What's Your Temperature Today?
If you're trying to get pregnant, it's often hard to know where to begin. The easiest thing to do in the beginning is to chart your fertility. Were you to go to a fertility specialist, the doctor would certainly want to look at your chart and know if you've been keeping records of your cycles. This process is a very basic one, and one that is the first step in the journey towards conception.
Tracking fertility signs is certainly not for everyone. Some people just want conception to happen on its own. This is, of course, fine. However, for people who need to help Mother Nature along a bit, these fertility tips can be very useful for conception.
Basal Body Temperature
This is also known as BBT and it is your body's temperature at rest. The way to use this for conception is as follows. When you wake up first thing in the morning, you take your temperature and chart it on a graph. Usually, in a healthy woman with a normal cycle, the temperature will remain steady for the first 12-14 days of the cycle. Right before ovulation, the temperature will shoot up, showing that the egg has been released. The daily chart of temperature numbers will allow you to see a pattern in your cycle and to know, approximately, when ovulation will occur. This will let you know when you should try to have intercourse and to time pregnancy.
Cervical Fluid
Another way to keep track of your cycle, which can be done in tandem with the basal body temperature, is to examine your cervical fluid. When your period ends, the cervical fluid is usually dry for a week or so. Then, as ovulation begins again, the fluid becomes creamy, white and sticky. As you get closer to ovulating, the fluid is more stretchy, clear and wet. This will tell you that you are the most fertile and about to ovulate. Women usually notice this consistently in the cervical fluid for a few days before they ovulate. After ovulation, the fluid will again dry up and become thinner. Some women don't like to use this method because it's a bit messy. It is, however, very effective, particularly when used together with the temperature.
Mark It Down
It is very important to keep careful records of both your temperature and your fluids while trying to get pregnant. Purchase a calendar that is exclusively for your pregnant pursuits. This calendar will be your location to mark down when you menstruate, what your temperature was each day, and what your cervical fluid is like each day. You should have graph paper, as well, to chart your temperature. This will give you a very clear, visual image of the ups and downs of your temperature during the month. Within a few months it should, hopefully, become clear to you that there is a pattern and that you are ovulating.
These are certainly inexpensive and easy ways to begin to try to conceive. While this may seem tedious at times, it only takes a few minutes a day and may lead to success with conception! Timing is very important with pregnancy, and this is a tool that can help you with your timing.
Try not to get too overwhelmed with details or bogged down with this process. Remember, you are on a very important, and very exciting journey. Enjoy the process!
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