Introduction to Fertility Charting

Fertility Charting allows you to chart and predict ovulation by looking at - and recording over time - important fertility variables.

Methods of fertility prediction used in fertility charting include:

• Changes in your body temperature (BBT) [1]
• Cervical mucus analysis [2]
• Cervical position examination [3]
• Calendar patterns of fertile/infertile periods [4]
• Ovulation Testing (LH Home Diagnostics) [5]

Ovulation Prediction: Starting A Fertility Chart

In order to maximize your chance of getting pregnant, fertility charting involves looking at a number of different fertility variables and recording observations over time on a special fertility calendar (or fertility chart).

[6]

Download A Fertility Chart

• Fertility Chart Fahrenheit [6] (PDF)
• Fertility Chart Celsius [7](PDF)

How Do Fertility Charts Work?

Fertility charting combines several methods of ovulation prediction to help pinpoint your most fertile times with increasing accuracy. The most comprehensive fertility charts ask you to record:

• The dynamics of your menstrual cycle: calendrical recording of cycle days beginning with the first day of your menstrual bleeding, physiological or emotional changes, breast tenderness, ovulation pain / Mittelschmerz, or any unique, regular symptoms that helps you identify stages in your cycle.
• Basal Body Temperature: Charting the time you take your BBT temperature, temperature increases or decreases from day to day.
• Cervical Mucus Observations: Charting changes in the presence and feel of cervical fluids.
• Cervical Position Observations: Charting changes in the position and feel of the cervix throughout the menstrual cycle.
• Ovulation Test Results: Recording the date of your LH Surge (the moment of ovulation).

By charting these variables - and looking at patterns and relationships - you will be able to determine your most fertile time for conceiving a baby. To look at each of these variables (or fertility prediction methods) in detail, click on the links below:

> Return to Fertility Charting
[8]> Changes in your body temperature (BBT) [1]
> Cervical mucus analysis [2]
> Cervical position examination [3]
> Calendar patterns of fertile/infertile periods [4]
> Ovulation Testing (LH Home Diagnostics) [5]