What is ovulation in women?

Women often hear and use the word "ovulation." Someone speaks about it with hope (after all, pregnancy is planned), someone with vexation (the eternal need to be protected). However, not all of us know well what ovulation means, and we hardly imagine what happens during ovulation.

What does ovulation mean?

Since birth, each of us carries in his ovaries a "stock" of eggs - about 400 thousand. Not all of them survive until puberty. Only a few are fortunate enough to fully mature, and even to fulfill their natural function (to form a new organism) is generally destined to units.

Approximately from 12-14 years the woman begins menstruation, she learns what the menstrual cycle is, and determines its duration. Approximately in the middle of the cycle (or in its second half) and ovulation occurs.

What is ovulation in women? This is the process of the release of a mature egg from the ovary. It occurs regularly from the moment of puberty and until the beginning of menopause, with a break for pregnancy.

Day of ovulation - what is it?

Women know that in their menstrual cycle there is a special day when it is likely to become pregnant. It is on this day that ovulation occurs.

This process is very fast: the duration of ovulation is only a few minutes. Imagine a small explosion: this ripened follicle in the ovary bursts, releasing the egg to freedom - and the process of ovulation is complete. Now the ovum is ready for fertilization, and if in the next 24 hours it meets a sperm, then conception can occur. This, in fact, is what ovulation is for.

The fertilized egg moves along the fallopian tube to the uterus, which is already preparing to accept a new life. If everything is all right, the embryo is implanted into the wall of the uterus - pregnancy begins. Otherwise, menstruation starts, and the egg is excreted from the woman's body.

Many people think that ovulation is monthly. Of course, this is not so. Ovulation occurs approximately 14 days before the onset of menstruation. In addition, ovulation may not occur, but the monthly will still begin (the uterus prepares for pregnancy every month, regardless of the maturation of the egg).

Late ovulation - what is it?

As a rule, every month in the body of a woman only one egg ripens. However, the rules always have exceptions. It happens that in one menstrual cycle two eggs in two ovaries ripen, and sometimes not one ripens (in this case they say about the anovulatory cycle).

In addition, ovulation occurs early and late. The earliest is ovulation, which occurs earlier than it usually happens (for example, instead of the 14th day of the cycle, the egg suddenly came out on the 11th day). Late ovulation, as you already understood, comes later than in normal cycles. Why is this happening? Both early and late ovulation is observed in women with an unstable menstrual cycle, and also in the case of:

In conclusion, we note that it is important for every woman to be able to determine the timing of onset of ovulation and to know her fertile (fertile) days. This will help you in planning the conception, preventing unwanted pregnancy, treating for infertility. In addition, this knowledge will be useful for monitoring your health (sometimes the absence of ovulation is the first and only signal that something is wrong in the body).