Fertility Options Coach

Human chorionic gonadotropin (HCG) is a hormone produced during pregnancy. HCG is the hormone measured in pregnancy tests. A level less than 5mIU/ml is considered negative for pregnancy and anything over 25mIU/ml is considered positive. Urine tests for HCG (home pregnancy tests) are able to detect different levels of HCG. The most sensitive tests can detect levels as low as 25mIU/ml and can be effective as early as 11 days after conception. Blood tests are more sensitive than urine tests and can detect pregnancy sooner.

Your doctor can order two different types of HCG tests. A qualitative HCG test is usually used to determine if you are pregnant. A quantitative HCG test is used to determine how much HCG is present which can help determine the viability of the pregnancy. HCG is produced by the placenta as the baby develops. The amount of HCG doubles approximately every 48-72 hours during the first 8 to 11 weeks of pregnancy. As the end of the first trimester nears, the HCG levels begin to decline and level off.

An HCG quantitative test will tell you how much HCG is present in your blood. When the placents is not developing normally, the HCG levels do not rise as they should. This may mean that the embryo is not viable and that a miscarriage is likely. However, HCG levels vary widely and many normal pregnancies have low HCG levels. One HCG test does not tell you much. It is not an accurate way to date a pregnancy – an ultrasound at 5-6 weeks is much more accurate. Two HCG quantitative tests 48 hours or more apart can give you an idea of how healty the pregnancy. HCG levels usually double every 48-72 hours. So, seeing that your HCG levels are rising can indicate a healthy pregnancy.

What if your HCG levels are lower than expected? While this could mean a problem with the pregnancy, quite often it is simply that the dates are wrong. I spent a difficult weekend worrying about a miscarriage only to have an ultrasound show that the dates were off by 12 days, making my HCG levels high for the actual gestational age not low! It is important to talk to your doctor since a low HCG level can indicate a problem such as an ectopic pregnancy.

What if your HCG levels are higher than expected? Again, this could mean that the dates were miscalculated. It may also mean a multiple pregnancy or a molar pregnancy.

If you are trying to get pregnant you need this book. No other book is so well respected. It is recommended often by doctors and others who specialize in fertility and often quoted on the infertility message boards. “Taking Charge of Your Fertility” by Toni Weschler is the most important book you can read if you are trying to have a baby. Even if you don’t have fertility problems, this book will teach you how to improve your odds of pregnancy – or help you avoid pregnancy naturally.

Weschler takes you through the cues that your body gives you to when you are most fertile. Many wome have no idea how to read these signs since we are never taught to look for them. In addition to great explanations Weschler provides full color photos. So, when you are wondering how to tell the difference between normal vaginal fluids and cervical mucus you can refer to the pictures and see exactly what you are looking for.

You will also learn how to make sense of the basal body temperature (BBT) charts your doctor may ask you to keep. If you suspect that you may have a fertility problem, it is a great idea to read this book a few months before your required “try it for a year” period is up. You can then go to your doctor with a couple of months of completed temperature charts to prove your case. This can save you months of waiting since your doctor may ask to see these before they move on to treatment.

Some women may find this book to be too direct, but once you have been at the fertility game a while you think nothing of talking about cervical mucus and basal body temperature charts with all of your online friends. The truth is that understanding how your body works will give you the best chance at success in the fertility game.

When you are trying to conceive, the most important question is whether or not you are ovulating. Without ovulation, there can be no conception. Detecting ovulation can be difficult, but there are a lot of tools to help you determine if and when you are ovulating.

Fertility Signs

The cheapest method is to track your own fertility signs. In fact, learning to recognize your fertility signs is important even if you also use other methods. The best way to learn to track your ovulation signs is with a book such as Taking Charge of Your Fertility.

Tracking your fertility can include charting your basal body temperature. For this you will need a sensitive thermometer and a charting method. Simply take your temperature every morning before you move or do anything else. Over the course of a month your temperature chart will indicate whether or not you ovulated. This is far from fool-proof, but it does give a good indication of ovulation. The only catch is that it shows you after you ovulate rather than before.

Another method is to check for fertile cervical mucus. The cervix produces mucus throughout the cycle, but around the time of ovulation the mucus changes to a stringy, clear and often in copious amounts.

Finally, learning to track the position and texture of your cervix. A high, soft cervix indicates fertility around the time of ovulation. A low, hard cervix indicates that you are not currently fertile. Taking Charge of Your Fertility has extensive information about tracking all of these signs.

Ovulation Tests Strips or Ovulation Monitor

Just before a woman ovulates there is a surge in luteinizing hormone (LH). This LH surge begins approximately 48 hours before ovulation and peaks just before ovulation. Knowing you are about to ovualte maximizes your chance of conception since you can plan intercourse accordingly.

Ovulation monitors are pricy but can be easy to use. Ovulation test strips are a much more cost-effective way to test your LH levels. I found that some over the counter brands (the cheapest ones) did not work at all for me and gave me false negative tests. I used ovulation test strips from an online store and found them to be very effective.

Women with PCOS sometimes have elevated LH levels even when they are not ovulating. You’ll know if this is the case if you have repeated positive tests for more than 48-72 hours.

Saliva Test

The quality of your saliva also changes around the time of ovulation. A saliva scope can help you to see the microscopic ferning that is characteristic of saliva at ovulation.

Using these methods an help you track ovulation. However, none of them prove ovuation. Only a blood test can do that. Your best bet is to use one or more of these methods to track ovulation over several months. Continue trying to conceive when you think you might be about to ovulate or have just ovulated. If after 6-12 months you have not conceived, it is time to take your results to your doctor. Showing your ovulation records to your doctor can save you time and money if fertility treatments become necessary.

Wondering if you are pregnant is one of the most crazy-making parts of infertility. I spent so much time agonizing over every little symptom, wondering if it might be for real this time. The hard part is that PMS and early pregnancy have a lot in common. For some women the signs are subtle and easy to miss, for others they are unmistakable from the beginning. Many women tell me they were sick right off, but the average seems to be close to what I experienced with nausea setting in around week 6.

Here are some typical signs of early pregnancy:

* Swollen or tender breasts. Now, this is also common for some women with PMS, but for me it was more pronounced than usual. I was noticing this from about day 7.

* Feeling full or bloated. The body starts to retain water in your abdomen pretty quickly for some women. Also, as your uterus begins to grow, you may feel a heaviness or light cramping.

* Basal body temperature stays elevated. If you are tracking your temperatures to predict ovulation, your temperature should stay elevated if you are pregnant. If you are not pregnant, your temperature will drop slightly around day 10 or so. I was using a very sensitive pregnancy test, so I was tested positive about the same time a temperature drop, or not, would have begun to clue me in.

* Fatigue. Tired, soo, very tired. I was starting to feel sleepy by about 2 weeks. Most women report that they feel extra sleepy during the first trimester. I suspect this is the body’s way of making sure we don’t try to climb Mount Everest while the baby is settling in and setting up housekeeping.

* Sense of smell. For many women, one of the first signs of pregnancy is that their sense of smell becomes heightened. Even with my chronic allergies, I could smell perfume, food or body odor from quite a distance. I started telling my husband to brush his teeth every 5 minutes and forbade him to eat garlic.

I highly recommend getting some cheap early pregnancy tests. They made me stay much saner during the TTC process. The day I first saw a positive test strip I was in shock. I had to take 4 tests to even begin to believe. Cheap (but effective) test strips are a life-saver! The ones from Amazon work well and are super cheap.