Understanding Your Cycle
Understanding how your cycle works will help you learn your most fertile times each month and allow you to capitalize on those times. Getting pregnant takes some organizational skill. The average woman has a menstrual cycle that lasts 28 to 32 days. If your cycle is longer or shorter, it doesn't mean you can't get pregnant, but it does mean you need to have a good understanding of your cycle.
Cycle Basics
The menstrual cycle has several distinct phases. The first phase is the follicular phase, when an egg is growing to maturity. This starts on the first day of your period and lasts five to seven days. Around day 14 of the cycle (or 14 days before the start of your next period), ovulation occurs. An egg is released and begins to travel down the fallopian tubes. This part of your cycle is called the luteal phase.
If on this journey a sperm fertilizes the egg, it will travel to the uterus and seek to implant in the wall of the uterus. If the egg is not fertilized, it will disintegrate and be discharged when the lining of the uterus begins to shed, beginning another period.
If your cycle is longer or shorter than average, your ovulation probably won't be on day 14, but instead will be about 14 days before your next period is due.
Women over age 35 take on average between one and two years to get pregnant. That may seem like a long time, but if you carefully track your cycles, maximize your fertile times, and stay positive, you can improve your odds.
Your most fertile period is one to two days before you ovulate (giving the sperm time to make the journey and wait for the egg), during ovulation, and one day afterward. This is actually a fairly small window and can be hard to pinpoint if you don't know when you are ovulating. Because of this, you will probably want to try to track when exactly you are ovulating. There are several methods you can use to do this.
Basal Body Temperature
Your basal body temperature is your temperature taken first thing in the morning, at about the same time every day, before you get up and move around. When you are ovulating, it will rise slightly. To monitor this temperature, buy a digital thermometer and download a graph online (like this PDF) or make your own using graph paper.
Take your temperature each morning and record it. Your preovulation temperature will be around 96 to 98 degrees Fahrenheit. When you ovulate, it should rise .4 to .8 degrees and remain heightened until you get your period. If you are pregnant, it should continue to stay higher.
Your basal body temperature is affected and may appear to rise if you do or experience any of the following:
Have a fever
Drink alcohol the night before
Smoke cigarettes the night before
Toss and turn or don't sleep well
Get up to go to the bathroom before you take it
Have a conversation before you take it
Have intercourse before you take it
The problem with basal body temperature charting is that your temperature does not rise until after you ovulate, and your most fertile period is right before, during, and right after ovulation. However, if you chart it every month, you will begin to get a sense for what day of the month you will most likely ovulate and will be able to predict in advance when it will occur.
To do basal body charting successfully, keep the thermometer, pencil, and chart on your nightstand. Make it a habit that the first thing you do each morning when you open your eyes is to take your temperature. It takes less than a minute, depending on the speed of your thermometer, and can quickly become part of your morning routine.
While you may think that more sex will increase your odds of conceiving, it is actually better to have intercourse about every other day during your fertile period, to allow your partner's sperm reserve to build back up.
Keep these charts, even for months in which you do not conceive, because they can help your doctor understand your cycle and possible problems. If you do conceive, the chart will help pinpoint when exactly it happened.
Cervical Mucous
As eggs mature, they cause more estrogen to be released in the woman's body. Estrogen causes the lining of the uterus to thicken (so that a fertilized egg can implant) and also causes the mucous produced by the cervix to change and become friendlier to sperm. By monitoring the changes in the cervical mucous, you can determine where in your cycle you are.
Home ovulation test kits predict your ovulation one to two days in advance, giving you some advance notice. These tests are considered very accurate and are simple to do. When they are used in conjunction with basal body temperature charts and cervical mucous tests, they can greatly improve your odds of getting pregnant because you will have the most information possible.
Once an egg is about to be or has just been released, cervical mucous becomes clear, slippery, and stretchy, like raw egg whites, and also increases in amount. On nonfertile days, mucous may be white and cloudy, or clear but sticky.
To check your cervical mucous, you can insert a finger into your vagina, remove it, then touch that finger with another to see if the mucous stretches between them. You can also examine the discharged mucous on a piece of toilet paper. You may want to note these changes on your basal body temperature chart so that you can have all your information in one place.
