Home And Family

Dry or sticky mucous makes it difficult for sperm to get anywhere. If you think of the strands of mucous as threads, during dry and sticky days, it is like a tangle of short threads in all different directions. This configuration makes it difficult for sperm to travel through it, and most do not make it.

Slippery mucous, however, is also known as fertile mucous. You will have fertile mucous for a few days leading up to ovulation (when the ovary releases an egg). Fertile mucous looks and feels like egg white. The strands of fertile mucous are aligned all in the same direction, helping sperm travel swiftly into the uterus and up to their destination.

If you have intercourse during any of these fertile days, it increases your chance of becoming pregnant during that cycle, since you are about to ovulate and the sperm have a greater chance of reaching the egg.

The egg has a life span of about 24 hours unless it gets fertilized. To increase your chances of getting pregnant, intercourse should be timed to happen several times while you are experiencing fertile mucous. The more sperm, the better the chances that one will reach the egg!

If you track your waking temperature every morning, this can help you figure out when you ovulate as well. Your temperature will range on the lower end of normal (97.0-99.0) before ovulation. It will rise higher after ovulation, sustaining a higher temperature until your period comes again.

If you want a number of useful techniques and strategies–not just one. then select any of these links.