SIMPLE CHEMICAL METHOD FOR THE DETERMINATION OF OVULATION TIME IN WOMEN

The method here proposed for determining ovulation time requires that urine samples be collected nightly between 11 p. m. and 7 a. m. for from five to seven successive nights, beginning with the sixth or seventh day after midnight of the day the first menstrual bleeding occurs. The samples are tested by a special reagent for the presence of chemical substances as yet not fully identified; they give a blue color suitable for colorimetry. The color-yielding substance is a component of a complex containing a derivative of folic acid. Graphing the intensity of the color day by day yields a curve with a characteristic peak; the terminal low value, if it is on either the fifth or sixth day of the pattern, represents the day of ovulation. This hypothesis was tested by applying it to 227 cycles in which conception occurred by isolated coitus or husband or donor insemination. Among a total of 227 pregnancies there were 125 normal conceptions with full-term deliveries resulting from homologous or donor inseminations that afforded a basis for quantitative description of the ovulation pattern.