Signs Ovulation Is Over: Post ovulation Symptoms for Every Woman

I got an email recently from one of my readers asking what are the signs ovulation is over. She was worried because she has had two abortions in the past six months.

She is 23 years old, single, and has a history of regular unprotected sexual intercourse. She is not on any known contraceptive, and she rarely uses a condom.

Here’s the truth. There is no better way to prevent pregnancy than using one of the reliable contraceptive methods (like condoms, pills, implant, IUD, injection, etc.). Nevertheless, if you can understand the timing of ovulation, it is easier to know when your ovulation period is over.

In other words, if you can correctly identify that ovulation has already passed, the chance of getting pregnant from sex after that point is very low. However, this is not 100% reliable as birth control, because it is easy to miscalculate your cycle or misread your body signs. If you really want to avoid pregnancy, it is safer to use a proven contraceptive method alongside any fertility-awareness tracking.

Then again, for women trying to conceive, the post-ovulation period is very important. If you can understand the common post-ovulation signs, you may quickly suspect that you are pregnant even before your next period arrives (though only a pregnancy test can confirm it).

This post explains in detail signs of the ovulation period and signs that show you are past your ovulation.

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What is ovulation?

To understand your post-ovulation symptoms, it is important you know what ovulation is all about.

Ovulation can be defined as the release of an egg from a burst mature follicle into the fallopian tube. This happens naturally in most women. In fact, if you get a regular menstrual period, it is likely that you ovulate in most of your cycles. Cleveland Clinic

Now, it is quite difficult to tell exactly when you will ovulate because no two women are the same. This means, while it is easy to predict ovulation for some women, it might be difficult to tell when others will ovulate.

One easy way to understand your ovulation period is to chart your menstrual cycle for a while. That is, over the span of three to six months, you chart the length of your menstrual cycle.

Your menstrual cycle is the number of days between 2 of your periods. More specifically, it is counted from the first day of bleeding of one period to the day before the next period starts.

For instance, if your period started on the first of April and then showed up on the 29th of April, you have a 28-day menstrual cycle.

But menstrual cycle length can vary from time to time. That is, some months you may have a slightly shorter or longer cycle. This happens because of the alteration of hormones in your body affected by external factors like stress, physical illness, sleepless nights, and so many other factors. Johns Hopkins Medicine

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When is your ovulation period?

If you’ve successfully identified the length of your menstrual cycle, you can also get a rough idea of when you will ovulate.

Your ovulation period is not just the single day you ovulate but the days in your menstrual cycle when you have a chance to get pregnant.

This period is also described as the fertile window and is about 5 or 6 days within your menstrual cycle. These are the days when sperm and egg are most likely to meet. New England Journal of Medicine+1

But here’s the thing. It is quite difficult to tell the exact day your next ovulation will take place without careful tracking or using tools like ovulation predictor kits.

However, if you’ve identified your menstrual cycle length and your menstrual cycle is regular, you can estimate when your next ovulation will occur.

In a regular 28-day menstrual cycle, you are likely to ovulate somewhere around day 14. But that’s not your whole ovulation period. In this kind of cycle, your fertile window is usually about day 9 to day 14 or 15.

Your ovulation period or fertile window is roughly 5 days before ovulation and the day ovulation occurs. Some experts also include the day just after ovulation. This timeline results from the lifespan of a male’s sperm and a female’s ovum. ACOG+1

Sperm can live about 5 days in the female genital tract. However, the female egg released during ovulation only lasts about 12–24 hours.

This means you can get pregnant if you have intercourse during this period, even if you don’t have sex exactly on the day of ovulation.

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Signs of ovulation period

If the above calculations are really a concern, there are other ways to tell if you are in your ovulation period. Here are some signs to watch out for.

1. Your vaginal discharge

You can tell if you are about to ovulate or ovulating just by examining your vaginal discharge for its texture, consistency, and color.

It is quite an easy technique to know your fertile period. What you need is an experienced eye to identify what ovulation discharge looks like.

First of all, wash your hands with soap and water, then get a sample of your discharge with your fingers.

Ovulation discharge is usually non-smelly, clear to whitish, egg-like, somewhat watery during ovulation, and stretchy (like raw egg white).

If you get this type of discharge, it means you are likely in your fertile window and you can easily get pregnant if you have unprotected sex around this time.

Having said that, the color of ovulation discharge may vary. If you experience a small gush of blood during ovulation it is possible for your discharge to look reddish, pinkish or yellowish.

