When does ovulation actually occur?
It is important to be clear that none of us is the “average” or “typical” human being. If an artist were to draw a picture of the average human woman’s face, what would it look like? It would have all the same parts as I have, but it wouldn’t be my face. The same is true when we try to compare an actual individual woman’s menstrual cycle to the “average” menstrual cycle presented in textbooks such as yours. We should expect that our cycles won’t look exactly like the one shown in the books. And so to assume that just because the book says that women have 28 day cycles with ovulation occurring on Day 14, would be ridiculous.
Women’s cycles vary from month to month in any given woman, and certainly there is quite a bit of variance between different women. This variance is NORMAL. Think about how complex the menstrual cycle is with 5 different hormones each playing critical roles: GNRH from the Hypothalamus to the Pituitary gland, LH and FSH from the pituitary gland into the bloodstream and “read” by the Ovaries and Uterus, and lastly Estrogen and Progesterone from the Ovaries (as well as the Adrenal glands) into the bloodstream and “read” by several bodily regulators, including the Pituitary Gland, which responds with its emissions of LH and FSH. If anything happens in a woman’s body (which, btw, includes her brain/mind!), then the dosage and timing of one or several of these five hormones may differ from the way they are described in your textbook. And if the hormone levels differ then you won’t get a 28 day cycle with ovulation on day 14. That’s just part of normal human life: to respond to variance in diet, exercise, medical issues, medications, injuries, emotional or physical stress, individual genetic differences, and even deeply held attitudes.
It turns out that the secretory phase of the menstrual cycle (the time between ovulation and the next period) tends to be pretty stable, lasting from about 12-16 days (averaging 14 days). It takes 12-16 days for the hormonal changes that are brought about by ovulation to result in a period (the sloughing off of the endometrial lining of the uterus) if a pregnancy has not occurred. So although this time can vary, it doesn’t generally vary very much.
But the time between the beginning of a period and the next ovulation (the menstrual and proliferative phases) can be highly variable in how many days it lasts. If a woman has a cycle that lasts longer than 28 days then it is most likely because this part of the cycle lasted longer. If her cycle is shorter than 28 days then it is most likely because this part of the cycle went by more quickly.
You might be wondering why I think you’d care. Where he’s the deal: Many people count on the “fact” they’ve learned about ovulation happening on day 14 (the 14th day after the start of the last menstrual period) to determine their reproductive behavior. If they want to avoid pregnancy they avoid having sex on or around day 14. If they want to get pregnant they make sure they have sex around day 14. Can you see the problem with this assumption now?
Its difficult to predict exactly when ovulation will actually occur. According to the textbook, it happens on day 14. But none of us are textbooks. We are real people, with real differences. The length of time between the beginning of a woman’s last period and her next ovulation is highly variable. To just count 14 days from the start of her last period is actually a pretty poor way to predict ovulation.
If I were to ask you a picky test question (and I will) about when ovulation occurs I’d want you to know that ovulation occurs about 14 days before the next menstrual period/flow. This is because secretory phase is pretty stable. But it would be less accurate to say that ovulation occurs about 14 days after the last period because that part of the cycle is so variable. In order to predict your next ovulation you’d have to first know when your next period is going to be. You can make an educated guess according to your past history, of course, but what happens if this cycle just happens to vary more than usual? Then you’re in trouble.
There are, of course methods you can learn and new technologies you can take advantage of, some available at your local drug store. These help you determine when you are about to or have just ovulated. These methods are quite helpful for people hoping to conceive a child but are not very good as a method of birth control. These methods called Natural Family Planning, Fertility Awareness or the Rhythm Method fail about 35% of the time. Part of the reason also has to do with sperm. Most people don’t realize that some sperm are able to stay alive and able to fertilize an egg (ovum) for up to 5 days inside the woman’s body, so you need to make sure that you quit having sex about a week before the earliest date that you expect to ovulate. This is just one reason why so many American Catholics use other contraceptive methods even though the Church of Rome refuses to condone them.
But wait, there’s more bad news! New scientific research confirms what we’ve suspected for many years: it is not unusual for a woman to ovulate more than once in any given month. So she may ovulate on good old day 14, but she may ALSO ovulate again days later. This helps us understand the mystery of women who conceived during the menstrual phase when there “shouldn’t” have been a viable ovum around. Hmmmm…
So….if you are having heterosexual sex and want to avoid pregnancy you have to get real about your risks and choose and use an effective method of contraception or other birth control. You might want to skip ahead to Chapter 12!
