Showing posts with label Ovulation. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Ovulation. Show all posts

July 11, 2010

Are You Normal Ovulation?

Normally, one of the ovaries releases a single mature egg every month, and this is called ovulation. Women may notice pain or abdominal discomfort at the time of ovulation and occasionally have some slight vaginal bleeding. The presence of regular periods, premenstrual tension and dysmenorrhoea (period pains) usually indicate that the menstrual cycles are ovulatory.

Eggs are stored in the ovaries in follicles. Follicles exist in two major categories – growing and non-growing ( primordial ). Eggs in the primordial follicle are in a very immature form. In this state they are not capable of being fertilized by a sperm until they undergo a maturing process which culminates in their release from the ovary at the time of ovulation. Egg maturation and ovulation is stimulated by two hormones secreted by the pituitary - follicle stimulating hormone (FSH) and luteinizing hormone (LH) . These two hormones must be produced in appropriate amounts throughout the monthly cycle for normal ovulation to occur. Every month, at the start of the menstrual cycle, in response to the FSH produced by the pituitary gland, about 30-40 primordial follicles start to grow. Of these, only one matures to form a large fluid-filled structure, called a Graafian follicle which contains a mature egg, while the others die ( a process called atresia). The mature egg is released from the follicle when the follicle ruptures in response to a surge of LH produced by the pituitary.

After ovulation has occured, the follicle from which the egg has been released forms a cystic structure called the corpus luteum. This is responsible for progesterone production in the second half of the cycle.

Most women who have regular periods have ovulatory cycles. Women who fail to ovulate or who have abnormal ovulation usually have a disturbance of their menstrual pattern. This may take the form of complete lack of periods (amenorrhoea), irregular or delayed periods (oligomenorrhoea) or occasionally a shortened cycle due to a defect in the second part (luteal phase) of the cycle.

June 27, 2010

Understanding Your Menstruation

Understanding of menstruation is very important to you. Because it can be the size you specify prediction days before menstrual periods and PMS. Adequate preparation will be able to help you be a period filled with emotion PMS unstable.

Menstrual Cycle Women Are Same?
Although the average about 28 days, but there is also a 24 day, 30 days, or even 35 days. Irregular cycles are also common in women newly menstruating. Your body needs time to adjust to new habits. A practical example, the menstrual cycle is 28 days during three months, but a sudden change in the next month, or may not menstruate for a month. But you do not need is concerned, because after several years, this cycle will be more regular.

How to Calculate Menstrual Cycle?
Woman's menstrual cycle is calculated starting from the first day of menstruation (bleeding through the vagina), until the first menstruation in the next month. So, if a girl has a menstrual dated May 2, then the next menstruation is due on May 31, the woman's menstrual cycle lasts for 31 minus 2, ie 29 days. To more easily, make it a habit to give each mark on the calendar on the first day of menstruation, per month.

What Exit Through Menstruation?
During menstruation, blood, and layers formed on the uterine wall to flow out through the vagina, including egg cells that die because it is not fertilized by sperm. Length of menstruation is different on each woman. There are only two or three days, or there are up to 8 days. During still under 15 days, were normal. Number of liquid waste also differ from one girl to another girl. Even though you're shocked to see a lot of blood came out, but actually it does not make you fair and anemia (blood deficiency).

On the last day of menstruation, your body began to release a hormone which ordered the uterus to receive a new egg from the ovary. Uterus will prepare themselves with re-thicken the walls with blood and other nutrients required by cells in order to develop eggs. This process lasted up to day 14 (remember, day-to-1 is the first day of your menstrual period). Right in the middle of the cycle (if we cycle 30 days, meaning the day-to-15), at the onset of ovulation. Ovulation is the release of eggs from the ovary to the uterus through the fallopian tube channel. Over the next few days (usually up to day 21), the egg will travel to the uterus, while waiting fertilized by sperm. When this is known as the fertile period.

June 18, 2010

Three Phase Ovulation

Prerequisite events
Through a process that takes approximately 375 days, or thirteen menstrual cycles, a large group of undeveloped primordial follicles dormant in the ovary is grown and progressively weaned into one preovulatory follicle. Histologically, the preovulatory follicle (also called a mature Graffian follicle or mature tertiary follicle) contains an oocyte arrested in prophase of meiosis I surrounded by a layer corona radiata granulosa cells, a layer of mural granulosa cells, a protective basal lamina, and a network of blood-carrying capillary vessels sandwiched between a layer of theca interna and theca externa cells. A large sac of fluid called the antrum predominates in the follicle. A "bridge" of cumulus oophorous granulosa cells (or simply cumulus cells) connects the corona-ovum complex to the mural granulosa cells.

