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I've just turned 40 years old. That means that I've spend over 20 years thinking about my fertility. Sometimes my goal was to achieve pregnancy, other times I wanted to prevent it. Either way, I discovered there are many ways to monitor fertility naturally.
One method is by using a tiny hand held microscope used to view saliva to determine your fertile period. The microscope pictured at the right is about the same size as a tube of lipstick so you can carry it around in your purse. The simplicity in this method of testing is wonderful. No more collecting urine for ovulation predictor kits. With this tiny microscope you simply lick the lens and wait 10 minutes for the saliva to dry then view your results. A woman's saliva changes in the 3-4 days leading up to ovulation. During those few days electrolytes (or salts) increase dramatically in body fluids (e.g.. cervical mucus and saliva) along with the hormone estrogen. This causes a ferning-like pattern to occur in dried cervical mucus and saliva. The ferning is caused by the dried salt and looks much like the frost seen on the window on a winter morning. A few days before ovulation you will start to see small lines about the width of a hair and about 1/4 of an inch long. There may be just a few or there may be many of them. The quantity is not as important as the presence of them.
You are now approaching ovulation. You should now test at least two times per day. Soon you will see the presence of more lines and they may become longer. The patterns may take different shapes, i.e.: veins in a leaf, snowflakes, spider's web, frost on a window pane. The lines will connect and overlap, this is the ferning pattern you are looking for. This means you are starting the ovulation process and now is the best time for relations. Continue to test at least two times a day. On any other day in the cycle the dried mucus or saliva will look like random unconnected dots. The fertile type ferning will return to a dot pattern usually about 2-3 days after ovulation. Some women report no ferning the day of ovulation, you will learn what is normal for you after a few cycles. When a combination of dots and ferns are present it is called a "transition" pattern the woman is less fertile, but conception is still very possible. A little hint; don't wait until the last day of ferning to do the "baby dance" as you may have missed the egg since ferning may continue for 2-3 days after ovulation. If you wish to conceive, have relations as soon as you see the fertile ferning and continue until it passes back to the infertile dot pattern.
© Karen Squires
Credits: Family Content
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