Some months I do know when I ovulate by a pain on one side or the other.
Regardless of whether I feel this or not in a given month, I can pretty much identify when I’m ovulating by a couple of factors, the main one being that my sex drive goes through the roof. That’s when the sex dreams kick in, that’s when I start drooling over almost any guy that walks by and so forth.
It makes for a fun week of studying every month, since I study in a room with one wall of windows that looks out into the stacks. I check out every fella that goes by or opens the door. Some day I’ll pounce.
I always know too. Ovulation is actually a little painful for me, I have a jelly-like discharge and my sex drive also goes way up. This happens about 7 days after my period ends. It’s natures cruel joke that when I’m horniest and wettest I’m also the most fertile.
The signs are so pronounced that I haven’t used birth control in about 15 years. When I wanted to get pregnant with my daughter (almost 12 years ago) it happened on the first try.
That said, I would never advocate not using birth control, I just find that it works for me.