Simply stated, the granulosa cells engage in bidirectional messenging with the theca cells and the oocyte to facilitate follicular function. Research is elucidating the specific factors used in follicular messenging at a rapid pace, but such discussion is beyond the scope of this article.

By the action of luteinizing hormone (LH), the preovulatory follicle's theca cells secrete androstenedione that is aromatized by mural granulosa cells into estradiol, a type of estrogen. High levels of estrogen have a stimulatory effect on hypothalamus gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) that in turn stimulates the expression of pituitary LH and follicle stimulating hormone (FSH).

The building concentrations of LH and FSH marks the beginning of the periovulatory phase.

Periovulatory phase
For ovulation to be successful, the ovum must be supported by both the corona radiata and cumulus oophorous granulosa cells. The latter undergo a period of proliferation and mucification known as cumulus expansion. Mucification refers to the secretion of a hyaluronic acid-rich cocktail that disperses and suspends the cumulus cell network in a sticky matrix around the ovum. This network stays with the ovum after ovulation and have been shown to be necessary for fertilization.

An increase in cumulus cell number causes a concomitant increase in antrum fluid volume that can swell the follicle to over 20mm in diameter. It forms a pronounced bulge at the surface of the ovary called the blister.


Ovulatory phase
Through a signal transduction cascade kicked off by LH, proteolytic enzymes are secreted by the follicle that degrade the follicular tissue at the site of the blister, forming a hole called the stigma. The ovum-cumulus complex leaves the ruptured follicle and out into the peritoneal cavity through the stigma, where it is caught by the fimbriae at the end of the fallopian tube (also called the oviduct). After entering the oviduct, the ovum-cumulus complex is pushed along by cilia, beginning its journey toward the uterus.

By this time, the oocyte has completed meiosis I, yielding two cells: the larger secondary oocyte that contains all of the cytoplasmic material and a smaller, inactive first polar body. Meiosis II follows at once but will be arrested in the metaphase and will so remain until fertilization. The spindle apparatus of the second meiotic division appears at the time of ovulation If no fertilization occurs, the oocyte will degenerate approximately twenty-four hours after ovulation

The mucous membrane of the uterus, termed the functionalis, has reached its maximum size, and so have the endometrial glands, although they are still non-secretory.


Postovulatory phase
The follicle proper has met the end of its lifespan. Without the ovum, the follicle folds inward on itself, transforming into the corpus luteum (pl. corpus lutea), a steriodogenic cluster of cells that produces estrogen and progesterone. These hormones induce the endometrial glands to begin production of the proliferative endometrium, the site of embryonic growth if fertilization occurs. The corpus luteum continues this paracrine action for the remainder of the menstrual cycle, maintaining the endometrium, before disintegrating into scar tissue during menses.

Look Your Ovulation

In humans, the period when ovulation occurs is called the ovulatory phase, and it occupies the fourteenth day of an idealized twenty-eight day menstrual cycle. Because of the variable nature of the menstrual cycle in vivo, however, normal ovulation can occur as early as day 8 or as late as day 20 and beyond. A woman with a particularly short cycle will ovulate earlier while a woman with a long cycle will ovulate later. In humans, concealed ovulation means that the female shows few visible signs of being fertile, compared to most species.(disputed — see talk page) There are evolutionary analyses of how this could evolve in terms of evolutionary game theory.

Before ovulation, the ovarian follicle will undergo a series of transformations that are necessary for the ovum to survive afterwards. This process is called cumulus expansion. After this is done, a hole called the stigma will form in the follicle, and the ovum will leave the follicle through this hole. It will then enter the fallopian tubes and travel toward the uterus, implanting there if fertilized or degrading after 24 hours if not.

The ovulatory phase is preceded by the follicular phase, where a immature follicle-encased ovum completes growing, and followed by the luteal phase, where the uterus is prepared to receive the fertilized ovum. The complete process of follicle growth leading up to ovulation is known as folliculogenesis.

