So you want to get pregnant, how do you go about doing that? Well first, we need to know when your fertile window occurs. Here timing is everything. If we miss this small window, we miss our opportunity for getting pregnant this month.

Secondly, how do you know whether or not ovulation has even occurred? Should you still be doing your homework i.e. sex, or are we done with that?

Here are two acronyms you need to know, OPK and BBT.
In my experience, most women that come into Fertile Turtle Acupuncture are using some form of ovulation predictor kit (OPK) to decipher the small window of time when ovulation occurs. It is believed there is approximately 20 hours where sperm has the opportunity to fertilize an egg on its way to the uterus.

This is a very small window of opportunity. So how do OPKs help fine tune our timing?

OPKs detect a rise in LH levels (the hormone that induces ovulation) which happens 24-48 hours prior to ovulation, depending on which kit you use.

Of course this information is great for planning purposes and you should be having sex now! But the problem is, how do you know if ovulation has actually occurred in that time frame or if you are ovulating at all?

My favorite method for detecting ovulation is cheap, quick and easy. All you need is a digital thermometer and some consistency. Its called Basal Body Temperature (BBT).

How it works is every morning as you begin to wake, you immediately take your temp. When I say immediately, I mean it. There is no getting up to pee first, no sex and no conversation to be had before taking that temp! What we see when we do this every day of the cycle is a beautiful wave-like pattern our hormones produce.

When ovulation occurs you will see a clear 1/2 of a degree jump. I describe this jump as the explosion that occurs in your body when an egg is released, validating you have ovulated! Once this temp has risen you can make that your last day of homework if you are tired of having timed sex.

Here, I must stress. We want sperm to be waiting for the egg to be released, just hanging out. We also want reinforcements sent frequently, at least every other day during this fertile window. Meaning have frequent sex once your OPK is positive and continue until your temp has spiked.

So how do you keep track of all this? I have a favorite app that I ask all my patients to start using as soon as they decide to begin trying. It is called Kindara, https://www.kindara.com/home.

Kindara is free and easy to use. Here is how you do it, plug in your temp each day, or better yet, purchase their new Wink thermometer that syncs with the app so you dont have to do a thing except put in the date of your last menstrual period.

(Disclaimer here: this thermometer was just released in the last few weeks, it is back ordered and possibly may have a few glitches to work out).

Once your temps are in, the system provides a chart so you can see that wave-like pattern we are so desperately hoping for. There is a box to check to indicate whether your OPK gave a negative or positive result that day and another box to check for sex.

You are even able to personalize it to include how you are feeling emotionally, how you are sleeping, etc. It is a wealth of information at your fingertips, and its all in one place! The beauty of this app for me is that you can share it with a practitioner, meaning each time you come in we pull up your chart on my iPad and discuss it together.

Eventually, once your cycle is regulated through acupuncture and herbs, we wont need to continue with both of these tracking devices because your fertile window will now be predictable. But until then, continue them daily for your best chances of conception.

Easy peezy nice and easy, and that is the way we like it.

If you are having challenges getting pregnant, there are many intricacies that need to happen during a cycle and many places for glitches to occur.

I will be discussing these topics in detail at a later date. For now, if you have questions regarding these two fertility tracking tools, or how to use the app, feel free to make an appointment to come in and discuss.

Till next time.