Ovulation is thee most important part of the whole menstrual cycle. And not just because we need to ovulate in order to make a baby, but according to Dr. Lara Briden, the Period Revolutionary, “each and every ovulation is like a monthly deposit into the bank account of long-term health”.

Benefits of Ovulation

Insulin sensitivity

Muscle gain

Long-term health of our bones and brain

Reduced inflammation

Long-term health of the cardiovascular system

Better immune function

Enhanced thyroid support

Breast tissue support

Decreased risk of stroke and dementia

Decrease risk of breast cancer

OVULATION IS THE MAIN EVENT OF THE MENSTRUAL CYCLE

So if you're not ovulating, you're missing out on health benefits that extend far beyond your child-bearing years.

It is so important to have strong ovulation, because strong ovulation ensures that we have adequate progesterone production during our luteal phase. I wrote a post about called Powerful Progesterone, make sure you check it out! 

Progesterone is beneficial not only for maintaining a pregnancy in the event conception happens, but for pretty much every single organ system in your body. Every cell in your body has progesterone receptor sites on the surface.

OVULATION IS THE ONLY WAY WE MAKE PROGESTERONE

So. Without further ado, here's the skinny on ovulation!

Ovulation 101

When you ovulate, approximately 11-14 days after the egg is released, you will experience a period.

Most women have heard the expression “my period is late”. This is true in the case of pregnancy. But if you are not pregnant and your period is late, the more accurate statement is “ovulation is late.” Because your period will always come 11-14 days after you ovulate. If your period is “late”, and you are not pregnant, then that means that ovulation was delayed or did not happen.

Every time we ovulate, the emptied egg sac from where your ovum just popped out, becomes what's known as the corpus luteum. The corpus luteum is this incredible structure that literally becomes a full blown endocrine gland FROM ABSOLUTELY NOTHING in the span of ONE FREAKING DAY. ONE DAY, PEOPLE. Can you even??!!

Dr. Sarah Robertson states that "there isn’t anywhere else in the body where you have to develop a tissue from scratch in such a short period of time and get a blood supply in so fast."

It then proceeds to pump out lots and lots of progesterone. It's not just enough to ovulate. We have to be ovulating WELL.

Ovulating "well" means making enough progesterone to last the whole luteal phase (11-14 days). This requires a robust corpus luteum, which requires nourished ovarian cells that have an abundant supply of bioavailable protein, adequate carbohydrates, nutrient rich fats that provide us with pre-formed vitamins A, D, E &K. But we also need vitamin C, B vitamins, magnesium, potassium, sodium, zinc, copper, selenium, and other trace minerals.

Supporting the rapid growth of the corpus luteum requires not only energy, but as you can see, tons of vitamins and minerals, which we get from our food.

Ovulation suffers when the body is under stress, when it's depleted, when we are burned out, when we aren't eating nutrient dense foods, when we aren't eating ENOUGH nutrient dense foods, and when we aren't prioritizing our health. And allllll of this leads to tanked progesterone levels.

So how do we support the corpus luteum? How do we support strong ovulation? 

Well let's dive into it, shall we?!

Support Your Ovulation

NUTRIENT DENSE FOODS

By providing the body with an abundance of nutrient dense foods from the right sources on a consistent basis. This includes nutrients from food sources such as: meats, seafood, organ meats, broths, dairy, fruits, easy to digest veggies like roots and squashes, properly prepared grains, and nutrient dense sugars. Switch up the foods you eat, try new things, get out of your comfort zone, eat a variety (there are SO many amazingly delicious and unbelievably nourishing foods out there), and for the love of all that is good and pure -- stop eating garbage. If it has ingredients in it that you can't pronounce, PUT.IT.TF.DOWN. Most packaged food is NOT nutrient dense, dead non-food that was designed to spend the next year on a shelf and not decay, and it is NOT helping you build a healthy body. Put down the poison. Just do it.

