Tracking My Cycle Helped Me Get Pregnant
I am here to become the ambassador, the spokesperson for TRACKING YOUR CYCLE!
Why?? Because I know for sure it helped me get and stay pregnant this time.
I started tracking my cycle for real for real in the months leading to this pregnancy. I took a test to map out my cycle hormones every day and found a few alarming issues
Poor follicle and egg development
Early ovulation
Low progesterone
Short luteal phase/implantation window
None which I would have ever found if I didn’t track multiple cycles
Flash tutorial on cycle tracking
Here are the high points of tracking you can get started to find out what’s going with your fertility. Because I believe it is the easiest way to check in your fertility daily and regain confidence in your ability and chances of getting pregnant naturally.
Why?? A healthy cycle is the best if not only way to a natural pregnancy. The best chance of you and your partner making a baby the good old fashion way or even doing an in home insemination
Checking your cycle and UNDERSTANDING what you are looking at so you can pinpoint red flags is NON-NEGOTIABLE to address and fix your fertility. We are no long flying blindly ladies!! We are arming ourselves with tools and knowledge!!! Each day from day one of bleeding to your next bleed is needed for pregnancy prep and pregnancy success. It’s time to check and see if things are going well.
Let’s go over what and how to track each day of your cycle to assess your body’s pregnancy readiness and friendliness. You will finally be able to see if you aren’t getting pregnant or is your cycle not preparing your body for pregnancy?
The what and the how
If you do nothing else you need to be checking your basal body temperature (BBT) and your cervical mucus (CM). I can’t even really say which one is the top priority but, if I really really had to I would say track your CM. This helps you find your fertile window (FW) and these days are your only shot to get pregnant if there is a shot this cycle. BBT is needed to track issues and timing each phase of your cycle which is so important for why you are not getting pregnant.
What app
Tempdrop: to be used with their wearable band that passively captures and records your lowest resting temp overnight. (Learn more here. Be sure to use my affiliate code MOONCATCHING for an additional discount.)
Kindara: my favorite free app, that I used religious before grabbing the Tempdrop. I only switch because I grew tired of taking my oral temp every morning. When you do this for months and years, some cool tech might be worth it.
Lets start with CM
Cervical mucus is sperm’s best friend. It provides nutrients, a place to live and swim, and it ushers sperm towards the egg when right before ovulation. If tracking CM types is confusion don’t bother. Instead focus on egg white and “other”, and none, your dry days. Don’t worry if you can’t tell sticky from creamy. Egg white is the start of the show as it it the most fertile and normally appears a few days before ovulation, signalling to you that these are the best sex days.
Remember: CM marks your FW. Sex only on 6 days each cycle can lead to pregnancy
Do not miss the boat. Be there early. It is best for sperm to be available days before ovulation.
Now BBT
Tracking your BBT tells you where you are in your cycle: have you ovulated yet or not. If you are tracking your BBT every day, every other day at the least, and you see CM you know in a few days you should expect ovulation. Then you will look for the famous thermal shift. This is rise in your BBT that is at least 0.2 degrees higher than yesterday and the previous six days. You will now have a new cluster of these higher, postovulatory temps until the end of this cycle.
Remember: tracking your BBT is the only way to confirm your ovulation each month. CM predicts it, but BBT confirms it.
Luteal phase defect
Another benefit of tracking BBT is it lets you identify your luteal phase length, to determine if you have a luteal phase defect. The luteal phase, or postovulatory phase, makes up your implantation window. Checking for a defect let’s you see if there enough time for a fertilized egg to implant and stop your cycling hormones before you start your next bleed. Is it possible that you are losing a pregnancy before it even starts?
So why aren’t you tracking?
If you are struggling to get pregnant and you don’t know why its not working and you are NOT tracking your cycle then you are getting in your own way. You are doing yourself a huge disservice. Once you track and collect this info month after month to see the patterns, you will also be able to see how your lifestyle, habits, and nutrition may be impacting your cycle.
“Every time I travel for work my ovulation is late or I skip it.”
“When I keep up with my water my CM finally gets to the egg white stage!”
You can see that you don’t ovulate or you ovulate early or that your luteal phase is short. All these things reflect certain hormones…and the hormone issues reflect your health…and your health is a reflection of your lifestyle habits and nutrition.
Do you see where I’m going with this?
YOU HAVE CONTROL OVER YOUR FERTILITY AND HORMONE LEVELS NO MATTER WHAT THE FERTILTY CLINC TOLD YOU OR HOW LONG YOU HAVE ALREADY BEEN TRYING
You have control over your fertility and hormone levels no matter what the fertility clinic told you or how long you have been trying. But you can’t fix anything if you don’t know what to fix.
You MUST TRACK YOUR CYCLE MAMA!!!
