Trying to get pregnant (and Fertility Calculator)
Once you’re ready to have a baby, there are 4 good ways to predict when you are most fertile and most likely to conceive your baby.
- Use our Fertility Calculator. This can help estimate your peak fertility period.
- Monitor your hormones. Use a home ovulation kit to test your urine. The test can detect a rise in the hormone that triggers ovulation so you’ll know when you are most fertile.
- Take your temperature. Your temperature drops 1 to 2 days before you ovulate, then rises 1 to 2 days afterwards. Take your temperature every morning before you get out of bed and record it on a tracking chart. Do this for a few months and you should be able to spot the day you will ovulate.
- Monitor your cervical mucus. Just before you ovulate, your cervical mucus changes from thick, cloudy and sticky to thin, clear and stringy. Watch, feel and record your findings for several cycles and you may be able to guess when you will ovulate.
By Betty Shen, MD - Published November 3, 2015