Tracking Your Cycle

Falling pregnant is a life changing experience but it is important to know that it doesn’t happen overnight. The average healthy young fertile couple will conceive within 6-12 months. For everyone else conception can take over 12 months.

To help make conceiving more successful it is a great idea to track your cycle.

Here are some handy tips for tracking:

Period Tracker phone apps

Today, we all use our phones for everything, so why not use it to help track your cycle. This is a great way to get started! There are many apps on the market, but I would recommend choosing one that can help track the following; period start date, period end date, intimate days, temperature, weight, symptoms, mood changes, and cervical discharge. It will take 3-6 months of entering data for you to see a pattern and be able to understand your cycles better. Understanding your cycle is the first step of being able to conceive.

Recording Your Basal Body Temperature

Your Basal Body Temperature is your temperature first thing in the morning and for accuracy you should take the reading before you get out of bed and the same time each day. Use a thermometer which takes readings of 0.01 for more accuracy. BBT thermometers can be purchased from pharmacies and online.

You will see a rise in your BBT once ovulation has occurred. This rise will continue for approximately 10 days. This testing is not to predict ovulation but can confirm that it has occurred. This helps when charting your cycle to see patterns.

Always make a note if you have had any changes in your life, example feeling unwell, change in weather (travelling) or feeling stressed. All these can factor into the change of your BBT.

Vaginal Discharge

Throughout your cycle you will notice a difference in your vaginal discharge depending on what phase you are going through. You will notice changes in the colour, feel and the amount. You need to take note of these phases, so you can determine your most fertile stage.

Thick and White: You will notice this at the start and end of your cycle.

Slippery and Clear (egg white consistency): This is fertile mucus. This mucus is slippery, and you should be able to stretch it between your fingers. There will be an increase in the amount just prior to ovulation and during.

Clear and Watery: You will notice clear mucus after ovulation has occurred. This mucus amount will decrease and will be waterier in texture.

Coloured: Throughout your cycle you may experience pink or brown discharge (known as spotting). Brown discharge is old blood passing.

Cervix location and feel

Throughout your cycle your cervix changes positions. It will feel firmer/softer, lower/higher, open/closed, and dry/wet. During your most fertile days your cervix should feel, firmer, lower, closed, and dry (or slightly moist). This is not necessary to check if it is something that makes you feel uncomfortable, just another option available.

Ovulation Kits

Ovulation kits can be brought over the counter at pharmacies, supermarkets and online. They all vary in price however they do the same thing. Depending on the length of your cycle may determine which test you buy. These tests are 90% accurate and you should always follow the manufacturer’s directions.

Ovulation kits are urine tests that will detect a surge in the woman’s luteinising hormone (LH). This hormone will have a surge 20-44 hours prior to ovulation occurring and will show a positive result in a urine test approximating 8-12 hours later.

Fertile Window

After tracking your cycle for 3-6 months, you will start to see a pattern of your cycle length in days. Once this has been established you can work out a rough estimation of when ovulation will occur just by following this length. Your most fertile days approximately occurs 12 days before your next due period and can be up to 16 days. Therefore, you can work out the approximate days:

26 day cycle: fertile days 4-15 28 day cycle: fertile days 6-17 30 day cycle: fertile days 8-19 32 day cycle: fertile days 10-21

Intimacy

When trying to fall pregnant people think the more intercourse you have, then the more chance you have to get pregnant…..Wrong! You want to have the best quality sperm to fall pregnant. This means having intercourse every 2-3 days. Sperm can live 3-6 days in a woman’s fertile mucus, however a woman’s egg can only survive 12-24 hours after ovulation occurs. Due to this reason it is best to have intercourse 2 days prior to ovulation, as well as the morning of ovulation. Ovulation is known to occur during the late afternoon.

If you have not used any form of contraception and been having regular intercourse for 12 months and still not fallen pregnant, it may be time to consult your doctor.

#positivevibes