Fertility Signs

There are plenty of fertility signs that you can learn to recognize and keep an eye out for during your monthly ovulation and menstrual cycle. Being familiar with your own fertility cycle, and being able to identify the tell tale signs and symptoms which are your body’s way of telling you when you are at your most fertile, are great ways to ensure that you are taking all of the right steps on your journey to conception and pregnancy. Keeping a daily fertility chart or diary is a great way of getting familiar with your fertility signs

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Fertility Signs – Basal Body Temperature

One of the most commonly observed fertility signs is the rise in (waking) Basal Body Temperature (BBT) which occurs when you are ovulating. In the first half of a woman’s cycle, pre-ovulation, her typical waking temperature ranges between 36 .1°C/97.0 °F and 36.4°/97.4 °F. After ovulation her waking BBT temperature rises to about 36.5 °C/97.5°F to 37.0°C/98.6°F. The temperature elevation remains until the woman reaches her period. The best way to utilize BBT as a fertility sign is to keep a daily record or graph of your waking temperature. When you have at least one month’s worth of data, you will be able to begin looking for patterns of low and high temperatures – you average temperature will be lower before ovulation and higher after ovulation.

It is important that you are aware that there will be other factors in your life that can affect your waking BBT, these include:

Having a fever
Drinking alcohol the night before
Getting less than three hours of sleep before you take your temperature reading
Allowing large variances in the times of day that you are taking your temperature
Sleeping on an electric blanket (if you don’t normally use one)
Fertility Signs – Cervical Fluid (Cervical Mucus)

Cervical fluid or cervical mucus is another excellent fertility sign that you can use to chart your fertility. You may or may not have noticed that your cervical fluid changes in consistency and quantity throughout your monthly cycle. Essentially, these changes occur because during ovulation your body is trying to provide a hospitable environment to transport the sperm to the egg. Outside of the time that you have an egg ready for fertilization, your body does not need to produce sperm-friendly cervical fluid. To use the observation of cervical fluid as a fertility sign, keep a record of the changes that you notice throughout your cycle. When you are at your most fertile you will notice that your cervical fluid resembles raw egg white – the consistency is extremely slippery and stretchy. After your estrogen levels have peaked during the most fertile part of your cycle, you will notice your cervical fluid quickly changes and dries up.

Fertility Signs – Cervical Position

Your cervix goes through a lot of changes throughout your monthly fertility cycle, learning to recognize your cervical changes will provide you with further fertility signs. As with the cervical fluid, the cervix prepares itself to be hospitable to sperm and the resultant possibility of pregnancy. You can reach your cervix through your vagina with your finger tips; it is often described as feeling like the tip of your nose. Around the time that you are ovulating, your cervix changes to become soft and open, to allow sperm passage to the uterus. If you are using cervical position as a fertility sign, when you are approaching ovulation, your cervix will feel soft, high (extending into the vagina) open and wet. These sensations are contrasted to the feeling of your cervix outside of the fertility period of your cycle – at these times the cervix will feel firm, low, closed and nonwet.

More Fertility Signs

Here are some additional fertility signs that you can keep an eye out for while you are keeping track of your main fertility indicators. Not all women experience these fertility signs, while others experience them irregularly, but they are still very practical to assist you in identifying the fertile phases of your cycle. Further fertility signs include:

Mid-cycle spotting
Pain or achiness in the lower abdomen
Increased sex drive
Fuller or swollen vaginal lips and vulva
Bloating in the abdomen
Water retention
Increased energy levels
Heightened senses – smell, vision, taste
Increased sensitivity of skin and breasts
Tender breasts
Enlarged lymph node in the groin – indicative of which ovary you will ovulate from