If you’re trying to get pregnant, you do what you can to know when the best time to try to conceive is. While it’s not as if you don’t enjoy trying, the fact of the matter is you want to maximize your efforts. You want to increase the likelihood that your hard work will pay off. Accordingly, if you’re like most women, you want to know when you’re most fertile.

One of the best ways to track your own fertility naturally is by charting changes to your cervical mucus. Your cervical mucus will vary in its volume, consistency and color throughout the month, giving you a good idea of where you stand in terms of trying to conceive.

Here are some of the ways cervical mucus will appear during the month and what it means in regard to fertility:

• Little or no cervical mucus. Usually, you won’t have any cervical mucus for the first three to five days after your period is over. At that point, conception is highly unlikely (although not entirely impossible).
• Sticky, white or cloudy cervical mucus. This is what your cervical mucus will look like between your period and when you ovulate. Conception is here again not impossible but highly improbable.
• Moist, sticky, white or cream colored cervical mucus. Just before ovulation, this is what you’ll have. Your odds of conceiving start to increase at this point.
• Egg white cervical mucus. When your cervical mucus resembles the consistency and color of the white of an egg, you’re usually ovulating. This is the best time to try to conceive.
• Less slippery cervical mucus. After ovulation, your cervical mucus will decrease in volume and be less slippery, although it will resemble an egg white in color. During this time, there is very little possibility of conception.

You can chart your cervical mucus from one month to the next to get a better idea of when you ovulate. If you couple that with tracking changes in your basal body temperature, for example, you’ll find that your odds of success greatly increase.