All right, we know. Talking about cervical mucus is, to say the least, a little bit gross. Still, we’re all adults here. (Well, maybe all of us. We know there are a few of you guys out there who just won’t be able to read this post without giggling).

At any rate, cervical mucus is important when it comes to conception. This jelly-ish secretion is a key part of what your body does in order to try to make a baby. It helps to protect the sperm from the relatively hostile and rather acidic environment of the vagina. Without cervical mucus, the acids in the vagina would neutralize sperm, and prevent them from making their journey.

Cervical mucus also carries that sperm up the fallopian tubes where it can try to find an egg to fertilize. It also has this neat filtering function where it identifies sperm that are abnormal and slows them down, making it more likely that the normal sperm will be the ones that make it to the egg.

Today, we want to talk about hostile cervical mucus. Sometimes, a woman’s cervical mucus can be too thick to allow the man’s sperm to be able to penetrate the cervix and move up the rest of the way into the reproductive tract. When this happens, we call it “hostile cervical mucus.”

There are a couple of things you can do to fight hostile cervical mucus. One common way is, oddly enough, by using Robitussin cough syrup. The active ingredient in Robitussin, known as “guaifenesin,” helps to promote the production of egg-white cervical mucus. That’s the cervical mucus that helps with conception, and it isn’t hostile. If you try Robitussin, get the version that only contains guaifenesin as the active ingredient. You don’t need one that has Tylenol or other medicaitons.

There is a herbal remedy for hostile cervical mucus that some women have had luck with, as well. Evening primrose oil is thought to help promote the production of good cervical mucus. Herbalists recommend that women trying to conceive take around 2000 milligrams per day between the time their period starts and when they ovulate.

Getting pregnant isn’t always as easy as it sounds. For some women, getting pregnant takes a little bit of effort (beyond the obvious). You may need to take some time to measure things out, and really track your fertility. If you do that, you’ll greatly increase the chances that you’ll become pregnant. If you don’t track fertility, you’re likely to wind up frustrated and unsuccessful.

Here are three ways you can track your fertility:

1. Track your periods. Knowing when you’re fertile is easy for some folks. If you have a regular 28-day period, you can do some simple math and you’ll just count the days until you ovulate. Typically, you’ll ovulate 14 days after the start of your last period. If you have a cycle that’s longer than 28 days or shorter than 28 days, you’ll have to lengthen or shorten that wait after your period starts. If you have an irregular cycle, as many women do, it can be much more difficult to track your fertility.
2. Chart your cervical mucus. Cervical mucus is a discharge that your body produces. It’s job is to help get the sperm from the vagina up to the cervix, where it can go from there to the fallopian tubes and fertilize an egg. Around the time that you ovulate, your cervical mucus will be plentiful, and it will have the color and consistency of an egg white. In fact, we refer to this as “egg white cervical mucus.” If you chart your cervical mucus from month to month, you’ll have some better idea about when you’re going to ovulate.
3. Track your basal body temperature. Every month when you ovulate, your basal body temperature (BBT) will elevate slightly. (The BBT is that temperature your body has while at rest, so it’s usually best to take it first thing in the morning when you wake up.) Here again, tracking your BBT from one month to the next can help you to track your fertility by helping you be able to predict when you’re going to ovulate.

There are a number of tools out there, including ovulation prediction kits, that can help you track fertility, as well. Many of them use a combination of the methods listed above.

As we talked about last time, fertility treatments are extremely expensive and insurance companies often won’t pay for them. In Vitro Fertilization, for example, can cost a couple as much as $12,000 or more. Unless you’ve got that kind of extra money to spend, chances are pretty good you’re going to need some help in paying for fertility treatments.

