Trying to make a baby isn’t always quite as simple as it would seem to be. Some folks have to try for months, sometimes years, before they’re able to conceive. The good news is that there are some steps you can take to improve your chances of conception. One of the first things that you can do is to start tracking your fertility.

Tracking Cervical Mucus Changes

One of the ways that you can track your fertility to help conceive your baby is by tracking changes in your cervical mucus and your basal body temperature.  It is important before you start charting your cervical mucus to know what exactly it is that you are looking for.  During your monthly cycle, your cervical mucus can change greatly in its color, its consistency, and in its volume.  When you are ovulating, you will have the most cervical mucus.  The cervical mucus should be about the same texture and have a similar appearance to an egg white; at this stage, it is often referred to as “egg-white cervical mucus.”  This is the time, during ovulation, when you are most likely to become pregnant.

By checking your cervical mucus each day, you can help to figure out exactly where in your cycle you are.  By charting changes in your cervical mucus for several months, you can get a pretty good idea of exactly how many days from the end of your period that you will ovulate, and thereby determine when is the best time for conception.

Tracking Basal Body Temperature

Many women combine charting changes in their cervical mucus with charting basal body temperature.  Basal body temperature refers to the temperature of your body the first thing in the morning.  Using a Basal thermometer, you can check your temp in the morning before you get out of bed.  A Basal thermometer will monitor small changes in temperature that a regular thermometer will not measure.  When you are ovulating, you will notice a temperature spike that will probably last until your next period.  By combining a BBT chart with your cervical mucus chart, you can increase your chances for conception.

Using Fertility Tests

Another way that you can track your fertility to help yourself conceive is through the use of fertility tests.  Fertility tests, such as Clearblue, allow you to be able to track and identify when exactly it is that you are ovulating during your monthly cycle.

Fertility tests look for something known as Luteinizing hormone, or LH for short.  Luteinizing hormone is always present in a woman’s system.  However, around 24 to 48 hours before you ovulate, your body will experience a surge in your LH levels.  It is this surge of LH levels that actually triggers your ovaries to release an egg, and for you to ovulate.  When you are ovulating is, obviously, the time of your cycle that you are most fertile, and when you are most likely to be able to conceive.