Whether you are trying to avoid getting pregnant or are trying to conceive, keeping a fertility calendar can be quite helpful. With a fertility calendar you can calculate your most fertile days of the month and calculate your due date should you become pregnant. Fortunately today, there are a variety of fertility calendars on the market that can be quite helpful.

Using a Fertility Calendar

With a fertility calendar, women are able to predict ovulation. By carefully recording the length of your menstrual cycle, you will be able to pinpoint when you are most fertile.

The calendar fertility method is intended to predict general trends based on when you begin to menstruate and when your menstruating (bleeding) ends. It is important to note that using the calendar method to predict fertility will generally take a few months of observation in order to get a good picture. If your menstrual cycle is pretty regular, you can assume that you will begin to ovulate somewhere between the 12^th and 16^th day before you will begin to bleed again. However, the day ovulation actually begins sometimes does vary from one month to the next even if you are pretty regular. Nonetheless, the more regular your cycle, the more accurate the calendar method will be for you.

As you begin to use an ovulation calendar, you will first need to chart the first day that bleeding begins as ‘Day One.’ For each subsequent month thereafter you will need to do the same thing. Note that your menstrual cycle is the time between this Day One all the way up to the first day you begin to bleed again (noting each start day as Day One of your cycle). You also want to make note of how many days you bleed and how many days there are between each cycle. Now, in order to determine the first day you are most likely to begin ovulation, you should review your previous months’ records and then by using the one with the shortest cycle, subtract 18 from the total number of days in the cycle. For instance, if your shortest cycle is 26 days long, you want to subtract 18 from 26, which leaves 8 days. Then, begin with Day One of your current cycle and count ahead 10–14 days. This is the day that you will most likely begin to ovulate and be most fertile.

Ideally, when trying to conceive, the fertility calendar method is most helpful when used in combination with other predictive fertility strategies such as cervix positioning, saliva testing, BBT charting, and/or with fertility tester kits.