This is a very exciting time in your life…you and your partner have decided to try and conceive. You are doing everything you can to make sure that your body is in great shape to carry a pregnancy, and now you want to start actively trying to get pregnant. You can wing it and stop using protection or birth control and hope that things happen on their own. For many couples, this does work eventually. However, using a calendar and tracking your cycle can help you to accurately pinpoint your ovulation and window of fertility.
You probably learned in school that a woman’s cycle is 28-32 days and that ovulation occurs right in the middle of that cycle. This is how it works for some women, but for others, they may ovulate early or late in their cycle, meaning that if they are trying to conceive on day 14 or 15 of their cycle, but they ovulate on day 19, they’re never going to get pregnant if they only have sex on day 14, but not consistently after.
There is good news though. When you track your cycle and get to know your body and the signs associated with ovulation and fertility, you have a great shot at catching that egg, so to speak. We recommend beginning to track your menstrual cycle several months before you are planning to start trying. This will give you the chance to hone in on your body’s natural rhythms.
To begin tracking your cycle, you will want to start taking your basal body temperature at the same time each morning. Set an alarm and use a basal thermometer which is more precise than a regular thermometer. They can be purchased online or at a drugstore. Record your temperature each day along with physical signs in your body such as breast tenderness and vaginal discharge.
As the month progresses, you should see a noticeable dip in your temperature right before you ovulate and then a sharp rise in temperature post-ovulation. Your post-ovulation temperature will stay high if you have become pregnant but will drastically drop again right before your period starts if you haven’t successfully conceived that cycle. Body signs that signal ovulation include increased sexual desire, potential ovulation pain, and egg-white consistency mucus in the vagina. This thin discharge makes it easier for the sperm to swim to their destination and will quickly dry up after ovulation occurs. The vagina will tend to be much drier until a woman’s period starts if pregnancy hasn’t occurred. Read Cervical Mucus and Fertility for more information.
There are some great apps that will help you to track your cycle. Once you have tracked your personal cycle for a few months, you should be able to see a pattern in how your body’s menstrual cycle progresses. This pre-pregnancy calendar can also be invaluable in alerting you and your partner if something is amiss with your cycles, such as an extremely long or short cycle or lack of ovulation. Through charting your temperature and body signs, you can then address any issues with your doctor and develop a plan to tackle the best way to conceive. For more read Understanding & Tracking Your Cycle.
We wish you the best of luck in trying to conceive and hope that this guide has given you some great insight into how to chart your cycle on a calendar in preparation for trying to conceive.
