One of the most crucial components to conceiving is a true understanding of how your cycle works. If you know when your peak fertility days occur, you know when you should plan to have intercourse.

Understanding Your Cycles - Menstruation And Pregnancy

However, before you put intercourse on your calendar, you should make sure you understand how the biologic process of ovulation occurs. Contrary to what your eighth grade health teacher may have told you, not every woman operates on a standard 28-day cycle. On average, cycle lengths can vary usually from 21-42 days. The beginning of each cycle starts with the first day of your period, which can usually last from three to seven days. Most women experience the worst pains, if any, on the first day of their cycle as their bodies prepare to shed the lining built up in the uterus from the previous cycle.

At the beginning of your cycle, the body begins to produce follicle stimulating hormone (FSH), which is the main hormone involved in the production of mature eggs. With the release of FSH the body also releases estrogen to aid in the development of mature eggs. While a number of follicles are stimulated with the release of FSH, normally one becomes dominant. This is the egg that will be released upon ovulation. At the same time this follicle is ripening the egg within, estrogen production has stimulated your uterus to grow with a thick lining full of nutrients that will eventually provide the nourishment to the fertilized egg should you conceive. The estrogen surge will also produce fertile cervical mucus, which creates a more habitable environment for sperm to swim through.

Eventually the rise in estrogen will cause a rapid rise in Luteinizing Hormone (LH), which provides the ripening egg with the needed incentive to be released from the follicle. This release is known as ovulation.

Once the egg is released, it moves down the fallopian tube and into the uterine cavity. Maximum chances of conception happen if intercourse occurs on the days before ovulation as the egg can only live for 24 hours while sperm can live up to five days. If fertilization does not occur, the body produces decreased amounts of estrogen and progesterone until eventually your next period begins.

Tracking Your Cycle With the An Easy Digital Ovulation Test

So if every woman has a different cycle, how will you know when you are ovulating? And, more importantly, how will you be able to predict ovulation so that you can have intercourse before? There are many methods to tracking and charting fertility, including tracking your basal body temperature, cervical mucus or cervix position. However, none of these methods are as effective at predicting the 24-36 hour window before ovulation than using an easy digital ovulation test. This type of test helps you pinpoint the best two days naturally by detecting your LH surge. This kit is the most effective because it provides clear, digital results that mean you do not have to interpret lines like on a standard test. If you use the ovulation test once a day at the same time around the days you expect your LH surge, it will help you identify the days you are most likely to conceive.