Period/Ovulation Calculators on My Monthly Cycles

[cuzmickeyluvsya.livejournal.com]

How accurate would you say the calculators on the site My Monthly Cycles [dot] com are? Ive been tracking my period and ovulation, and so far it's been alright with the period. I am no wondering if the ovulation is correct as well.

I'm not your average 28 day cycle gal, more so a 32 day cycle, so trying to figure out when I ovulate is somewhat iffy for me. My next expected due date for my period is the 9th of November, thus making ovulation this past weekend.

Any thoughts?

Comments

[queensugar.livejournal.com]

Well, the thing about MyMonthlyCycles is that they just sort of give a... general picture. They can't really tell what's going on in your body.

Most women ovulate 12-15 days before a period, give or take a little bit. The length of that can vary between women, but in an individual woman it's almost always the same from cycle to cycle. This is called the luteal phase.

If your cycles are normally about 32 days long, that means you ovulate somewhere around Cycle Day 18. But it could be earlier or later depending on your body's luteal phase (time between ovulation and menstruation). For instance, you might ovulate on Cycle Day 20 every month and have a 12-day luteal phase.

Obviously as well, those cycles can't at all predict, for instance, a delayed ovulation.

If you actually want to have a more accurate idea of when ovulation is, then may I suggest looking into the Fertility Awareness Method, or FAM? You can check out the community fam for more info.

[althea_valara]

MyMonthlyCycles does allow you to track basal temps/type of cervical fluid, though, so I'm wondering if it might be a bit more accurate at predicting ovulation than just relying on your period dates. I haven't used that feature yet so I can't say how good it is.

[queensugar.livejournal.com]

Absolutely, if you're using that feature, than that's essentially the same as using FAM, just with a premade chart, and definitely more reliable than using period dates alone, which is fine enough to give a general idea but not necessarily accurate.

[revoless.livejournal.com]

It was almost never right for me, but I have odd luteal phases (formerly 9 days, more recently 16 days). I mostly used them to amuse myself with how off they were. I also have irregular periods, so it never knew when to expect my ovulation either. Which was fine, of course, because I generally had a pretty good idea.
You're better off tracking symptoms -- cervical mucous/position, temperature changes, etc if you really want to know. And if you're fairly regular, I'd wager the calculators would be pretty accurate, because they just average the data you've given them from the past.