How to Increase Your Fertility Awareness

Many people are interested in the topic of fertility awareness. For anyone sexually active, fertility awareness is important. If you are trying to conceive, fertility awareness will be of great value to you. If you are trying to avoid pregnancy, fertility awareness is something you should know about. This article will show you how to increase your fertility awareness. Here are 15 methods for women and couples who are trying to increase their fertility awareness. The first methods are for those trying to avoid getting pregnant. When choosing a method of birth control, you want to choose what is comfortable and works for you. Condoms might not be the best choice for everyone, and some birth control pills have serious side effects. You can learn more about birth control methods by reading the website listed in the resources. Some birth control methods offer other positive benefits, such as helping you to get rid of acne. Consider additionally which methods will help protect against the risk of sexually transmitted diseases.

1. The most basic method for avoiding pregnancy is to use the ovulation cycle. Women ovulate 14 days after the beginning of the menstrual cycle on average, although this can vary from the tenth day to the nineteenth. Some women's cycles may differ even more than this. Start the first day of the women's period as day one, and ovulation will begin on day 14. The cycle lasts about three days.

Many have tried using the ovulation cycle to avoid pregnancy to find themselves pregnant. Much of this stems from the couple's misunderstanding of when ovulation occurs. Some might think it is 14 days after the last day of the period, or some might have no idea when ovulation occurs. However, a good deal of pregnancy occurs because the time of ovulation is hard to accurately predict, and it can vary from month to month. It also doesn't just last for one day.

You want to use caution if you use this method, and it is recommended to use this method on conjunction with other methods of birth control. If you use the ovulation cycle, your best bet is to have intercourse the day or two before your menstrual cycle starts, the day it starts, or up to two days after. These are your absolute safest days.

2. Withdrawal. This means that the man withdraws before ejaculation. This isn't often easy to do, so the man has to be able to pull off the feat. If he doesn't withdraw in time or doesn't move far enough away from the female, conception could still take place. This is a risky form of pregnancy prevention, but doesn't involve any undesirable side effects.

3. Ovulation test kits. These can be purchased over the counter, and work by helping a woman find out when she releases her egg. Once the egg is released, you are then safe to have sex in general for the rest of that cycle (which ends when the woman starts her period again).

4. Knowing your body. This is what fertility awareness is all about. You learn about the changes that take place in your body when you are about to ovulate. Some of these physical changes include an increased sex drive, bloating, and breast tenderness. The only problem is that these could be confused with the menstrual cycle itself, so take care to know where you are in the monthly cycle.

5. The most noninvasive method of birth control is the condom. There are many different types and styles, and these are used by the man. Only use condoms that are new- make sure to look at the expiration date. Use condoms right out of a sealed package. Don't trust ones that have been sitting out or ones that someone gives you. Someone could have poked holes in them. You can test this by blowing air into the condom to see if there are any leaks. For added protection, use condoms that have nonoxinol- 9. Nonoxinol 9 is a chemical that kills sperm. Use trusted brands of condoms only.

6. Now we move to more invasive methods of birth control. One is the pill, which women can take to avoid pregnancy. The pill is made by many different companies, and comes in many different forms. There are birth control pills that need to be taken daily, whereas others need to be taken much less often. The Birth Control Buzz website listed in the resources explores the different birth control pills on the market today. You can read up on them and talk to your doctor, to decide which is right for you.

7. The Ring. The ring is plastic, about two inches in diameter. It goes inside the woman's vagina and releases hormones similar to birth control pills. It lasts for one month. The way the ring works is to prevent the ovary from releasing an egg.

8. Spermicide. Spermicides kill sperm. These are inserted into the woman's vagina before intercourse. This method works best when paired with something else, like a condom, but is still effective if used alone. Spermicides may be in the form of jelly, a film, a foam or something else.

9. Cervical cap. The woman inserts this into her vagina before having intercourse. The cap is a cup that blocks entrance to the woman's uterus by fitting tightly over the cervix. My personal concern with this method would be how you would know if the cap actually fit tightly enough to block the sperm, since each woman's cervix will be different in size.

10. The Patch. This is plastic, and it sticks on the woman's skin. It releases hormones that stop the ovary from releasing an egg. A new patch must be used every week.

The next five methods will discuss fertility awareness methods that help you to conceive and get pregnant. Understand that there is about a seven day window each month when the woman can get pregnant. The seven days include five days before ovulation, the day of ovulation, and the day after ovulation.

11. Timing of ovulation by knowledge of your cycle. A couple of days before you ovulate, have sexual intercourse. If you keep ovulation calendars, you should be able to predict within a few days when you will ovulate next. If you have sexual intercourse on day 3 or 4 of the 7, you have more of a chance of getting pregnant. This is because even if you miscalculate, you can still hit the days when you are most fertile. Bend towards the 1st day rather than the last.

12. Ovulation test kits. These will help you learn when you ovulate each month, so you can start a calendar to know what day you usually ovulate in your cycle. After a few months, your accuracy increases when you take the average of the day number.

13. Temperature method. Your temperature goes up the day you ovulate, so you want to try to conceive the two days before this happens. Overtime, you can get better at watching your temperature. Even if you wait until ovulation day when the temperature rises, you can still have a good chance of getting pregnant.

14. Cervical mucus method. Check for changes in the mucus of the cervix to find out when you ovulate. This will help aid you in conception.

The final fertility awareness method doesn't really involve much knowledge of fertility.

15. It basically is really simple: do not have sexual intercourse and you won't get pregnant.