The good news is that there are a number of different ways you can handle paying for fertility treatments. Here are some places you can consider looking for the cash to fund yours:

1. Check your insurance options. We covered this last time, so we won’t go into it here. The main thing is to make sure you’ve been thorough when it comes to checking whether your health insurance policy will pay for the treatments or not.
2. Save up. Depending on your age and other factors, you might be concerned about waiting too long to get your fertility treatments. Still, some folks may find that they can save up to pay for those fertility treatments over a few years. This isn’t an option for everyone, of course.
3. Consider financing. Many fertility clinics will offer their customers a way to finance their fertility treatments. Usually, this involves making payments to the clinic on a monthly basis for the duration of your treatment. This kind of financing is often interest-free, or at least will have a much lower interest rate than many of the other borrowing options.
4. Look into other loan options. If your fertility clinic won’t finance your treatments, you may be able to get financing through a bank or credit union. You might be able to get a personal loan, for example, or you might need to look into a secured loan such as a second mortgage.

Finally, it’s worth looking into results-based insurance, too. In some cases, you may be able to purchase an insurance policy that essentially will help you recoup your costs if your fertility treatments are unsuccessful. Very few fertility doctors guarantee results, so this is one way to make sure that the money you’ve spent isn’t lost entirely.

If you’ve spoken with a fertility treatment specialist, you know that the costs involved in fertility treatments can be prohibitively expensive. For some folks, however, fertility treatments may be covered by your medical insurance policy. Knowing what your policy offers can help you make an informed decision about whether or not you can afford to go ahead with fertility treatments.

Here are some of the things to consider when you’re looking into fertility treatments and your health insurance policy:

• Some insurance will cover fertility treatments as part of your standard health care insurance costs. These types of policies are few and far between, but they do exist.
• You may be able to purchase infertility insurance. This is a different type of program. It is designed to help you recoup your costs if your fertility treatments are unsuccessful. You still have to pay for your fertility treatments up front with this kind of program.
• Some states require insurance companies to cover treatment for infertility. Currently, there are 15 states in that list, and others are considering similar legislation.
• In many cases, health insurance companies that do cover infertility treatments may do so at a different percentage of coverage than they cover other types of health issues.
• There are several places you can look to see if your policy covers infertility treatments. You can talk to your insurance company, to the HR department at work if you get your insurance through your employer, and even with the billing and insurance specialist at the infertility clinic.
• If you’re not able to get a definitive answer from some of those places, you can consider talking to an attorney. Make sure you have a copy of your actual health insurance policy handy so that you can go through it together.
• Understand that many insurance companies won’t cover advanced procedures, too, such as IVF, even if they will cover things like fertility drugs or less expensive procedures.

Trying to have a baby can be a fun and exciting time (and we’re not just talking about the “baby dance!”) However, it can also be a time full of questions and wonder, especially if you’re having trouble trying to conceive. In some cases, after you’ve been trying to conceive for many months, it’s easy to become discouraged. You can start to wonder if you’ll ever have any success, and if you’ll ever get to be a parent (or get to be a parent again).

As you’re going through the process of trying to conceive, here are some important questions to ask yourself:

• Am I truly ready to be a parent? Many folks just sort of jump in to pregnancy without too much thought. In a lot of cases, it’s not really even on purpose. To be sure, this is part of our survival instinct. Making babies keeps the human race going. Still, if you’re trying to conceive, it’s a good time to think about your life, your lifestyle and your dreams and goals. It takes some work and commitment to be a good parent, and you should be certain you’re ready to do what it takes.
• What will I do if I can’t conceive? It’s good to have a plan of attack, if you’ve been struggling with getting pregnant. You need to figure out what your steps are. Will you try nutritional supplements or herbal remedies to increase your chances of conceiving? Are you open to the idea of fertility drugs? What about advanced fertility procedures such as IVF? No, it’s not necessary to worry about every contingency, but it is a good idea to have a basic road map in hand.
• How is the process affecting our relationship? Trying to conceive can be a strain for many couples. Anxiety levels rise as you go through the monthly cycle of anticipation and disappointment. Sex can even become laborious. Make sure you’re doing what’s necessary to take care of your relationship, too.

