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Natural Fertility Methods When Trying to Conceive

Using a Fertility Monitor, a Fertility Calendar, and Fertility Calculator

Trying to conceive with natural fertility methods is one way women are helping themselves to achieve a pregnancy. Natural fertility methods work by observing the body as it moves through the menstrual cycle.

The first self-help step before seeking fertility treatment is to use a fertility monitor, a fertility calendar, or a fertility calculator to chart menstrual cycles. These are the simple systems that point to the highly fertile time during a woman’s monthly cycle. This time happens just before ovulation.

After becoming familiar with various ways of trying to conceive, you’ll also be able to determine if you may be having infertility issues. But before seeking a fertility treatment there should be six months of unprotected sex without conception.

A fertility calculator is a system of observing and recording body symptoms. With this method you can determine when sexual fertility is at its greatest. This is a simple system that increases the chances of becoming pregnant. Charting this data will certainly help your doctor diagnose any difficulties that you may be having.

There are several other methods of determining fertility indicators which include basal body temperature, vaginal mucus, menstrual calendar and new urine testing for the LH surge.

Trying to Conceive Using a Basal Body Temperature Thermometer

The BBT method when trying to conceive uses a basal body temperature thermometer, which is a different thermometer from the one used for a fever. A woman takes her temperature before getting out of bed in the morning. The idea is to note the slight increase in temperature that happens just at ovulation. The basal body temperature is steady throughout the first half of the cycle and then rises just at ovulation. The progesterone release after ovulation raises the temperature by about ½ a degree Fahrenheit. This confirms that an egg has been released.

Oftentimes there's a chart with the thermometer so women can chart their temperature and use the information to interpret their cervical mucus. It helps to make several copies of the chart for use over several months. It's also something a woman can take to her doctor.

Cervical Mucus As An Indicator

A woman’s cervical mucus changes during the menstrual cycle. Keeping track of these changes helps to grasp opportunities when trying to conceive. Using this natural fertility method you should think of the cervical mucus as either resisting or allowing sperm to penetrate the cervix. When the mucus is wet and slippery it makes it much easier for the sperm to get through.

Each woman has different mucus characteristics so it is important to get to know your own body. Interestingly there is also a particular smell or odor to the mucus at different times of the month as well.

You only need to be aware of the mucus at the vaginal opening. Observe changes when you wipe after urinating. It doesn’t require a specific time of the day. Perhaps just in the morning. It helps remembering at every bathroom visit or keeping a visible sign there until it becomes a habit. When the mucus changes from dry and thick to wet and slippery, you are becoming fertile.

Chart all these observations together with your temperature changes. If you notice that you're not having a rise in temperature after several months and/or the cervical mucus isn’t changing its consistency, then you might want to set up an appointment with a reproductive endocrinologist. You may be having difficulty with ovulation.

Your basal body temperature also predicts when your period starts. The time can vary from the first day of menstruation until ovulation but usually varies by only one or two days. And if your temperature stays elevated for over 18 days, you are pregnant.

See the previous article on Conception.

Other wiki resources: causes of infertility; conception; how to get pregnant; artifical insemination; infertility studies; fertility after 40