Building Confidence in Timing Your Fertile Window

If you're trying to conceive and having a hard time feeling confident in when your ovulation day is or tracking your fertile window, here are three tips we often share with patients that can help you better understand when you're most fertile!

• Don't Rely on Cycle Tracking Apps. We recommend only using these apps as means to track and look at data, but not to rely on them as the only way to identify ovulation. This is more of a tool to help you track data as you go through cycles, looking for trends and keep track of symptoms you'd like to discuss. These apps cannot accurately predict YOUR ovulation day because they are not individualized to you.
• Use Ovulation Test Strips. Ovulation strips will help narrow down your fertile window and feel more confident in ovulation day.
  • Our number one tip with these is track for longer. One of the biggest things we see in our clinic is that people are not using the strips for long enough to identify positive ovulation. We typically recommend taking 2-3 cycles to start testing around days 7-9 of your cycle and continue to test all the way until you get a positive result.
  • Why we recommend this wide testing window. This helps you get more familiar with the 5 day window before ovulation, which is technically considered your fertile window. It's more common for people to ovulate earlier or later than that midpoint in their cycle, which is why it's important to keep such a wide window of tracking initially!
  • Using Ovulation Test Strips. Test on your strips once per day, around the same time of day if possible, in the afternoon. This time is ideal so it tracks after LH would have peaked in the urine.
• Start tracking cervical mucous changes. Put these results in line with positive ovulation test strips, or wherever you keep your menstrual data. This will help increase confidence in identifying your fertile window cervical mucous.
  • Understanding cervical mucous. As estrogen increases as we approach ovulation, cervical mucous thins. It's not uncommon to have a few days of thinner, egg-white type mucous at this time. This makes it difficult to track ovulation if you're relying on cervical mucous alone. It's best to track these changes and compare these changes to the ovulation strip tests!

We hope you found these tips helpful! When it comes to optimizing fertility, tracking positive ovulation is just one factor we consider. We also look at exercise, sleep, stress management, lifestyle recommendations and supplementation when necessary! Our naturopathic doctors at inbloom identify obstacles to conception that are relevant to you, and help support you through your fertility journey. Book today for individualized care by clicking here.

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