Keeping on top of these three areas will help insure that you make it through the TTC process happy and healthy, regardless of the outcome.

All right, listen up, and then repeat after me:

Fertility is not solely the female partner’s concern.

Did you say it? Really? If not, get back there and read it again. Out loud. Don’t worry, we’ll wait.

You see, all too often we tend to frame fertility in terms of the woman’s responsibility. The fact of the matter is that this is a totally antiquated and completely unscientific viewpoint. It hearkens back to a darker age, when a woman could be beheaded because she “refused” to provide a monarch with progeny (or at least male progeny).

The fact is that a great number of fertility problems experienced by couples are the male partner’s responsibility.

Problems with male fertility usually fall into one of three types:

1. Sperm count. This is the most common cause of male infertility, and probably the one that you’re most likely to hear about. Having a low sperm count essentially means that, when it comes to volume, you don’t have enough sperm in your semen to be able to have a decent chance that they’ll make it to the fallopian tubes and fertilize an egg.
2. Sperm motility. Motility refers to the way that sperm move forward. The sperm need to be able to move forward through the female partner’s reproductive system to the fallopian tubes in order to fertilize an egg and conceive. If they’re not moving forward, or if they’re not moving forward fast enough, conception just isn’t going to happen.
3. Sperm abnormality. There is a third potential problem, and that’s abnormal sperm. Abnormal sperm aren’t shaped the way that sperm are supposed to be shaped. When that happens, they can’t fertilize an egg. A sperm abnormality is the least common cause of male infertility, but it does happen.

Ultimately, if you’re having trouble trying to conceive, both partners should make some effort to become educated about possible causes of infertility, and explore ways they can try to overcome those causes.

The conventional wisdom says that married people cheat because they’re not happy with their married relationship. The fact is, however, that this isn’t borne out by scientific research. According to a recent article at Psychology today, there are actually several reasons that a woman might cheat on her husband with another man.

One of those reasons is that she’s ovulating.

Whether we want to realize it or not, and whether we want to admit it or not, many of our sexual desires and practices are simply biology. Our bodies try to do what they can to continue the species. That means that, in many cases, a woman will feel more sexually aroused when she’s ovulating. If her husband isn’t available, she may be tempted to stray.

Understand, of course, that this doesn’t justify a morally objectionable behavior; rather, it helps us understand one of the possible reasons in the equation.

Here are some other possibilities that can contribute to a woman cheating:

• Sexual peaking. Women seem to peak, sexually, at about 30. Men peak sexually at 18. Whether this is because of biology or sociology remains to be seen, but the fact of the matter is that women may start to peak about the time their husbands’ sexual desires are winding down.
• Backup plans. In some cases, a woman at the end of her reproductive years might be trying to fulfill a psychological need for a backup plan. For example, she may be trying to provide for her physical needs later in life, especially if her husband is older than she is.
• Feeling attractive. Sometimes, a woman just doesn’t feel desired by her husband. She feels desired by someone else, because her husband stops his vocal praise of her beauty. It’s not that she’s unhappy with him, she just feels more attractive with another man.

Of course, there are plenty of other possibilities, and no two situations are exactly alike. The key is to catch the tempation to cheat early on, before you succumb and wind up putting your relationship in jeopardy.

Fertility struggles can cause a severe amount of stress. The roller coaster of hope, disappointment, acceptance, planning, trying and back to hope can take you through the entire range of the human emotional experience. It’s no wonder that fertility problems are, in a great many cases, responsible for relationship breakups and even divorce.

Now, it’s not uncommon for a couple who can’t seem to agree on whether or not to have kids in the first place to have some marital struggles. After all, just because both partners believe, when they’re married in their early 20s, that they won’t ever want kids doesn’t mean they can’t change their minds. Sometimes, one partner will change their mind, and the other won’t, which can lead to divorce.

