Did you know that you could only get pregnant during six days during every cycle? And that's
if you ovulate regularly. So I want to make sure that you can pinpoint that fertile window
to make your chances of conception much, much higher every cycle. In this Fertility TV episode,
you are going to learn the best days to have intercourse to get pregnant, and one of my
favorite tools that you can start to use to pinpoint those days and your fertile window.
My name is Dr. Marc Sklar, also known as the Fertility Expert and welcome to Fertility TV,
your YouTube channel dedicated to helping you get pregnant. I've been working with couples for over
18 years through my online coaching programs and at both of my clinics right here in San Diego.
And this topic of pinpointing your fertile window, when to maximize intercourse so that you can get
pregnant fast is a converse that I have on a daily basis, if not multiple times in a day.
And that's why I'm bringing this information to you in this episode of Fertility TV.
Before I dive into this topic and really give you tons of useful practical information,
I want to hear from all of you. How many of you actually know when you're ovulating,
know when your fertile window is? And how many of you are able to actually time intercourse in that
window? I want to hear. Comment below and let me know. It's really important that you understand
where your fertile window is and where you're ovulating, because this allows you to maximize
your opportunities for conception. But I also don't want you just having intercourse in that
fertile window because that fertile window at most is about seven days. And when you ovulate is even
a smaller window than that. So if that's the only time you're having intercourse, that's not
really ideal for a happy and healthy relationship. I do want to encourage you all to have intercourse
outside of this fertile window as well, because research has actually demonstrated that if you
have regular intercourse throughout your entire cycle, even outside of your fertile window, you
increase your chances of conception and getting pregnant. That's really what we want to do,
but we do want to discuss the fertile window and optimizing your best time for conception, which is
what I'm going to do in this video right now. So often I speak to so many of you or get
questions from so many of you about when are you ovulating? "How do I know when
I'm ovulating? How do I know when to time intercourse and put it all together?" I
know this might seem like basic information and basic question to be addressing in this video,
but the reality is that so many of you don't know and that's because you're not taught the right
information when you're younger. And we have this misconception that we can get pregnant anytime
during the cycle. And that's not really the case. So in a regular 28-day cycle, and as I'm going
to summarize this right now, I just want to remind you all. I do have many videos on this
topic going much more in detail on what a regular cycle is and what's going on with hormonal shifts.
You can check those out by using the links in the description below. But a regular cycle
theoretically is going to be somewhere between 28 and 30 days. And if you have a regular cycle,
and if all of your hormones are balanced properly, then what will happen is that
your ovulation will happen in the middle of that window. And that's roughly going to be
around day 13, 14 or 15 in your cycle. Maybe even as long as day 16, but you don't know for sure,
unless you are tracking your cycle and learn what your body is doing. And that's one of the most
important things, is to understand what your body is doing. Not what the textbook says or what the
general information is shared, or even what the information is that I'm sharing with you, because
you need to understand what your body is doing. And so I want to give you the tools in this video
to gather that information and to be able to make the best choices when it comes to intercourse,
and with regards to that, with regards to your fertile window. That's why I'm sharing
this information, because you've got to figure it out for yourself and understand what is the
best time for you and what is your fertile window? Your hormones are changing throughout the entire
cycle, and your LH, luteinizing hormone, which choose the hormone that actually increases and
jolts higher when it's time to release the egg and ovulate, is actually lower in the first half of
the cycle. And follicle-stimulating hormone, FSH, the one we're all concerned about and
testing regularly, that should also be lower in the beginning part of your cycle, but increases
as you move along in your follicular phase. And as you get closer towards ovulation, your
estrogen will also start to rise. And these are hormones that are shifting throughout your cycle
based on what it wants your body to do. So what we're trying to recognize and understand is
when is that LH peaking, that's going to send the signal to your ovaries to release the egg
from the follicle? And that's the big ovulation timing that we're trying to hit. And that's how we
start to figure out where our fertile window is. Now, your body gives you cues to tell you what's
going on, which is wonderful because if we're listening and paying attention to our body, then
we can know when our hormones are shifting, when our fertile window door is opening sort of speak,
and when it's closing. And if you recall in the beginning of this video, I said, we've got about
a six to seven-day window of time where that's what our fertility window is. Well, that's what
we're trying to hit and that's what we're trying to maximize so we can have more intercourse during
that window and maximize our chance for the sperm and egg to meet during or right after ovulation
and to have fertilization. So that's what you're trying to determine throughout this
entire menstrual cycle, is where you're ovulating, where your fertile window is. Again, that six or
seven-day window of time. And then that tells you how to time intercourse appropriately.
