Many couples who are trying to conceive prefer to start with more natural choices. Here are some helpful hints that may aid you in your quest for conception.

 
• Cut back on your alcohol and caffeine intake. This goes for you and your partner.  
• Quit smoking. Again, this is something both you and/or your partner need to do to help your body’s reproductive organs function properly.  
• There are various over-the-counter aids that you can buy to help you chart when you’re most fertile. One of the most popular and helpful is a thermometer that measures your basal body temperature. While this device is very helpful, especially if you use it with an ovulation calendar, it must be used properly to produce accurate results. You use the thermometer before you get out of bed in the morning to record your temperature. When you are ovulating, your body temperature will rise by almost one degree. While the thermometer doesn’t let you know in advance when ovulation will take place, tracking your temperature over a series of months will help you learn your body’s ovulation cycle.  
• Use an ovulation microscope. Prior to ovulating, women have a surge in their estrogen, changing the look of their saliva. Using an ovulation microscope, you can easily identify your surge 72 hours in advance of ovulation.  
• Use an ovulation calendar. Start marking the first day of your period on the calendar. After a few months, you should be able to see the average length of your cycle. Now, take that number (whether it’s 24 days or 32 days) and subtract 17 from it. This is when you will be most fertile (so, if you have a 30 day cycle, then you would be most fertile around the 13th day of your cycle). However, this is not the day that you are ovulating. A woman is generally the most fertile just before she ovulates. Sperm can survive inside of you between 24 and 72 hours. Using a calendar with a thermometer should give a really clear idea of your body’s cycles and when you are most fertile. If you find it frustrating, though, to keep track of both your temperature and your ovulation, there is now free software you can download that will help you. Not only does it keep track of the information, the program also interprets the data for you, making it easy to know just when you are fertile.