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Nausea during ovulation is common experience. Many women during their monthly cycle may, at one point or another, feel vomit-like sensations surfacing.
It can be an unpleasant feeling, we know. But could it reveal something about your health?
Most people are familiar with nausea being a common symptom of pregnancy. But ovulating women too may be inclined to feel nauseous.
Understanding common symptoms during your ovulation will help you plan a pregnancy accurately or even avoid getting pregnant.
Let’s dive right into what nausea during ovulation indicates and whether or not you should be worried.
Ovulation occurs when your ovary releases a mature egg for fertilization. The process occurs 12 – 14 days before your next period. The first day of the period is calculated as the day you start bleeding.
Ovulation was believed to occur during the middle of the cycle.
However, some women have cycles that last as short as 21 days or as long as 35 days. So, in such cycles, ovulation cannot occur midway through the cycle.
For a 21-day cycle, ovulation occurs on day 7 (21 – 14 = 7) and for a 35-day cycle, ovulation occurs on day 21 (35 – 14). Here’s the lowdown on early ovulation and late ovulation.
The time around ovulation – specifically 4 days before ovulation, the day of ovulation, and a day after – is known as your fertile window. This is the best time to try for a baby successfully.
But ovulation doesn’t always come as a lone soldier. Some changes may accompany it, and nausea is one of the dreaded few symptoms.
Some other ovulation symptoms include a change in mucus discharge, light spotting, pain in one side of your abdomen, and a change in your basal body temperature. We’ll get to this a little later in the article.
One of the signs of early pregnancy is nausea and vomiting. Like most other pregnancy-related issues, your hormones are to blame for nausea and vomiting as well.
We very well know that the placenta of a pregnant woman produces a hormone called human chorionic gonadotropin (HCG) after implantation.
Research states that the higher your hCG levels, the more nauseous you become.
You may be wondering why you experience nausea during your ovulation when you aren’t pregnant. The hormones at play through your menstrual cycle cause various symptoms through your cycle.
Pregnancy hormones—progesterone and estrogen—are responsible for the queasy feeling you have just before your period, during your ovulation, and also in the early stages of pregnancy.
Ovulation hormones—estrogen, and luteinizing hormone (LH) work together to ensure that you ovulate. When the level of estrogen increases, it triggers the production of LH which starts your ovulation. Your progesterone levels rise once you have ovulated. Then progesterone and estrogen prepare your body for possible fertilization.
The rapid changes, especially in the levels of estrogen and LH, could be responsible for the nausea you experience during your ovulation.
Other women may feel nausea because of the pain they get from ovulation, also known as mittelschmerz. However this pain is normal and lasts for a short while, between a few hours to days.
If you are on fertility medications, certain anti-inflammatory drugs, or pain-relievers, your chances of feeling nauseous around ovulation may increase.
Feeling nauseous during ovulation is normal. So you can breathe easy! There is generally nothing to worry about and any sensations of light dizziness or sickness you may feel subsides naturally.
Although nausea goes away on its own after some time, won’t it be a lot better if you can make it go away faster? Well, there are antiemetic medications that help subside the sensation of nausea. Before you go for these over-the-counter medicines, it is important to seek a doctor’s consultation.
If you are trying to get pregnant, and feel nauseous while ovulating, it would be best to discuss your medications with your doctor to get the correct prescriptions. Note that oily or hot and spicy food can contribute to the nauseous feeling, so avoiding them can help you.
Not long—that is under normal circumstances. However, if you notice that nausea lingers on for a while, you should visit your doctor. They can help you find out if there is another thing causing you to feel nauseous other than your ovulation.
Asides from nausea, some other symptoms can also show you are ovulating. Although, relying wholly on these symptoms to track your ovulation isn’t such a good idea. Not all women experience all these ovulation symptoms.
Here are some other ovulation symptoms, besides nausea, to keep an eye out for:
Tracking your hormones and testing the levels periodically can help you determine if ovulation has occurred, but what about when it’s over?
Once ovulation ends, your hormones—estrogen and LH—reduce drastically. On the other hand, progesterone begins to increase steadily as it prepares the body for pregnancy, in case conception has been successful.
If you don’t get pregnant then the level of progesterone decreases.
To confirm that you have ovulated, get a test done to confirm the presence of progesterone in your body. You can get the test done approximately 6-8 days after your ovulation day. This is when your progesterone levels peak and elevated levels indicate you have ovulated.
Hormone trackers like Inito are the best way to consistently monitor your progesterone (PdG) levels at home. It will help you to determine if you have successfully ovulated by showing a comprehensive report of your hormones.