And as I was just saying, our body gives us cues, it tells us what's going on. And one of the most
valuable cues that the body gives us is a change in cervical mucus. Your cervical mucus
will shift and start to adjust as you get closer to ovulation. It can have different
qualities throughout a whole cycle, but what we're really looking for is what's called that egg white
cervical mucus. What looks like raw egg white; sticky, stretchy, clear mucus that you discharge
from the vagina. Now this is what you're looking for. Now, you don't always have an abundant amount
of it. So sometimes you do have to check and it becomes a little bit more tricky to check because
not just going to be on your underwear. And so the most valuable way to check that is going to be
inserting a finger or two into the vagina to get some fluid out. And then you can check it to start
to see what does that cervical mucus look like? Now, if you are having low cervical mucus
and you can't easily find it or intercourse is a little bit more uncomfortable because you're
having low cervical mucus, then I do recommend using lubricant. I only have one. That's right,
one fertility friendly lubricant that I love and trust. And that one is BabyDance. Now, BabyDance
is paraben-free. So it means no chemicals. It's a water base. And more importantly, it's
safe for the sperm and actually helps the sperm get to where it needs to be.
So this is my recommended choice if you need it. Again, if you want more information on this,
I will leave a link in the description below so you can check out more information on BabyDance.
There are a lot of different tools that you can utilize to help you figure out what your
hormones are doing throughout the cycle, what your body is doing throughout the cycle, and
when you're ovulating. And all of those things are important for all the reasons I just mentioned.
Most of which is being able to time intercourse appropriately so that it lines up with ovulation.
The first tool that you all may have heard of is what's called basal body temperature charting,
BBT. That's when you take your basal temperature first thing in the morning when you wake up,
before you move, before you do anything. You take your temperature, you start to track
your temperature throughout a cycle, and you're hopefully looking for shifts that will tell you
when you have ovulated or when you're about to ovulate. Now, BBT is like a foundational thing.
It's a great thing to do, but it can be stressful because one, you can't wake up
and get going and then test. You've got to stay still when you wake up. There's a lot
of variabilities to it in terms of the length of time of your sleeping, temperature in the room,
are you a mouth breather or not? All of these things impact the accuracy of the temperature
reading that you're going to get. And so this can impact the information you're going
to get and how you translate that information. Now I'm not saying that basal body temperature
charting is not valuable. It certainly is, but it can be a bit stressful I have found for women to
track for a lot of reasons. One of which is really just like, "Now I've got to track this every day
and I've got to be really on top of it." So, that can be challenging. We want to make it easier for
you. So if you've been doing basil temperature charting, and you're still not sure what it's
telling you and what the information means and how to read it, then I want to give you a new tool
that does make it, I think, a little bit easier for you to track your cycles, track your hormones,
and track your ovulation more specifically. Be before I do that, I do want to mention one
thing. I know many of you are using what's called an OPK, ovulation predictor kit. And this is a
urine-based test that will tell you when your LH, your luteinizing hormone is starting to rise. Now,
in principle, this should be accurate. What I have found is that it's not the most accurate
and trustworthy. What often happens for many of us when we use those simple P sticks is that they
are calibrated for a general woman with regular hormones. So your LH might not surge high enough
to trigger it, or you might need a higher LH for you specifically to actually release the egg. But
the kit is going to tell you that you're ovulating when you're actually not. And so it's not the most
reliable as well for all of you. And it's often difficult to read because you're looking at the
lines. So I do think that it can be helpful in some instances, but I want to find thing
that's more reliable and also easier for all of you across the board. That's why
I've started to look at the OvaCue. This is a wireless fertility monitor
that is not tracking LH specifically. It's tracking the changes in your vaginal and salivary
moisture and mucus. Now the OvaCue is actually not new. It's been around for several decades
and it uses a different type of technology, as I just mentioned, to actually track the electrolytes
in the saliva and the vaginal mucus. That's right. The electrolytes, which is very different,
but very reliable. And these electrolytes change to signal that the hormones are shifting
as we get closer to ovulation. So it's able to give you a bigger window of time, which is what
we want, as opposed to that exact day when you're ovulating. It gives you a bigger window of time,
upwards of seven days, to tell you that you're about to get close to ovulation. And that's
helpful for all of you because you can start to time intercourse a little bit more appropriately.
