If you are trying to conceive, you need to have a healthy ovulation.
The Ovulation is the fertile phase of your menstrual cycle. It’s the process of the female body releases a mature egg (sometimes there is more than one) from the ovaries and swept down the Fallopian tube.
It usually occurs about 14 days before the end of the cycle. If you have a 25 days cycle, you will likely ovulate on day 11 (25-14=11), and if you have a 35 days cycle, ovulation most likely happens on day 21 (35-14=21).
However, there are different good suggestions may help to promote a healthy ovulation.
1. Does moderate exercises: moderate exercise may help ensure suitable production of estrogen and progesterone, helping to get healthy ovulation. Exercising may reduce stress levels for encouraging healthy ovulation.
Losing weight through exercises to help reducing excessive estrogen production may increase your odds of getting pregnant. The good exercises may be walking, jogging, skipping, yoga and pilates.
TCM point of view: Exercises is the key component in Chinese Herbal Medicine, the regular and moderate exercises may help the free flow of energy in the body. Promoting the energy and blood flow to the ovaries for a better ovulation.
2. Avoid Over-Work: Nowadays most of the women work long hours and may always rushing around from the work and family. If your work schedule or lifestyle leads to frequent late nights with early wake-up, the constant lack of sleep may affect your body.
Over-worked women may lose female estrogen hormones (vital for ovulation) and gaining androgens (affecting ovulation).
Please try to adjust day-life, avoid night shift work, prevent to stay up late when you are preparing for pregnancy.
TCM point of view: Over-work may consume too much energy and blood, this may lead to malnourishment of the eggs and delay ovulation.
3. Relieve Stress: The hypothalamus regulates the pituitary, the pituitary communicates with the ovaries by sending hormones through the bloodstream, this causes the egg to mature and release the eggs. However, when a woman is stressful, it may affect the functioning of the hypothalamus and may delay the ovulation or prevent ovulation.
For example, if you thinking you may ovulation around day 14 as usual, and then only try to conceive around day 14, it means you may miss the chance to get pregnant for this cycle.
TCM point of view: In Chinese medicine, Liver channel travels down the Fallopian tubes and near the ovary. The liver also governs emotion. If women get too stressful, anxious or depressed, then it may block the circulation for liver energy, then causing delay or stop ovulation. Acupuncture treatment may help with reducing stress and calm down the mind.
4. Avoid sexual activity during the period: Sexual activity during the period may stimulate the body to create anti-sperm antibody; and may also causing pelvic infection and endometriosis and these may affect the quality of the eggs.
TCM point of view: During the period, the blood and energy naturally move downwards. But with sexual activity, the energy moves upwards, this will cause two opposing moments clash and cause stagnation of energy and blood in the uterus. And blood stasis may lead to amenorrhea (smayty or no period), dysmenorrhea (painful period), menorrhagia (heavy and prolonged period).
Reference:
Benqi Teng et al. (2017) Successful Pregnancy after Treatment with Chinese Herbal Medicine in a 43-Year-Old Woman with Diminished Ovarian Reserve and Multiple Uterus Fibrosis: A Case Report. Medicines (Basel), 2017. Retrieve from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/