BALANCING BLOOD SUGAR

We balance our blood sugar by eating a meals that have a healthy balance of protein, fats and carbohydrates. This means eating every meal, every single day. This means not skipping meals. This means not cutting out one of these important macronutrient groups when you sit down to eat (a piece of jerky on the go is not a meal, neither is a cup of coffee, neither is a hard boiled egg with a pinch of salt). This means not eating pro-inflammatory foods laden with PUFAs and chemicals and stuff you can't pronounce. This means eating enough to truly nourish yourself and your cells. This means eating every 3-4 hours. Balancing your blood sugar is so so SO important, and that's why I harp on it all the time to the point of inducing nausea. If your blood sugar is not balanced, you cannot have hormonal balance, and you cannot have healthy ovulation.

MANAGING OUR STRESS

If we live in a state of unrelenting, unabating stress, we simply cannot heal. The body does not heal when it is perpetually in fight or flight. The body does not heal when it is bathing in stress hormones like cortisol, adrenaline and norepinephrine all day every day. It doesn't heal when we are digesting our tissues because we are under-fueled and running on stress hormones for fuel. Even if there is no direct threat, if the body perceives that it is in danger, it will create an internal environment that is directed by fear and danger. By becoming aware of our internal and external stressors, we can then take steps to reduce them and cope in productive ways. Things like sleep, rest, play, movement, meditation, sunlight, exercise, fun, relationships, laughing, emotional outlets, all of these things help us to get a handle on our stress levels and actually move into a place where we are safe to heal.

REDUCING TOXIC EXPOSURE

Toxins are everywhere in our environment. The onslaught of chemicals and toxins and EMFs (electromagnetic frequencies) is at an all time high, and sad story -- it will only get worse. It's unprecedented, the amount of toxic garbage our human bodies are forced to deal with. So we HAVE to reduce our toxic exposure where we can. Too many circulating toxins burden our liver, clog up our pathways of elimination, and muck with our delicate endocrine systems -- aka our HORMONES. Do you think you are going to ovulate regularly or ovulate well if your body is busy tying up it's reserves in eliminating heavy metals and petrochemicals and poisonous organophosphate pesticides? Up above we talked about what an energy and nutrient intensive process it is to ovulate and grow your corpus luteum from thin air, but you know what also takes a ton of energy and nutrients? Eliminating toxins. And mitigating the effects of said toxins so that they don't poison you. Reduce your toxic exposure by: eating organic produce, swapping out your beauty care products for cleaner options (read my previous blog post about chemicals in your makeup), drink filtered water, do coffee enemas, take TRS to safely remove heavy metals, and enhance your body's natural pathways of elimination every single day. Read my post here about ways to detoxify daily.

LIVING IN ALIGNMENT WITH OUR MENSTRUAL CYCLES

One of the most amazing things about being a woman is our hormones. They make it possible to experience our divine, feminine flow of energy and rhythm, all throughout the month. They make it so that we have access to so much incredible power that alchemizes and transforms the world. They make it so that we can grow an endocrine gland from thin air in a matter of hours. They make it so that we can grow a full on freaking HUMAN in less than a year. They make it so that we can step into our fullest expression, our great joys, our creativity, our life force sexuality, and have the best possible experience in our bodies in this life time. And the best way to cultivate this divine, feminine energy is to marry your life with your menstrual cycle. Do your outgoing, energizing things in the first half of your cycle, and go inward, nest, and dream in the second half. Do new things and try new hobbies during your follicular and ovulatory phases, and evaluate and self-reflect in the luteal and menstrual phases. When we align with our menstrual cycle, we support the body fully, which positively impacts our ovulation. If we are expending too much energy and spreading ourselves too thin in the luteal and menstrual phases, we start out our new cycle depleted, un-revitalized, and stressed. This does not pave the way for awesome ovulation. We get to do everything we want in life, just not all at once. But being a cycling woman allows us to do all the things that we desire, effortlessly, naturally, and magnetically. Doesn't this just make you SO FREAKING EXCITED to be a woman?! This just makes me want to fall in love with my body all over again! For more information on menstrual cycle alignment, read this blog post.

Now that you understand the importance of ovulation, how it's not just for the trying to conceive mamas out there but an absolutely essential part of your biochemistry and long-term health as a woman, and now that you have all kinds of practical tips to implement to ensure that you experience robust, strong, regular ovulation, go get out there and prioritize your ovulation!!

What other tips do you have to ensure regular/strong ovulation? Tell me below!

Yours In Abundant Health

xoxo,

Emily 😊