Finding Your Fertile Days to Conceive With 5 Simple Steps

Deciding to start a family can be an extremely exciting time in the life of a young woman, but disappointment can hit hard when those pregnancy tests keep showing negative results. There are many factors in achieving pregnancy, but one of the most essential factors is having intercourse on the days a woman is ovulating. Determining ovulation can be accomplished with five simple keys that will unlock the door to finding your fertile days to conceive.

Step #1 - Understand Ovulation

Ovulation is the period of time during a woman's menstrual cycle when an egg is released from the one of the ovaries into one of the fallopian tubes. After the egg enters the fallopian tube, there is a 24-hour time period during which it can be fertilized by sperm. Because sperm can live for four days, intercourse can happen a day prior to or a day after the egg is released and pregnancy can still occur. Knowing the approximate days that the egg is viable for fertilization is important because it is on those days that intercourse is essential for conception.

Step #2 - Know Your Body

Many women feel slight discomfort when they are ovulating and that discomfort can be a relatively accurate way of determining ovulation. Women describe the discomfort as a slightly bloated or pressured sensation on either side of the pelvic area. If you regularly sense ovulation, you can schedule intercourse just by knowing your body.

Step #3 - Watch the Calendar

It is extremely important that a woman have a good grasp on her menstrual cycles. A woman with regular periods is going to have a much easier time determining ovulation days than a woman with irregular periods. If your cycles are 28 days, then you can be fairly certain that you'll be ovulating somewhere between 10 and 14 days after the start of your period. If you have irregular periods, you can try to regulate them by getting to a healthy weight and diminishing stress. Being overweight or underweight can cause significant irregularities in menstrual cycles. Overly strenuous exercise and stress can also produce erratic cycles. If you are at a healthy body weight with normal exercise and a stress-free life but you still have irregular cycles, you may need to start doing some tracking.

Step #4 - Take Your Temperature

Basal body temperature increases slightly during ovulation. Training yourself to take your temperature as soon as you wake in the morning is even more accurate way of determining fertile days. Temperatures for this purpose are most accurately tracked using a basal thermometer. When your temperature rises, you'll know an egg is ready to be fertilized.

Step #5 - Do Some Mucus Tracking

If you are a woman with irregular periods and temperature tracking isn't working, you may need to resort to evaluating the mucus in your cervix. During ovulation, the cervical mucus changes in consistency so that it is more clear and stretchy than during the non-ovulating days of the cycle. For you to be able to sense this change, you'll need to track the mucus on a daily basis.

For most women, getting pregnant happens fairly quickly and sometimes unexpectedly. For others, some additional effort is required. Doctors consistently explain that women need to try to conceive for a year before seeking fertility treatments. Following these five keys to finding your fertile days is a way to ensure you are doing everything you need to do to increase your chances of getting pregnant and ultimately delivering a healthy baby.