Fertility

Understanding your fertile window

4 min read · MyBloomingBelly editorial

An egg lives only 12–24 hours after ovulation, but sperm can survive up to five days in fertile cervical mucus. That creates a fertile window of about six days: the five days before ovulation and the day of ovulation itself.

Ovulation usually happens about 14 days before your next period starts — not 14 days after the last one. With a 28-day cycle those coincide, but with a 32-day cycle ovulation is closer to day 18.