So what is it actually? How do you use it's? The nice thing is that the new update to the
OvaCue is a wireless technology that has two sensors: one for the saliva and one
for the vagina. And the salivary one and the vaginal one, send a signal through a Bluetooth
connection to the app on your phone that will help track both of these fluids. And more importantly,
the changes in the electrolytes in the fluids to start to tell you when you're getting close
to ovulation. Unlike basal temperature that has to be taken at a certain time of the day,
which is right in the morning, and that you can't move around. These sensors can actually be used
anytime during the day, although we do want them to be done at the same time every day, and it
only takes a couple of seconds to read. And then you don't have to do anything else because all
that information is going to be sent to the app wirelessly, to then be translated and interpreted,
and then give you the information that you need. The other beautiful thing about it is you don't
would have to purchase anything else. Once you purchase the device and you have the app, then you
don't need to purchase anything else. There's no strips that you have to constantly be purchasing
to track. It's basically a one-time purchase and you have everything you need to track your
ovulation. Now I do want to be clear. It's not tracking these specific hormone. So it's not going
to give you LH reading. It's not going to give you an FSH reading. It's not going to give you
an estradiol reading or a progesterone reading. But it is going to give you a more accurate window
for timing intercourse, because it tells you where you're going to be ovulating, and so that you can
track that a little bit more accurately and time intercourse more appropriately.
The other thing that I find really valuable about the OvaCue is that you can use this whether you
have a regular cycle or an irregular cycle. It's tracking the changes in your saliva and vaginal
mucus or cervical mucus. So it's not dependent on having a regular cycle. It's going to be tracking
what you need and what your body is doing, which is also a wonderful thing. So many of you
send me the same exact question: "If I have a regular cycle, does that mean I'm ovulating?"
For the most part, the answer is yes, but you might not know where you're ovulating or know
if it's shifting from cycle to cycle. And that's the other benefit of the OvaCue. Is
that's going to help give you that window and make it easier to have intercourse at the right time.
As I mentioned previously, the OvaCue does link wirelessly to an app,
which is called the OvaGraph. The OvaGraph is the companion app for this to help track
your salivary mucus and your cervical mucus so that you can see the shifts throughout and know
when your fertile window is occurring. And on top of it, they have wonderful customer
support. So any questions you have, they have a dedicated team lined up to answer your questions,
help you interpret your graph and make it easier for you to know where your fertile window is.
I'm sure many of you are wondering how much it costs. Well, the price is 229,
but remember it is a one-time price. So I'm going to put the link in the description below, if you
want more information, if you want to learn more about it, to make that easier for you. And hold
on everybody, I've got a special announcement for all of you. I'm really excited to share with all
of you that I've partnered with Fairhaven Health to give away one of these amazing OvaCue devices
and a few other fertility-friendly and helpful products to help you on your fertility journey.
To participate I want you to go to the Instagram post that I'm linking in the description below so
that you know how you need to qualify and enter to win this amazing device. And on top of it,
I'm also throwing in to be part of this giveaway, a scholarship to my online program
called The Positive Pregnancy Method. So you get all of that as part of this giveaway,
and I want to make sure you all enter to win. Again, go to my Instagram post, the link is in
the description below, to know how to qualify. If you've been trying for longer than you like,
and you're tired of doing this alone, then I want to remind you that my Hope Fertility
Coaching Program is open for enrollment. I'm here and my team are here to support
you on your fertility journeys. Whether it's to help you understand your hormones better,
to help you understand where your fertile window is more appropriately, or to help you create a
customized plan based on all of that information and put it together so that you have the right
path moving forward, my Hope Fertility Coaching program is ideal for you. If you want to apply
to qualify, then I want to invite you to use the link in the description below.
Have you been trying too long on your fertility journey? Are you tired of doing it alone and
not knowing how to move forward and what the right path is for you? Then my Hope Fertility
Coaching Program might be the right fit and it is open for enrollment right now, but you do
have to apply to see if you qualify. I want to invite you to apply if you want more support and
a customized plan to get you the results that you deserve. All you have to do is use the link
in the description below to apply. All right, everyone,
did you like this video? I want to hear from you. Comment below and let me know. I also want
to invite you if you're not already a subscriber to my YouTube channel to subscribe. So hit that
bell right there to subscribe and get notified when I put out a new video as well. Give me a
thumbs up if you like this video. And remember, I'll see you in the next video. Stay fertile.