The PMS Conspiracy
Your textbook briefly discusses some negative attitudes toward menstruation and women’s genitals but it could certainly go much further. There are lots of tragic (okay, that’s my bias) stories of cultures in which women are made to feel physically and/or spiritually filthy because of this normal part of their reproductive functioning. This includes Judeo-Christian tradition – look in the Book of Leviticus in your Old Testament Bible.
But we don’t hear much about positive attitudes about menstruation and what it represents in woman’s role as life-giver. I’ve included below some passages from a wildly pro-menstruation booklet (no longer in print, sorry) so that you can get a sense of what having a positive attitude might be like. But first I want to point out something else lacking in your textbook – the mental/emotional part of PMS and menstrual discomfort.
We all know that our bodies and minds are not separate. They are in constant communication, affecting one another all day/night long. Certainly you know a headache brought on by emotional tension when you get one, or muscle aches, or being more prone to catching a cold when you’re emotionally exhausted, etc. Knowing this, it is pretty naïve to ignore the role of the mind in the workings of the menstrual cycle, especially as they relate to menstrual and premenstrual discomforts (both physical and emotional).
Your textbook gives you a brief look at some of the physical changes in a woman’s body that can create physical and emotional distress – although I don’t know that they do a good enough job explaining how much water retention affects your emotional and mental states – but there is a lot more information available and I urge you to seek it out if you have menstrual or premenstrual problems. One great source is Christiane Northrup, M.D. (Women’s Bodies/Women/s Wisdom). Her books are easy to find and she’s not trying to sell you anything. And she is very in tune with not just the medical/biological aspects of PMS but also the psychological issues. She’s also got a great book on Menopause.
What I have for you here is by Felicity Artemis Flowers in a self-published booklet, The PMS Conspiracy, in which she talks of ancient cultures in which the Goddess was worshipped and menstrual blood was considered sacred. Ms. Flowers is no scholar so I won’t vouch for her sources or factual accuracy, but I share her work with you so that you can hear from someone who truly appreciates every drop of her womanhood. I want you to recognize that our attitudes about menstruation are learned; they are part of the culture we grow up in. Anything that is learned can be unlearned and replaced with new information and attitudes. If your negative attitude about menstruation is causing you pain, you should know that you have other options. I’ve seen people change their attitudes about menstruation and I’ve listened to their reports about having an easier time with their periods and their premenstrual time. Some people need medication, or changes in diet and exercise to treat PMS, and some people just need an attitude readjustment. We do have scientific studies that indicate that for some women, attitude is a big part of their suffering (and of the people with whom they share their lives!).
The PMS Conspiracy
“There was a time when the color red was considered a sacred color because it was the color of womb blood, menstrual blood, which flowed from the Goddess of Life. From within Her body, the Gateway to Life, flowed the crimson elixir. The Goddess of Life was every woman. And the color red was sacred.
Women’s realities throughout recorded history have been systematically held back and denied. Women have only recently begun to tell our stories, to tell the truth about the overwhelming prevalence of rape and incest and other childhood horrors that permeate our existence and are an integral fact of our western culture. This name, out loud, of our reality is empowering women to heal ourselves and to stop further abuse.
Women are discovering how and why it came to be that women’s realities and some 30,000 years or more of human history have been suppressed in the recorded accounts of history texts, which have always been written primarily by male historians. In uncovering this knowledge we may understand and dismantle the mechanisms of oppression. In reclaiming our lost heritage we reclaim our Selves.” P. 1
“In order to propagate and enforce patriarchy it was/is absolutely essential to render obsolete any notion or experience of the body as divine. People who affirm Life as the highest expression of deity and are free to worship the body’s pleasure, wonder and wisdom are powerful and simply not controllable….In order to become whole again, we may look back into the values and perceptions that prevailed before the patriarchy wreaked its misogynist and anti-life havoc upon the planet.” P.3
“A society that worships Life worships blood as the elixir of Life, the red flowing thread that links the generations to their source….In woman-identified society, religion is the celebration of Life. Inherent in the celebration of Life is the celebration of women’s mysteries, which are the blood mysteries; the awesome power of the female body to bring life into the world….Our birth into the world is the first blood mystery. Where there is birth there is blood. Menstruation is the second blood Mystery.