But in some cases fertility problems can wreak havoc on a marriage. Here are a few of the ways fertility struggles can hurt your marriage, if you’re not vigilant:

• Resentment. Sometimes, one partner will resent the other because of fertility issues. A man may feel like his wife is putting too much pressure on him to help conceive a child, for example. A woman may resent her husband because he doesn’t seem to take as active a role in fertility as she does. If these feelings start to bubble up to the surface, it can be a real problem.
• Stress. That emotional roller coaster causes a lot of stress. Sometimes, it’s that stress that causes marriage problems. You’re so stressed out from trying to conceive that you treat your partner poorly, or that you don’t enjoy her company.
• Disappointment and disillusionment. Sometimes, when you can’t conceive a child, you can become disillusioned. You begin to feel that the marriage is doomed, and that you’ll never be able to have children. This can lead to depression, which can severely affect a marriage.

If you’re struggling with some of these feelings, don’t just ignore them. Talk to a mental health care provider, therapist or other counselor. You may find that it’s simply a matter of dealing with these feelings together, rather than allowing them to totally destroy your relationship.

While it’s not always the case, the fact of the matter is that women are often more concerned about fertility issues than men. This isn’t a hard and fast rule, and there are of course a great many exceptions. On average, however, it’s the woman in a relationship who tends to initiate discussions about families, conception and fertility.

In some ways, this is unfortunate, especially for the couple that’s having a hard time trying to conceive. The fact is that about 40 percent of fertility issues have to do with a male factor infertility problem. This means that, even after you’ve had all of your fertility testing and done months of ovulation tracking and other kinds of testing and research, you may still need to convince your partner to have his sperm tested.

There are a few situations, of course, when it’s an especially good idea to get your partner fertility tested. If he works with or around heavy metals, this can have a negative effect on sperm. If he’s a bike rider, there are some studies that show that particular hobby can affect sperm production. The same is true if he tends to wear constricting underwear, or spends a lot of time in a hot tub.

The most important thing to keep in mind when approaching your partner about getting fertility tested is to keep it blameless. Your partner isn’t withholding children from you on purpose. Chances are pretty good that he has no idea what would cause him to have a fertility problem, and he may not even realize what kinds of male factor fertility problems even exist.

The last bit of advice we can give you about getting your partner fertility tested is to be informed. The more you know about the process and potential problems, the easier it will be to convince your partner that it might be time to have his sperm checked out.

One of the dangers of coming to a website like this one and looking for encouragement is that you’ll find exactly what you’re looking for. You see, encouragement isn’t always a good thing, no matter what the wellness gurus on TV might want you to think. In some cases, you need to be realistic enough that, while you’re shooting for the moon, you don’t forget your rocket pack.

What we’re talking about today is this idea of real hope versus false hope. You see, there’s a danger that you’ll come to this site and leave with false hope instead of real hope. That false hope, while it may make you feel better for a few moments, won’t help you conceive.

Here are some ways to think about real and false hope:

• Real hope tells you that most fertility struggles can indeed be overcome. False hope tells you that most fertility struggles can indeed be overcome with little or no effort.
• Real hope recognizes the power of positive thinking. False hope relies solely on the power of positive thinking.
• Real hope uses every tool at your disposal to help you achieve your goals (such as the goal of getting pregnant). False hope expects your goals to just occur with little or no effort on your part.
• Real hope uses ovulation calculators, basal body thermometers and charts cervical mucus to determine the best time for conception. False hope makes a guess and hopes to get the timing of conception right.
• Real hope recognizes the possibility that you may not conceive. False hope tells you that you will no matter what.
• Real hope trusts that there is a plan and pattern to your life, and that you will be all right regardless of the outcome. False hope tells you that the only possible good outcome is the one you’re hoping for.
• Real hope sends you to the fertility clinic, utilizes ovulation tracking and looks into herbal ways to help fertility. False hope picks just one solutions and declares it to be the right one.

So, what kind of baby hopes do you have?