OVULATION – Is cervical MUCUS good for predicting the FERTILE WINDOW?

OVULATION – Is cervical MUCUS good for predicting the FERTILE WINDOW?

Transcription :

It might sound obvious, but you can’t get pregnant if you’re not having intercourse on the right day. And many of you are relying on apps to tell you when you’re ovulating so that you know when you’re in your fertile window and when you have to have intercourse. But there’s nothing like understanding your body and the signs and symptoms that your body’s telling you so that you can know for sure when you’re ovulating and when the best day or days are to have intercourse. So that’s exactly what I’m going to be talking about in this video, is how to understand your cervical mucus, the importance of it, and what it can tell you to help you get pregnant now.

Hi, my name is Dr. Marc Sklar, also known as the Fertility Expert. And I’ve been working with couples for over 19 years through my online coaching programs and right here at my clinic in San Diego. Cervical mucus is something that we talk about often and understanding how to predict your ovulation and where your fertile window is also something we talk about on a daily basis with the couples that we support. And that’s why I think this video is so important for all of you. So stick with me and let’s get into all the information that I want to share with you today.

Actually, before I start talking about cervical mucus, I want to just share with all of you that I do have a free training, actually my last free training of 2022 coming up in December. And I’d love for you to join me for that. We’re going to talk about all the things that can help you improve, the main things that are going to help you improve your fertility and help you get pregnant this year so that you can have a wonderful 2023. So if you want to join me for that, you do have to register. So use the link in the description below to register, and I hope to see you there.

All right, so let’s jump into it. This is such an important topic because so many of you ask these questions because you’re trying to understand what your body’s telling you and what it means for your fertility. Cervical mucus is actually one of the more important symptoms or signs that your body gives you that tells you you’re approaching ovulation and that it’s time to start having intercourse.

So the cervical mucus is actually, as the name implies, is produced from the cervix. There are glands around the cervix and they start to produce this mucus, if you will, okay? Now, what is a good healthy cervical mucus that we’re looking for? What we’re looking for in the cervical mucus is that it looks like and feels like egg white mucus or raw egg white. So if you take an egg and crack it into a bowl, take out the yolk and you’re just left with the white part of it, that’s exactly what we’re looking for, that it’s clear, that it’s copious, there’s a lot of it, and that it’s sticky and stretchy. And so if you put your fingers and you get some cervical mucus, that you can stretch it between your fingers.

There are two other important things that I want to share. One is that we have lots of hormones in our body, but the main hormone that influences your cervical mucus is estrogen. So as estrogen rises as you get further along in your follicular phase, it starts to simulate the production of cervical mucus. So you can kind of relate one with the other. The other valuable and important thing of cervical mucus is that it’s beneficial for the sperm. That’s right. It helps the sperm. It creates a healthy sperm friendly environment that supports the sperm to swim up to the cervix and get through the cervix. So this is a very important piece of conception and trying to conceive.

So what are some of the things that can influence your cervical mucus? And in this case I’m talking about negatively. That’s right. So we do have birth control, that can impact your cervical mucus negatively. We also have BV or bacterial vaginosis, which is an infection. And STDs can influence it negatively. And other endocrine disorders like PCOS can also influence your cervical mucus negatively. Increased weight. So being overweight can also impact this negatively.

Now, sometimes you might say to me, “Well, are there other things that can improve it?” Well, yeah, there are. One of those things is actually estrogen. So if you’ve been taking estrogen, usually you’re taking estrogen for fertility purposes, then that can increase and support estrogen production and also improve the amount of cervical mucus that you are producing. But it’s important to understand why these things influence or impact your cervical mucus, because they are impacting your hormones. That’s right. So if we have an increased amount of hormones or your hormones are imbalanced, this can impact your cervical mucus.

Now, one really important thing that I want to differentiate here is that I often hear from all of you or from many of you for that matter, that you can’t tell if you have good quality cervical mucus. It’s not coming out. It’s not so much that it’s coming out and you can’t just easily see. So my first main indicator for good cervical mucus is during intercourse. If you need lubricant, that means your cervical mucus production is low or inappropriate that you’re just not producing sufficient amounts, okay? And that is a differentiator. When you’re getting aroused for intercourse, if you’re not producing enough cervical mucus, that is a big sign that we need support. And that might be where you start to use some lubricants.

Now, I don’t typically recommend using lubricants unless you absolutely need it. But on the flip side of that, you don’t have to have so much cervical mucus that it’s coming out of the vagina. That doesn’t have to mean that you’re not producing enough cervical mucus, right? You could still have good quality, healthy cervical mucus around ovulation, but it’s just not so much that it’s coming out or easily detectable. So you might have to check in other ways. But again, that first sign, that main sign that I want you to be aware of is, do you need lubricant for intercourse? Okay? That is the first sign. And then we’re going to have to check a little bit more closely to see if you actually are producing cervical mucus, what’s the quality like, and do you need some support in that area.