Scientific investigations have indicated that the olfactory acuity or the sense of smell is greatest during ovulation in women.

Strictly defined, the ovulatory phase spans the period of hormonal elevation in the menstrual cycle. The process requires a maximum of thirty-six hours to complete, and it is arbitrarily separated into three phases: periovulatory, ovulatory, and postovulatory.

To more clearly read here

Luteal Phase

The corpus luteum is the solid body formed in the ovaries after the egg has been released from the fallopian tube which continues to grow and divide for a while. After ovulation, the residual follicle transforms into the corpus luteum under the support of the pituitary hormones. This corpus luteum will produce progesterone in addition to estrogens for approximately the next 2 weeks. Progesterone plays a vital role in converting the proliferative endometrium into a secretory lining receptive for implantation and supportive of the early pregnancy. It raises the body temperature by half- to one degree Fahrenheit (one-quarter to one-half degree Celsius), thus women who record their temperature on a daily basis will notice that they have entered the luteal phase. If fertilisation of an egg has occurred, it will travel as an early embryo through the tube to the uterine cavity and implant itself 6 to 12 days after ovulation. Shortly after implantation, the growing embryo will signal its existence to the maternal system. One very early signal consists of human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG), a hormone that pregnancy tests can measure. This signal has an important role in maintaining the corpus luteum and enabling it to continue to produce progesterone. In the absence of a pregnancy and without hCG, the corpus luteum demises and inhibin and progesterone levels fall. This will set the stage for the next cycle. Progesterone withdrawal leads to menstrual shedding (progesterone withdrawal bleeding), and falling inhibin levels allow FSH levels to rise to raise a new crop of follicles.

Ovulation Phases

This ovary is about to release an egg. When the follicle has matured, it secretes enough estradiol to trigger the acute release of luteinizing hormone (LH). In the average cycle this LH surge starts around cycle day 12 and may last 48 hours. The release of LH matures the egg and weakens the wall of the follicle in the ovary. This process leads to ovulation: the release of the now mature ovum, the largest cell of the body (with a diameter of about 0.5 mm). Which of the two ovaries — left or right — ovulates appears essentially random; no known left/right co-ordination exists. The Fallopian tube needs to capture the egg and provide the site for fertilisation. A characteristic clear and stringy mucus exhibiting spinnbarkeit develops at the cervix, ready to accept sperm from intercourse. In some women, ovulation features a characteristic pain called Mittelschmerz which lasts for several hours. The sudden change in hormones at the time of ovulation also causes light mid-cycle bleeding for some women. Many women perceive the vaginal and cervical mucus changes at ovulation, particularly if they are monitoring themselves for signs of fertility. An unfertilised egg will eventually disintegrate or dissolve in the uterus. Scientific investigations have indicated that the olfactory acuity or the sense of smell is greatest during ovulation in women.

See also Ovulation Days

Ovulation Day and Formula?

A menstrual cycle includes certain days when the probability of conception is the highest - it is several days before ovulation and also one or two days after ovulation. The highest probability of conception is on the ovulation day.

A woman who wants to get pregnant should know her ovulation day and it will help her get prepared for conception better. Otherwise, if a woman does not want to get pregnant, knowing her ovulation day will help her prevent an unwanted pregnancy.

Most women do not know their ovulation day (luteal phase length) and this may result in the situation when a woman wants to get pregnant, but cannot do it for years. Naturally, it makes her undergo an expensive examination in a specialized clinic. Actually, the problem in most cases is that intercourse most often took place on days when no conception is virtually possible because she did not know her ovulation day.

The simplest way to calculate your ovulation day is to use the following formula: "the last day of your menstrual cycle" minus 14 days. It will be your ovulation day and this method is called the calendar method. Unfortunately, the calendar method does not allow you to get a result that is precise enough: the organism of each woman is individual so the length of the menstrual cycle and also the ovulation day may differ from the most widespread values. Besides, the length of some women's menstrual cycles sometimes changes (it is called an irregular menstrual cycle).

There are also other, more precise methods for calculating the ovulation day, for example, by the basal body temperature (BBT), by cervical mucus, by a blood test for progesterone, etc. Our program allows you to keep track of the maximum number of various methods (you can use only some of them) and it allows the program to calculate your ovulation day most precisely.