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It's About Time to Conceive!

Know the Best Time to Get Pregnant

By Kelly Burgess

Weschler says that after four months of proper fertility charting with perfectly timed sex, a couple should go to the doctor armed with the information they've gathered. Charting rules out almost immediately the question of whether or not a woman is ovulating. Furthermore, pinpointing the time of ovulation and then having intercourse at the proper time will show the doctor that timing isn't the problem either.

Having this information in hand before seeing the doctor can put the couple a year ahead of where they may be in the traditional process of diagnosing infertility.

"The whole concept of day 14 is a myth that has been entrenched in our culture," Weschler says. "Because a 28-day cycle is the average, it's assumed that since women get their period around 14 days after ovulation, they must ovulate on day 14 as well. The fact is that some may ovulate day 10 and some on day 30."

Weschler says that the only way to reliably identify when ovulation occurs is by tracking the primary fertility signs. These are the two primary fertility signs:

• Waking temperature
• cervical fluid

All ovulating women experience these signs all of the time.

The waking temperature is also called the basal body temperature (BBT) and is taken immediately upon awakening – before getting up to go to the bathroom or drinking any beverages. Although the BBT can tell you that you did ovulate and can, to a certain extent, predict a pattern of ovulation, it cannot tell you when you are

Want to see more?

• The Right Timing with Conception: Learn to Track Your Body's Fertile Signs to Help You Conceive
• Basal Body Temperature: Should You "Temp" for Fertility Signs?
• The Power of Prediction: How Ovulation Testers Can Help
• Fertile Signs: Scientific and Subtle Ways to Know You're Ready to Conceive
• Join the discussion on our Family.com community!