Perhaps the most prevalent undiscussed biological phenomenon that women experience is their vaginal fluids. Their natural and healthy secretions are no doubt something that virtually all women occasionally notice on their underwear. Yet because they are not taught what this is, they often assume it is infectious “discharge” needing to be treated or douched away. [...]

This myth is often perpetuated by the most well-meaning friends. But the reason it’s not true is that stress does not delay one’s menstrual period; it can only delay ovulation. Once ovulation has occurred, the woman’s body has already determined when she will menstruate. In other words, the time from ovulation to menstruation varies little [...]

This is one of the most common myths perpetuated by the medical community. In reality, the exact day of ovulation cannot be determined by the basal body temperature. Only about 10% of women even have a drop in basal temperature. And once the temperature has risen, it is virtually certain that the egg is already [...]

This is tricky, because there is potential ambiguity in the phrasing of the assertion. In other words, whether or not a woman can get pregnant during her period depends on the precise question asked. “Can a woman get pregnant during her period?” is quite different from, “Can a woman get pregnant from intercourse during her [...]

This is an especially intriguing myth — that orgasm can lead to spontaneous ovulation. In fact the process that leads to ovulation is the gradual increase of estrogen over a period of several days, not a sudden surge.

Not true! Women are only fertile the few days around ovulation. In fact, a human egg can only survive 12-24 hours after being released from the ovary, and thus the only reason women are considered fertile for longer than 24 hours (or 48 hours in the case of a multiple ovulation) is because sperm can [...]

This is simply not true. Even though the timing of ovulation can vary from cycle to cycle, once a woman ovulates, it is virtually impossible for her to ovulate again until the following cycle. This is because once ovulation occurs, the hormone progesterone will suppresses the release of all other eggs until the following cycle. [...]

While it is true that a human egg is only viable for 12 to 24 hours, a woman can actually get pregnant from an act of intercourse occurring anytime from about five days prior to ovulation to even occasionally two days after, for a total of about seven days. The reason for this is that [...]

Actually, a normal menstrual cycle can vary from about 24-36 days. And not only do cycles vary substantially among women, they often vary within each individual woman. One of the most unfortunate results of this myth is the needless anxiety that it causes women desiring to avoid pregnancy, who are led to believe over and [...]

Probably the most widely held fertility myth is the notion that women always ovulate on Day 14 of their cycle. If this were indeed true, there would be virtually no need for birth control, since couples could simply avoid that one day. And scores of couples desiring a child would simply have intercourse on Day [...]