What Is My Body Trying To Tell Me? - Learn To Recognise The 3 Tell Tale Fertility Signs

Fertility Signs

There are lots of of fertility cues that you can begin to recognize and watch for during your monthly fertility cycle. Being aware of your own fertility cycle, and being able to recognise the tell tale symptoms which are your body’s way of telling you when you are at your most fertile, are excellent 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 making yourself familiar with your fertility symptoms

Fertility Sign # 1 – Basal Body Temperature

One of the most habitualy witnessed fertility symptoms is the increase of (waking) Basal Body Temperature (BBT) which takes place 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 rise remains until the woman gets her period. The best way to make use of BBT as a fertility cue is to record 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 post ovulation.

It is important that you are aware that there will be other factors in your day to day activities 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 Sign # 2 – Cervical Fluid (Cervical Mucus

Cervical fluid or cervical mucus is another great fertility signal that you can utilise to keep a track of your fertility. You may or may not have detected that your cervical fluid changes in consistency and quantity throughout your monthly cycle. Basically, these changes happen 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 to be fertilised, your body does not need to excrete sperm-friendly cervical fluid. To use the observation of cervical fluid as a fertility signal, keep a record of the changes (to your cervical fluid) that you become aware of 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 Sign # 3 – Cervical Position

Your cervix goes through a lot of changes during your monthly fertility cycle, learning to observe 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 concequent 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 easier passage to the womb. 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 non-wet.

Further 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 working out the fertile phase of your cycle. Further fertility signs include:

* Mid-cycle spotting (light bleeding)
* 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