How often are your overwhelmed by the many gadgets and gizmos that help track various biomarkers (temp, LH, estrogen, progesterone, OH MY!)?
If you are tracking your cycle using a fertility awareness based method, yay for you! You may be noticing patterns of ovulation.
How can you confirm that ovulation actually happened, or that your progesterone levels are adequate?
While blood tests, ultrasound and other medical tests can confirm ovulation, these require provider orders and can be costly.
There are a few ways you can confirm ovulation, and two can be done easily at home:
Basal Body Temperature monitoring:
Your body’s resting temperature rises slightly during the luteal phase (the second half) of your menstrual cycle. Carefully tracking your BBT with a basal body thermometer will help you know that ovulation occurred when you see a “temperature shift” to a higher resting core temp during the luteal phase.
PdG Urine Test Strips:
PdG, or Pregnanediol Glucuronide, is the urine metabolite of progesterone. Once progesterone has circulated through the blood, it is metabolized and released as PdG in urine. Studies have shown that PdG correlates to progesterone levels in blood. Tracking PdG is a non-invasive and convenient way to confirm ovulation (shoutout to @proovtest 🙌🏻)
We like using Proov strips for this since they are affordable and FDA approved.
Monitoring ovulation and achieving optimal hormone balance doesn’t need to be cost prohibitive.
Have you used either of these strategies? Comment below!
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