The menstrual cycle if the Cycle of Life. The wall of the womb engorges itself each month with blood to nourish a potential new life. The veil of blood then peels itself away when its time is over, according to the body’s wisdom, leaving an actual wound which begins the cycle again. She is always changing; She ripens, lets go and renews Herself. Thus the womb of woman embodies the nature of life, death and rebirth.
When a woman bleeds she is unveiling the Mystery of Life. Life reveals Her mystery to woman in regular cycles. Ancient people called menstrual blood ‘wise blood.’ The ancients recognized the awesome wisdom and power of the menstrual cycle and it was honored as a source of spiritual enlightenment. The forgetting of this essential wisdom, and the distress that this has caused the psyche of womankind is a consequence of the total betrayal of women by the patriarchy.
The ultimate message of the male-supremist culture to all daughters, well before their first bleeding, is that proof of your worth as a woman lies in how successfully you pretend that nothing significant is happening while you are bleeding: how well you can contain it, act emotionally neutral, not retain water, be a good robot in the workplace; how well you deny your true nature in pretending you don’t want to lie down and take a warm bath, or walk through a flower garden. You must be efficient and ‘take it like a man,’ take pills so you won’t feel it, take diuretics so it won’t ‘show.’ Don’t let anyone know. Pretend you’re not bleeding. …Thus redefined, P.M.S. is Programmed Menstrual Suffering, knowing in advance that you won’t be able to rest when you get your period. It is knowing how much energy it’s going to take to pretend nothing ‘unusual’ is happening (you’re only bleeding) and how you’re going to have to keep things together, carry-on, act ‘normal.” How you must pretend you are not cyclic. How you must deny who you are.
Life comes through woman. It is as the Goddess of Life that everywoman bleeds.” Pp. 4-5
“In ancient times a woman’s bleeding was her time to retreat to a special place where she would be attended, bathed and nurtured by other women. It was honored as her time to tune-in to the transformation happening within her, to turn inward, to get closer to her Self, to listen to and hear her Self.
Since ancient times water has been universally archetypically symbolic of the limitless realm of the unconscious; the black void of creation where all is conceived and brought forth. As the moon waxes women’s bodies imitate the moon, growing fuller, ripening. We are moonlike: our bellies become round like the moon as we fill ourselves with the waters of the unconscious.
On her menstrual retreat a woman secluded herself to give herself to her bleeding. With each lunation she could immerse herself in the realm of the unconscious and focus her energy into her expanded psychic connection to All Life. She would then return with offerings of insight and visions for the community. She was a priestess, a shamaness. Her bleeding was thus honored as her Gift.” P.7
Other meanings for PMS: Post-Matriarchal Syndrome, Propagating Menstrual Shame, Patriarchal Murder of the Sacred, Policing our Menstrual Sisters, Programmed Menstrual Suffering.
“To honor She who Bleeds and gives birth to Life is to honor Life itself. Life must be honored for the world to be whole. …To honor the blood of the womb and She Who Bleeds to Life is to consciously return our sexuality to the realm of the sacred. To worship divinity through the body is to mend the schism of spirit vs. body upon which the patriarchy is built. It is to heal the very source of our alienation from ourselves.
Life is sexual. Our very lives are created in the womb through sexual union. We are born through the awesome sexual labyrinth of the female genital. The elements of sexuality, the genitalia, the warm liquids that flow through them, the smells, the tastes, the colors, the textures, the pleasure and deep emotions are all symbols of Life.” Pp.9-10
“As a woman learning to honor herself, you may begin by creating a space in your life for the first heavy flow day of each month…at least wear red clothing to work that day and on the way home buy yourself some red roses…two or three focused hours will go a long way.
One of the quickest and age-old ways to embrace menstrual reality is to take a special bath. Fill the tub with water, make sure the temperature feels perfect, and float some red rose petals on the top. Light red candles and have a large goblet of some red drink in it, such as red wine or raspberry juice. Burn incense if you like. Put on your favorite music.
Stay in the bath as long as you want. There is nothing more important that you should be doing right now than lying there, feeling yourself breathing in the warm water amongst the rose petals. Close your eyes and feel.” P. 11
“Conclusion: As women reclaim ourselves as She Who Bleeds to Life we will create more and more ways to give ourselves to our bleeding, to embrace menstrual reality, to participate in the Mystery of Life. It is the return of the Menstruating Woman, and the return of Her wisdom and power. It is with the wisdom and power of the female that we create a new world as we continue to learn how to live what we know as truth, that Life is sacred.” P. 13