring Basal Body Temperature. Here we are looking for a thermal shift within the body. Pre-ovulation, body temperature is generally lower. After ovulation Progesterone levels rise. Progesterone is a thermogenic agent, raising the basal body temperature. There will be a sustained thermal shift after ovulation. It is one of the ways the body prepares for pregnancy. Your body raises its temperature for the second half of your cycle in case of fertilization. And if fertilization occurs it will continue to remain high throughout the pregnancy. If an egg is not fertilized your progesterone and body temperature will decrease a day or two before you get your period.
The thermal shift corresponds with the end of the cervical mucous production. This is a more objective measurement that can reinforce the more subjective cervical mucous checks and marks ovulation has occurred and the end of the fertility window.
Tracking Basal Body Temperature. You will need a basal body thermometer that reads out to 2 decimal places, so it would read for example 98.21. Basic thermometers range from 15 dollars up to 40 dollars. There are several which save past recordings and are blue tooth enabled which link up to your phone and graph your recordings. None of these are necessary. Just get a thermometer and Take your temperature each day before you get out of bed – after a minimum of 5 hours of consecutive sleep.
Take your temperature…orally, axillary or vaginally, Pick one site and be consistent. Leave your thermometer in place for 5-10 minutes, to warm up and stabilize before you hit the power button. Most women try to skip this step (but if you skip this step and take your temperature 3X you will most likely get different results) Try to Take your temperature around the same time every morning. Your BBT increases with every 30 minutes you sleep. From a practical stand point it is more important to get a good nights sleep. When you wake up at an unusual time, or have a rough night sleeping simply take your temperature, record it and make a note of any details regarding your sleep quality or number of hours.
If you did ovulate, you should see a thermal rise approximately mid cycle, and it should stay elevated until a day or so before your period begins. If your temperature remains constant throughout the month you most likely did not ovulate.
Urine Hormonal Testing. Monitoring FSH, LH, E, and P throughout your cycle.
Most ovulation tests follow Luteinizing Hormone (LH) but do not measure Progesterone, the hormone that indicates ovulation. Inito is a fertility monitor that detects all four hormones on a single test strip, providing you with a comprehensive picture of your cycles and findings that are unique to your body. It is the only personal at-home test kit with results in 5 minutes that measures FSH, LH, Estrogen, and Progesterone, that I’ve found. It is not marketed to the Peri-2Post audience (I informed them about this missed opportunity!). So, there is not research into the specifics for our population. However, the biochemistry remains unchanged. I discovered this device during Phase 2 and continue to use it today (Phase 4, “in the waiting room”) for spot checks on how my lifestyle and supplementation are affecting my levels. I’ll go into greater depth about how I’ve used the Inito in a future article. The initial test kit costs around $150 (Here is a 15% off coupon for checkout KRISTIN15), the reader connects to your smartphone, and an app tracks the readings for you.
