What do women most want to know when they’re trying to conceive?
How to pinpoint their fertile phase, so that sex will most likely result in conception. Fortunately, there are several different ways to get the timing right.
When you’re trying to get pregnant, timing is everything. Perfect eggs and flawless sperm are useless if they don’t connect. To make that happen, sex has to occur on the day of ovulation (when the ripened egg is released from the ovary), or a few days before. Miss the dates and you’ve missed your chance...at least for that cycle.
Since you don’t have to have sex exactly on the day of ovulation to conceive, you don’t really have to know your exact date of ovulation. Many obstetricians and fertility experts recommend that couples trying to get pregnant have sex every other day. That way, you’re sure to have sex at least once during your fertile period each cycle. Also, ejaculating every other day keeps your husband’s sperm “fresh,” without depleting the supply too quickly.
But if making love every other day—probably for at least a few months—doesn’t sound appealing, you might want to try and figure out when you’re ovulating so you can concentrate your efforts around that time. There are several ways to determine the date. Read on and choose the one you think will work best for you.
Chart Your Cycle
One of the most common misconceptions about fertility is that every woman ovulates and is most fertile on day 14 of her cycle. But that’s only true in women who have a perfect, regular 28-day cycle. In fact, it’s actually not 14 days after menstruation begins that ovulation occurs, but 14 days before. So if you have a very regular cycle, you can estimate your date of ovulation by subtracting two weeks from the date of your next expected period. For example: A woman with a regular 30-day cycle probably ovulates around day 16, and a woman with a regular 26-day cycle probably ovulates around day 12.
Take Your Temperature
Charting your basal body temperature (BBT)—your morning body temperature before you get out of bed—is another way to pinpoint ovulation. A woman’s normal, non-ovulating temperature is between 96 and 99 degrees Fahrenheit, depending on the individual. But following the release of an egg, BBT increases by about half a degree, and remains slightly elevated until right before menstruation. “Charting your temperature helps you better gauge your window of opportunity to maximize fertility,” says Lawrence Werlin, M.D., director of Coastal Fertility Medical Center in Irvine, California. And if you chart it for a few cycles, it may help you to predict ovulation if your cycle is regular. Unfortunately, BBT isn’t the best way to time sexual intercourse for conception. By the time your BBT rises, there’s little fertile time left to conceive. If you’re interested in charting your BBT, you’ll need to buy a special thermometer that measures temperature in tenths of degrees. These are widely available in drugstores for $10 to $15.
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Use A Fertility Monitor
If your cycle tends to be irregular, over-the-counter ovulation predictor kits can help pinpoint your fertile phase. Most use your morning urine to measure luteinizing hormone, which surges right before ovulation. “It’s a great way to maximize your chances of conception,” says John R. Sussman, M.D., assistant clinical professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the University of Connecticut School of Medicine. These kits, available in drugstores, generally cost between $14 and $40.
Another type of ovulation kit measures the amount of estrogen detectable in the saliva to identify ovulation. To use these monitors, a woman applies a small amount of saliva to a lens, then looks at it under a small microscope (included in the kit). A fern-like pattern indicates the fertile phase. These monitors range from $25 for simple microscopes, to as high as $300 for automated, electronic devices.
The newest ovulation-tracking device, the OV Watch, checks yet another body fluid: perspiration. Looking like—and worn as—a wristwatch, the device contains sensors that check for increasing amounts of chloride in sweat. The chloride increase precedes the LH increase, so these monitors give women advance notice that ovulation will occur within the next few days. An OV Watch starter kit, which includes a three-month supply of sensors, costs $249. For more information call 1-877-249-BABY (2229) or visit www.ovwatch.com.
Check Your Cervical Mucus
There’s another body fluid that can give you insight into your cycle, and you can check it without the use of any special devices: cervical mucus (CM). You can examine these secretions by feel or appearance—in your underwear or on a piece of toilet paper— to find out where you are in your cycle. For a few days after your period, your cervical fluid may be dry or sticky, then it starts to get wetter. “If it becomes slippery and stretchy—almost like a raw egg white—that’s when you’re most fertile,” says Toni Weschler, author of Taking Charge of Your Fertility (Collins, 2001).
Listen To Your Body
There are some physical symptoms associated with ovulation, although they’re often too subtle for women to tune in to. Can you hear yours?
Approximately 20 percent of women experience “mittelschmerz” (German for “middle pain”). Around mid-cycle, these women feel a sharp cramp on one side of the lower abdomen. The pain, rarely severe, occurs just before, during, or after ovulation. Also, the sense of smell becomes more acute around ovulation, and the increased sensitivity, according to Alan R. Hirsch, M.D., a neurologist and psychiatrist, and director of the Smell and Taste Research Foundation in Chicago, can be pronounced enough for some women to be aware of it each month.
Take your pick—any or all of these methods will help you identify the most fertile phase in your cycle. Once you figure out when, you know what to do from there!
A version of this article originally appeared in the Summer 2006 issue of Conceive Magazine.
Related Topics: Fertility Basics; Fertility Tips; When Am I Fertile?