This is not usually common. But if your discharge looks brownish or pinkish and slimy around the middle of your cycle, that can be a sign that you are ovulating or have just ovulated (ovulation spotting).

Important: If your discharge has a bad smell, causes itching, burning, or pain, that is not normal ovulation discharge. It may be an infection, and you should see a doctor or clinic for testing and treatment.

2. Ovulation timing

Another way to tell you are in your ovulation period is the timing of your cycle.

If you have a very regular menstrual cycle, your fertile days often fall somewhere in the middle of the cycle, starting a few days after your period ends. However, this varies a lot from woman to woman, and even in the same woman from month to month.

Most ladies have normal menstruation that spans about 3–7 days. Some people try to simply “count days” – for example, waiting a few days after the end of the period and then assuming the next 5–6 days are fertile.

For instance, if I were to be a lady (which I’m not) and my period started on the 1st of April and ended on the 5th of April, I might count another 4 days to the 9th of April, and then assume that time is likely to be in my fertile window.

This kind of simple counting can help you understand your cycle, but by itself it is not a reliable way to prevent pregnancy or to be sure when you are fertile. Ovulation can shift earlier or later, especially if you are stressed, unwell, or your cycles are not always the same length. nhs.uk+1

If you want to use fertility-awareness or natural family planning for birth control, you should be properly taught how to combine several methods (cycle length, cervical mucus, and basal body temperature) and be aware that it is less effective than other contraceptives. ACOG+1

There are other signs that show you are already in your fertile period. This guide explains all in details.

Some women also use ovulation predictor kits (urine tests that detect the LH surge) or mobile apps to help estimate their fertile window. These tools can be helpful, especially when combined with cervical mucus and temperature tracking, but they are not perfect.

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Signs ovulation is over

There are numerous signs you can detect on your own that show you are past your ovulation period. Here are a few:

1. Your vaginal discharge

Your discharge is an easy way to tell that you are already past your ovulation period. As previously mentioned, you only need to get a sample and examine what it looks like.

During your ovulation period, you should have a watery discharge that looks thread-like and feels slippery. This type of discharge happens because of a spike of estrogen in the first part of the menstrual cycle.

Just after ovulation, there is a rise in the progesterone hormone. This hormone often changes your discharge to a creamy, sticky, or thick discharge. In some cases, you will experience vaginal dryness during this period.

I’ve written a comprehensive guide on what vaginal discharge looks like after ovulation. You can check it out.

2. Breast pain

It is not abnormal to feel pain in both breasts during your menstrual cycle. Menstrual breast pain is cyclical and can occur during your ovulation and post-ovulation periods.

Having said that, most women complain of pain in their breast after the end of ovulation. This also happens because of the effect of progesterone.

Post-ovulation breast pain usually happens at the peak of the progesterone hormone. This spike happens between 7 to 10 days before your next period.

So, if you get this type of pain with an increase in breast size, ovulation is over, and your body is now preparing for your next period (or, in some cycles, an early pregnancy).

3. Your cervix position

The position of your cervix after ovulation is another sign ovulation is over. During ovulation, you will notice your cervix “disappears” or you may find that it is located high up in your vaginal canal, feels soft, and the opening is slightly more open.

After ovulation ends, the cervix usually feels a little more hard (firm) and low in the vagina, and the opening closes again.

Checking your cervix position is optional and takes practice. If you do it, make sure your hands are clean to reduce the risk of infection.

4. Basal body temperature (BBT)

Another way to know if you’ve ovulated is by regularly checking your basal body temperature. Your basal temperature simply means the temperature of your body before any activity.

In other words, your body temperature just after sleep before embarking on your daily activities or getting up from the bed.

To check your basal temperature, you will need a very sensitive (digital) thermometer. Thermometers are instruments used to check body temperature.

Now, to simply identify your post-ovulation period, you must check every morning and record it on a chart for at least three months.

Normal basal body temperature may vary among individuals but, for many women, it often falls somewhere around 97–98°F (36–37°C) before ovulation.

Just after ovulation occurs, there is usually a small rise in basal body temperature of about 0.5°F (about 0.3°C) or slightly more, and this higher level stays up until your period comes. NCBI

If you see this sustained upward shift in your BBT chart in the middle of your menstrual cycle, it means you have already ovulated. After this point, it is very unlikely you will get pregnant from sex that happens later in that same cycle — as long as ovulation really has already occurred. Remember though, temperature charting tells you ovulation after it has happened, and it must be done carefully to be useful.

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