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Fertile Signs
Scientific and Subtle Ways to Know You're Ready to Conceive
By Kelly Burgess
Understanding your cycle and when you're most fertile also gives you the tools to make some fairly quick judgments about whether it may be necessary to seek fertility counseling, rather than waiting the year that most doctors recommend.
1. Waking body temperature
2. Cervical fluid
3. Cervical position
The third sign, cervical position, is optional, but the first two should always be considered together to best pinpoint time of ovulation. Determining fertility using these signs is simple using the following guidelines:
1. Waking Body Temperature (aka Basal Body Temperature or BBT): Take your temperature in the morning, the moment you wake up, before getting out of bed. Begin on Day 1 of your cycle, which is the first day of your period. Your temperature will be lowest at that time. Record your temperature on a chart or on software specifically designed for charting. Although the temperature will often vary day to day, there usually is a marked increase in temperature just after ovulation.
If you're having trouble deciding when you're ovulating, it's best to keep at it for a couple of months and try to detect a pattern. If it's still not clear, take the charts to your doctor or to a women's clinic and they can help you interpret the pattern. Your body temperature can be affected by lack of sleep, illness and alcohol intake, as well as waking later than usual or using an electric blanket if you don't normally use one.
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Fertile Signs by Anonymous on 05/15/2009 08:14AM
Taking Charge of Your Fertility is an awesome book. My husband and I have used the fertility awareness method to avoid and to achieve pregnancy. But even if you don't choose this method it is a book every woman should read. I was a health major in college and there were many things I learned about my body and about my cycle that I had no idea about. As I was reading I kept thinking- Why have i never learned this before???