When many of us started down the path toward expanding our families, we went into it thinking all it would take is a few unprotected romps. While that’s essentially true, for some it takes a bit more planning. Timing is everything and there are several things that can be easily done to help boost your chances of conceiving. The day you begin to menstruate is considered day one of your cycle. Your uterus sheds the lining (endometrium) and you get your period which can last from 3-5 days, sometimes longer. Most women’s cycles can range from 24 to 35 days (for the sake of this article we will be discussing a 28 day cycle so if you’re cycle is shorter or longer adjust the days according); and many things happen to a woman’s body through out the entire process. During the follicular state (days 3-13), your body begins to produce follicle stimulating hormone (FSH) which stimulates your ovaries to produce eggs. On average, 3-5 eggs begin to mature and excrete an estrogen called estradiol, at approximately day 12, the eggs excrete a high enough level of estradiol to trigger the body to release luteinizing hormone. This hormone matures the egg and weakens the wall of the follicle which leads to ovulation (around day 14) and the newly released egg moves into to fallopian tube where conception generally occurs.

After ovulation, the follicle that shed the egg begins to excrete progesterone and estrogens for about 14 days. These hormones serve to prepare the endometrium for implantation and enable it to support the early pregnancy. Once the fertilized egg implants it begins to produce human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG - the hormone that causes a positive home pregnancy test). In the absence of a pregnancy and hCG, when the follicle ceases to produce progesterone, the cycle restarts. Progesterone withdrawal causes the body to shed the endometrial lining and you return to cycle day one.

There are many rungs to the ladder of fertility and any one of them can cause fertility issues for women, including repeat miscarriages. Thankfully, many of these are easily overcome through diet, exercise, medication or other more invasive procedures. Most doctors prefer 6-12 months of unprotected sex without conception before they will consider running the tests that would tell them what type of problem it is (whether you aren’t ovulating, or your body can’t produce enough progesterone to sustain an early pregnancy).

For women with regular cycles, conception can be as easy as keeping track of your cycles on a calendar, for others it may require a bit more work. You can purchase over the counter Ovulation Prediction Kits. They work similar to a home pregnancy test, using urine to measure hormone surges, only instead of looking for hCG, it looks for the luteinizing hormone surge. Once you get a positive, you know you will generally ovulate in the following 24-48 hours.

For other women, especially those with irregular cycles, charting basal temperature can be a much more accurate way of determining ovulation. For more information on charting, please visit our forums or Fertility Friend. As with all medical issues, if you have concerns, speak with your physician or homeopath for more information.

More Information

• The Menstrual Cycle
• Fertility Friend
• Crunchy Parenting Forums
• iVillage

Use the Ovulation Calculator to find out when your ovulation date is, and increase the likelihood of getting pregnant. The Ovulation Calculator shows your fertile days - keep in mind that you are most fertile on your ovulation date.

Choice

There are two primary choices in life; to accept conditions as they exist, or accept the responsibility for changing them.
~Denis Waitley

Melissa

Melissa is a 35 year old Army wife to her deployed husband, and the mother of three girls. Two are toddlers and the third is a teen, lending to her bouts of insanty. Melissa and her husband Tom are still deciding whether or not they will have "one more" while Melissa tries to figure out how to convince Tom that homebirth is a good thing.