Another question around ovulation and cervical mucus is, can I still be having regular cycles but not be ovulating? So the short answer to that is yes, that can be the case, but often that happens as we get older. If you are younger, that’s probably not going to happen. And I’ll draw the line at 40 if we’re going to use that. If I’m using that term younger or older, I’ll draw that line at 40. Under 40, I typically see that if you’re having regular cycles, that does mean that you’re ovulating. Now, are there circumstances where that’s not the case? Well, sure there are circumstances where that’s not the case, but typically if you are having a regular cycle, you are. Now, the older we get, that could be different, which means you could be skipping ovulating, but still heavy having cycles as well.

So earlier on I talked about how many of you rely on apps to know when you’re ovulating, and so should we actually be using apps and are they worthwhile? Well, absolutely they’re worthwhile. First and foremost, they’re worthwhile because they help you track your cycles more easily. Two, they also help you track all the different signs and symptoms that you’re having throughout your cycle, and they give you a rough idea, hopefully, where you’re ovulating. So that fertile window to make it easier for you to try. But are they the end all, be all?

No. Does that mean that you don’t have to look at your body symptoms, that there’s less for you to understand? No. I want you to still check and understand your body symptoms. What symptoms do you have around ovulation? Document them, check your cervical mucus. Are you recognizing an increase in libido? We still want to track all of those things in conjunction to using the apps’ information to support your ability to know when you’re ovulating, if you’re ovulating, and where your fertile window is. So I don’t like to just use the apps in isolation. I like to incorporate them with the bigger picture of understanding what my body’s telling me and put it all together so that you can get a better understanding for what’s going on within your cycle and what your hormones are doing throughout your cycle as well.

My favorite way to track ovulation and the first most important thing is that you understand those signs and symptoms. Are you noticing any twines or cramps? Are you seeing changes in your cervical mucus? And you want to track your cervical mucus throughout your cycle so you can see what it’s like when you’re not ovulating and so you can see what it’s like when you’re ovulating and you can see that transition. Are you having an increase in libido, right? Do you have the desire to have intercourse more? All of those things should coincide. Then maybe you’re checking your OPKs as well, your ovulation predictor kit, or you’re checking your thermometer and you start to see that all those things start to line up and you see a peak, right? And then you know that you’re ovulating. But on top of that, you also just want to start to have intercourse outside of when you’re ovulating. And the only way to do that is to know when you are ovulating to make it easier for yourself.

So the app is part of it, tracking is part of it, understanding your body’s symptoms are part of it, all of that, you want to take all of that in conjunction or together so that you get a better understanding of when it is that you’re ovulating, so you can time intercourse more appropriately.

But if you have low cervical mucus or none at all, what can we do about that? Well, there are some things we can do. Earlier on I said that estrogen increases and that helps to facilitate the production of cervical mucus. So what can we do to increase our estrogen levels? Well, one of my favorite things to do is to incorporate evening primrose oil into my supplement regimen, that can help cervical mucus and estrogen production. The other thing that I like to do if we need to stimulate more cervical mucus is to incorporate a lubricant, because if we incorporate a lubricant into this, that helps bias time because it’s not like you’re just going to flip the switch and you’re going to have increased cervical mucus. So I do like incorporating the lubricant. I’ll post a link for my favorite one in the description below to make that easier for you as well.

Now, the other thing that I like to do is get a better understanding for what your hormones are doing. And this is something that we do for the couples in my Hope Coaching program because if we understand that they have a low cervical mucus production, they don’t know when they’re ovulating, things are a little bit off, we want to first and foremost understand what the hormones are telling us. And then once we have a more comprehensive understanding for what all the hormones are doing, including estrogen, then we understand what we need to do in a plan in a supplement regimen or lifestyle changes. These are all things that we want to do and that we can do for those in our Hope Coaching program.

Additionally, we also want to understand what’s impacting our hormones, what’s impacting our estrogen levels in a negative way, and some of the things that can do that is the environment that we’re in. By that, I mean, what are the things that we’re putting on our skin, on our body? What are the things that are in our environment that might be impacting our endocrine system? These are all things that we like to evaluate for those couples that we’re supporting in the program. And if you would like us to evaluate your case, get a better reading on your hormones and support you like we’ve done for hundreds and hundreds of couples in the Hope Coaching Program, then all you have to do is apply to join my program. And you can do that by using the link in the description below.

What did you like about this video? Do you have questions about cervical mucus, tracking your ovulation and tracking your cycles? Leave a comment below with your question, or let me know what you thought about this video. What was the one thing that you found valuable? Comment below and let me know.

I also want to remind you all that I’m having a free training in December to support all of you and help make 2023 the year that you get pregnant. So if you want to join me, and I know that you do do for this free training, use the link in the description below to register.

Did you like this video? If so, give me a thumbs up. If you’re not already a subscriber to my YouTube channel, then you need to be. Just hit that bell right there to subscribe and get notified when I put out another video for all of you. And until the next video, stay fertile.