ovulation may not switch from side to side. we have been led to believe that the ovaries “take turns” for the releasing of an egg. it was not until two french researchers studied 80 fertile women with ultrasounds and hormone levels that it was documented which ovary ovulated (ecochard & gougeon 2000). in the initial cycle about 52% of women ovulated from the right ovary while 48% ovulated from the left. in succeeding cycles ovulations alternated to the other side about 51% of the time. that means that one has only a 50-50 chance of releasing an egg from the opposite ovary as the month before. ecochard and gougeon also measured levels of ovarian hormones in urine to see if the side of ovulation influenced hormone production — it did not. this finding was confirmed by british scientists (ojha 2003) who followed 19 women for three consecutive cycles. moreover blood flow studies of these 19 women showed no influence from side of ovulation in blood flow within each ovary. the inference of ecochard and gougeon was straightforward. they wrote “it is concluded that in normally fertile women the cycle length and hormonal profile are independent of the most probably random site of ovulation. ”
does ovulation always rotate from one ovary to the other?