Sunday 1 January 2012

TMI Alert - Cervical Mucus Analysis

Hi all, hope you are all enjoying the first day of the year.
DH and I are keeping it quite chilled today, and it got me thinking a bit about the things I want to improve on for this year. One of those things is analysing my cervical mucus. Some women seem to be so on top of this, but I really do struggle. I think I don't produce a lot of it to begin with so it is hard for me to monitor it without making a conscious effort to do so.

The three primary fertility signs are-
1.basal body temp
2.cervical mucus
3.cervical position

I generally suck at the other two, so I am going to try and focus on noting my cervical fluid. "Cervical fluid is to a woman what seminal fluid is to the man." Since men are always fertile, they continuously produce seminal fluid. Women on the other hand are only fertile the few days around ovulation, and therefore only produce the substance necessary for sperm nourishment and mobility during that time. Basically, sperm can only survive the fertile cervical mucus that is present around a woman's ovulation.. So the pattern is supposed to go like this-

  • after AF there is generally no CM present, 
  • then after some days you should start to notice sticky CM that could also be describes as pasty, tacky, crumbly. gummy, springy, or even cement like - its also usually white or yellowish.
  • it then becomes more creamy, like a lotion, it may feel milky and smooth. It is usually quite wet, moist, gooey, or cold.
  • soon after it should become slimy and slippery and resemble egg whites - it will stretch a few inches between your fingers, also it will be wet, lubricative, or even humid.
  • immediately after ovulation you may notice nothing at all or a dry sticky CM
Some of you may have seen this already, but if not this will help.

So in my case, I have been trying to be more aware of these transitions, and I am planning to focus more on this, this year.I have heard somewhere that if you have PCOS it may not be so simple to read, as you notice eggwhite CM and do not eventually go on to ovulate (why does everything seem to be so difficult with PCOS?) In my last post I mentioned that I had notice a more fertile CM and was hoping that it means I ovulated - but who knows, at cd64 i'm clutching at straws here.

If any of you have any experience of this, I would love to hear about it, please let me know if this helped you in your journey at all. I have read about women who said they woke up swimming in eggwhites, they BD'd and a few weeks later, they were preggers.

Take care, and baby dust to all.

4 comments:

  1. Hi! I just caught up reading all of your blog posts. My heart wants the post about xmas day maybe being O-day to come true for you!!!!! I will keep reading to see when (if!?!?!?!? maybe xmas worked a miracle for you!) af comes and how your appointments go. Don't worry about having your period during any scans... the doctors have seen it all (and worse) before. So just do what you need to do for the goal of a little bundle in your arms!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks for your supportive words, they mean so much to me. My fingers are tightly crossed, I've started to feel slightly sore breast today- that usually means AF is on her way, we'll see, either way I just want to move on to my next cycle. Take care

    ReplyDelete
  3. I'm usually able to figure out what kind of CM I have (it's cervical position I have the hardest time interpreting these days), and the biggest thing that helped me is the section in the book "Taking Charge of Your Fertility" that explains what each type could possibly look like, as well as pictures to show variations in each type. It's helpful when I feel like I'm borderline between one type or another. BTW, I found your through B&B. I wish you luck on your TTC journey - I hope 2012 turns out to be a great year for us both!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Thanks Jah, fingers crossed for us all this year, I also struggle with the cervical position that why I decided to focus on CM, seems easier. Thanks for taking the time to visit my blog. I actually have this book, will have to dig it out from wherever I dumped it. How can I find you on BnB?

    ReplyDelete