It won’t take much time reading “trying to conceive” forums before you find mentions of the popular product Preseed. The main question prospective parents-to-be ask is, “does Preseed work?”
Preseed is a personal lubricant that relieves vaginal dryness without harming sperm. It is the only lubricant product allowed to say, “safe to use when trying to conceive.” It is also thought to enhance or improve your natural cervical mucus and thus may aid in conceiving a baby. It’s important to note upfront that no clinical studies have been done to evaluate pregnancy outcomes in people using Preseed. The evidence in respect to using Preseed to increase your chances of getting pregnant is, at this point, anecdotal.
Cervical mucus is an important part of your ability to conceive a baby. High quality cervical mucus creates a hospitable, protective environment for sperm and is the channel sperm use to find your egg. In order to know how to increase cervical mucus, you should understand how your hormones affect your cervical secretions.
Hormones and Cervical Mucus
When your period ends, your vaginal secretions are acidic and harmful to sperm. Your estrogen level is very low. You will notice little or no moisture in your vagina.
- Next, FSH (follicle stimulating hormone) levels rise and your ovaries start to mature eggs for ovulation. The maturing egg follicles increase your estrogen levels.
- As your estrogen levels continue to rise, you will begin to notice a change in your vaginal secretions. Your vagina becomes moist and secretions are sticky and white or creamy.
- When your estrogen levels begin to peak, your cervical mucus discharge increases rapidly. Your cervical mucus thins out and becomes cloudy and stretchy.
- When ovulation is imminent and your estrogen levels are highest, ideally you will feel constant wetness in your vagina and have copious amounts of stretchy, slippery, translucent, cervical mucus. Fertile cervical mucus very much resembles raw egg whites and will stretch more then an inch between your fingers without breaking.
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It would be nice if your body had a built in signal light to indicate when you are ovulating. The next best thing might be to reliably feel ovulation every month. Unless, of course, ovulation was painful.
About 20% of women say that they can feel ovulation. The medical term for feeling ovulation is Mittelschmerz. It is a German word meaning “middle pain”. It is often misspelled, you may have seen it written as Middleschmertz, Middlesmertz or Mittlesmertz. Regardless of the spelling, it simply means you can feel ovulation.
Mittelschmerz ovulation pain can vary from a slight twinge to painful menstrual-like cramping. It can last for a few hours around ovulation or continue for several days. You may feel ovulation on one side of your body and not the other, and the side you feel it on may change from month to month. Typically only one of your ovaries releases an egg each cycle, and that is the side on which you feel ovulation. Mittelschmerz is often felt mid menstrual cycle, between day 12 and day 15 in a normal 28 day cycle.
Weight and Fertility - The Relationship
It’s hard to think of two more loaded issues for women then weight and fertility. We are surrounded by messages about what we should weigh and how our bodies should look. Our fertility is intimately tied with our femininity and sense of self worth. Combine weight and fertility, and you have a powder keg of emotion.
How Weight Effects Fertility
Your weight does effect your fertility in a variety of ways, primarily with respect to your hormone balance. The amount of body fat you carry effects your estrogen levels. Excess body fat can lead to raised estrogen levels while too little body fat often leads to chronically low estrogen levels.
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