I often write about pinpointing your ovulation day and then conceiving before or after it as one way to influence whether you have a girl or a boy baby. As the result, people often ask me how they can pinpoint their ovulation day and tell when that precise day is approaching. There are many ways to do this. In my view and experience, some of them are not as reliable as others. I will discuss this more in the following article.

Determining Ovulation Times By Averaging The Days In Your Cycle:This is the very non scientific approach that many women take. They will basically just hope that their most fertile day occurs mid way through their cycle. So, for example if you have a 30 day cycle, then you would shoot for around day 15 (after your menstrual period.) And this math is easy enough. But the problem with this method is that not every one ovulates half way through their cycle. Every one is different and what is normal for one person may not be normal for another. I often advise women to use more reliable testing for at least one month to see if they do in fact ovulate half way through like they are assuming. (Many times, they are surprised to learn that they don't and that this varies from month to month.)

The Basal Temperature Method Of Determining Approaching Ovulation:This a very old method that most of our grandmother's used. The idea is that you take your temperature first thing in the morning (before eating or going to the bathroom) for every morning of your cycle. You then chart your temperature to see the patterns that the chart forms. Following ovulation, your temperature should noticeably rise. In this way, this method really only tells you when ovulation has already taken place (which doesn't cut it if you're trying to conceive a girl baby) but the idea is that over the course of a few months you should start to see a pattern that is unique to you.

Cervical Mucus Monitoring As A Way To Tell That Ovulation Is On It's Way:With this method, you have to extract some of your cervical mucus and try to stretch it between your fingers. The idea is that the consistency of the mucus changes depending on where you are in your fertility cycle. In the beginning, you will have a hard time extracting it because it's not nearly as present or plentiful. As ovulation approaches, the mucus should be white and somewhat sticky. It should break apart easily when you stretch it between your fingers. When ovulation occurs, the substance becomes clear and much more easy to manipulate. Often when you stretch it between your fingers, it either doesn't break at all or stretches very far before it does. I've always found this method to be hit or miss and frankly a bit cumbersome and invasive, but some people swear by it.

What I Consider To Be The Best Way To Gauge Ovulation: Predictor Kits:Sometimes, I have people tell me that they don't want to have to buy any expensive equipment to help them influence their baby's gender. I would understand this if the predictors were expensive, but they aren't. You're typically only talking about $30 for a very good predictor and many are less than that. When you're talking about something as life changing as a successful pregnancy or choosing your baby's gender, this doesn't seem like a high price to me.

The reason that I like these predictors is that they rely on science rather than your ability to evaluate changing information. They measure your bodily fluids and remove the guess work. There are saliva and urine predictors and both work fine, but some are better than others depending on whether you want a girl or a boy. I feel that saliva predictors are better for couples that want a girl because they are more sensitive and give you a longer warning or "heads up" period. This is important because for a baby girl conception, you need to conceive days before ovulation. Urine predictors are fine for people who are trying for a boy baby. But saliva predictors generally cover both situations.

I've put together a few websites that take a lot of the guess work out of determining ovulation times and choosing your baby's gender. You'll find step by step instructions, resources for determining ovulation times (and examples of good saliva and ovulation predictors,) douche recipes and food PH lists, information on when to conceive, and support.

If you want a boy baby, check out /

If you want a girl baby, check out /