Best Time to Get Pregnant

How do you know when the best time to get pregnant is? The bets time to get pregnant is the time you are most fertile. Most women are fertile around ovulation. Ovulation generally occurs roughly midway through the menstrual cycle. During ovulation your body releases a mature ovum into your uterus from the ovarian follicles. The egg or ovum then waits to be fertilized for a period of roughly 12 hours. Thereafter it degenerates and stimulates the monthly menses. If the egg is fertilized, you are officially pregnant!

Deciding The Best Time To Get Pregnant

It is important if you are trying to conceive that you consider your monthly cycle and time intercourse around and before ovulation to ensure conception. You should know that even with proper planning, only 25% of couples will conceive the first month they try. That said roughly 80% will succeed within the first several months of trying.

By tracking your fertility and ovulation, you can start charting when the best time to conceive is. Your best bet is to plan sexual intercourse in the days preceding and the day of ovulation.

One way you can decide the best time of the month to get pregnant is by counting the number of days in your cycle. Most women ovulate between days 12 and 16 of their cycle, though this does vary from women to women. Ovulation can also be delayed by several days due to illness, stress or other factors.

Cervical Mucous and Fertility Tracking

Yet another way to track your fertility is by cervical mucus monitoring. As you approach your most fertile period, the cervical mucous in your vagina changes in consistency and texture. Most women find they produce more cervical mucous that is clear, slippery or stretchy. This is a sign that your cervical mucous is fertile, capable of supporting sperm for several days to help promote conception. Fertile cervical mucous enhances the chances you will conceive successfully.

Basal Body Temperature and Pregnancy

One effective method for tracking your fertility is using a basal body temperature. Most women's basal body temperature increases up to 1.6 degrees after ovulation. If you track your basal body temperature for several months before trying to conceive, you'll start recognizing a pattern in your ovulation. A basal thermometer is not the same as an ordinary thermometer. It is much more sensitive and hence ideal for measuring small or incremental temperature changes.

The key is taking your temperature first thing in the morning, before you get up to do anything including using the bathroom. Several factors can influence your temperature including an illness or not getting enough sleep, so it is important you track your temperature for several cycles to get an idea of how regular your cycle is.

Once you start charting you should be able to pinpoint within a couple of days when you will ovulation. The best time to have intercourse when trying to conceive is the two to three days leading up to ovulation. This allows sperm time to travel up the vagina and wait for the egg to drop.

Some women prefer using a more exact method of timing intercourse. There are many ovulation predictors you can buy that will help you pinpoint ovulation within a day or two. Still others rely on other body signs including tender breasts or lower abdominal cramping to help predict ovulation. Many women experience one sided abdominal cramping at or around the time of ovulation. Unfortunately this is not an exact science, as some women will cramp before, others during and still others just after ovulation. Either way, if you combine each of the methods recommended above you stand a good chance of predicting the best time to get pregnant!