How to Tell When You Can Get Pregnant

Women can only get pregnant when they ovulate or release an egg from an ovary and it is fertilized. Ovulation usually occurs once during the middle of a woman's cycle, but exactly when can be influenced by many factors and can be hard to predict. Women can get pregnant from around one to two days before ovulation and and one or two days after ovulation. The key to knowing when you can get pregnant is looking for the signs of ovulation.

Things You'll Need

  • Thermometer Ovulation Prediction Test

Instructions

    • 1

      Generally, a woman's menstrual cycle is 28 days long but between 21 and 36 days is considered normal. Keep track of the actual days in your cycle and count 14 days back from your next expected period to find the day you will likely ovulate. Individual women's cycles can vary from month to month and be influenced by stress and other physical factors you cannot control so this is not always the most reliable method.

    • 2

      Take your basal body temperature (BBT) with a special BBT thermometer orally every morning before you get out of bed, preferably at the same time every day. Do not move around, eat or drink before you take the reading. Keep track of your BBT, when you ovulate you will see a temperature spike of at least .4 degrees that will remain until just before your period. It may take more than one cycle to predict when ovulation will occur.

    • 3

      Using your fingers or toilet paper, check your cervical mucus. Prior to ovulation there will be little or no mucus present. Immediately before and during ovulation, cervical mucus will increase and take on an egg white consistency that you can stretch between your fingers.

    • 4

      Use an online ovulation calculator to help narrow down fertile days. Enter your last period date and average cycle length to get your likely fertile days and estimated due dates for the next six months (see Resources). Ovulation calculators follow the calendar method outlined in step one, but are an easy way to predict future cycles.

    • 5

      Take an ovulation prediction test according to the package directions, usually using a urine sample, but some tests use saliva. Take the test in the afternoon between noon and 8 p.m. The test will show the presence of luteinizing hormone, the hormone associated with ovulation. Unlike pregnancy tests you may get a faint line at any time, the test is only positive when the test line is as dark as or darker than the control line. A positive result means that ovulation will occur within the next day or two.

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