You can time ovulation by charting your menstrual cycle. This Complete Fertility Charting Guide will help you to learn different ways to chart your cycle and predict ovulation!
If you have considered learning how to chart your monthly cycle, but are not sure where to begin, this guide is for you! I find that combining multiple methods of charting can greatly help you to determine if you are ovulating. Charting helps you to know if and when you may be ovulating, which will help you to know when to try to conceive. Charting will help you to know when to take your supplements, while also helping you keep track of when you last used them. You can also monitor your progress. Keeping a chart, either written or online will help you to map out your entire cycle. This gives you a window into the inner workings of your fertility, especially your hormone fluctuation. Get to know your most fertile days!
The intention of this page is to help you find the tools you need to chart. There are different methods to learn for charting your cycle. There are also useful tools you will need to chart. Last, but not least, there is support. I wanted to provide you with information to connect you to charting support groups. Feelings that often come up when charting can be strong. So, if you ever feel lost, frustrated, confused, or happy you just ovulated; you can share it with other women. Many women in charting groups have been charting their cycles for a long time; they have become experts with very useful tips for charting correctly, as well as providing immense encouragement!
How-To Fertility Chart Video Series
Fertility charting is one of the most important tools you have on your natural fertility journey. Following is a series of how-to videos, sharing with you how to fertility chart using one of our favorite tools; Fertility Friend.
Part I: Ovulation, Fertile Days & Getting Pregnant
Learn how fertility charting can help you to find your most fertile days and your ovulation date to maximize conception chances while trying to conceive. Determine which days in your menstrual cycle give you the best chance of getting pregnant.
Part II: Fertility Signs, Hormones, Ovulation & Fertile Days
Learn how your fertility hormones, estrogen and progesterone, relate to fertility signs that can show you what is happening throughout your menstrual cycle. Understand how to observe your cervical fluid and basal body temperature signs and how to use these signs to find your ovulation date and fertile days; create a fertility chart to help you get pregnant faster.
Part III: Fertility Chart, Detecting Ovulation and Fertile Days
Learn how to chart your fertility signs, how to read and interpret a fertility chart, and how to identify your ovulation date and fertile days by observing and recording your basal body temperature and cervical fluid observations. See how recording your fertility signs can show you when you ovulate, which days you can get pregnant, when you can expect a positive pregnancy test and how to find your most fertile days in your menstrual cycle.
Complete Charting Series: Articles to Help You Learn the Basics
Part 1: Cervical Mucous
Part 2: Basal Body Temperature
Part 3: Charting
Ovulation Tools and Resources
Ovulation calculator
Below is a quick and easy way to estimate your most fertile days based on your menstrual cycle length. It is important to note that this ovulation calculator is for estimation only and should not be relied upon as a sole means for calculating ovulation. Every woman has a unique ovulation time and cycle length.
Instructions: Enter the first day of your last menstrual period and how many days are in your cycle. The ovulation calculator will provide you with your estimated fertile days and estimated due date if you get pregnant during this time frame.
Free Fertility Charts
To print out a fertility chart, click on one of the links below:
Fertility Chart (Fahrenheit)
Fertility Chart (Celsius)
Ovulation Tracking Tools
OPK Tests
Ovulation Predictor Tests (OPK Tests) detect Luteinizing Hormone surge (LH). LH surges right before ovulation. OPK tests may help you determine when you are about to ovulate.
Digital Basal Body Thermometer
A woman can predict ovulation by taking her temperature. If you are not sure you are ovulating, you can take your basal body temperature (BBT). The body’s resting temperature increases four-tenths of a degree Fahrenheit or two-tenths of a degree Centigrade under the influence of progesterone at ovulation. Observing this sign involves taking your temperature at the same time each morning before rising. Once your temperature rises, you have already ovulated and will not be fertile.
Ovulation Microscope
This fertility tool has 97% accuracy in alerting you to ovulation up to 72 hours in advance. This allows you enough time to get you and your partner’s schedules coordinated. Ovulation Microscopes allow you to identify your most fertile days by testing and viewing the visual changes that take place in saliva throughout your monthly cycle. Just prior to ovulation, women experience an “estrogen surge,” and a distinct fern-like pattern becomes visible in saliva due to the hormonal changes.
Cycle Beads
CycleBeads is an easy way to plan or prevent pregnancy naturally. This color-coded string of beads enables a woman to track her cycle and know if she is on a day when pregnancy is likely or not.
Clearblue® Easy Fertility Monitor
The Clearblue® Easy Fertility Monitor tracks 2 hormones to typically identify up to 6 fertile days – it not only shows you your 2 Peak Fertility days, it can also inform most women of an extra 1-5 days of high fertility prior to their peak fertility. We find this is one of the best tools on the market to predict your most fertile days!
Fertility Friend
Is an amazing fertility charting website, dedicated to serving women who desire to connect to their cycles in an intimate, knowledgeable way! Fertility Friend also helps women who want to maximize their chances of conception!
Other Helpful Articles
Are you looking for more information? Below are links to helpful articles related to charting and the menstrual cycle. Perhaps you have not had your period in a long time, or have irregular cycles and are wondering how charting may help you? The articles below will help you to get to know your cycle better, as well as learn ways to encourage a regular cycle, detect signs of ovulation and calculate the length of your menstrual cycle.
How To Get Your Period Back
Natural Guide for Menstrual Health
Cycle Beads: A Fertility and Ovulation Predictor
How to Tell When you are Ovulating with a Fertility Microscope
