Illustration by Emma Günther
Can tracking ovulation pain help you conceive?
A quick look at what it is and what it has to do with trying to become pregnant.
This article is part of an exclusive content series available in Clue Plus when using Clue Conceive mode. Clue Conceive provides personalized predictions for fertile days that can help you time sex or home insemination to conceive faster, based on clinically-tested technology. Find out more here.
Clue’s research shows that one in three people with cycles regularly track ovulation pain, or mittelschmerz. Other research shows that more than 40% of people experience it (1).
The exact cause of ovulation pain is not known. It most likely happens when luteinizing hormone (LH) causes muscles in or near the ovary to tighten as LH increases suddenly 24 to 36 hours before ovulation (1-3).
Some people may only feel a dull ache for a couple of hours; others may feel a severe, stabbing pain that may last longer and be more draining (1).
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If you don’t feel ovulation pain each month, it doesn’t mean that there’s a problem or that you’re not in tune with your body. Most people don’t experience ovulation pain at all, and those that do often don’t feel it every cycle (1,4).
Since ovulation pain most likely occurs soon before ovulation happens, using it as a way to time sex with ovulation when trying to conceive could be helpful for some. It is not recommended as the only method, because many people do not feel it, and those who do may not feel it every month. Relying on just ovulation pain to time sex or insemination hasn’t really been studied and likely isn’t very efficient (1,2).
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