Cervical mucus is one of a woman’s natural secretions. estrogen prompts a woman’s body to make cervical mucus throughout her monthly cycle. Cervical mucus plays an important role in conception. In fact, a woman can even track the changes that occur to her cervical mucus throughout her monthly cycle to help predict when she is going to ovulate, thereby helping her with conception.

Cervical mucus will vary in its volume, its consistency, and its color during the woman’s monthly cycle. After menstruation, a woman will have very little or no cervical mucus. After this, a small amount of white and sticky cervical mucus will appear for a few days. As ovulation approaches, the amount of cervical mucus produced will increase, and will become more moist. At this stage, cervical mucus will have the consistency similar to hand lotion and will often be cream colored or white. During ovulation, a woman will see the most cervical mucus. In terms of its consistency and appearance, cervical mucus will resemble the white of an egg at this stage. For this reason, it is often referred to as “egg-white cervical mucus.”

Egg-white cervical mucus helps with conception by assisting the sperm on its journey. Egg-white cervical mucus helps to protect sperm from the rather acidic environment that it will encounter in the vagina, and to help the sperm make its way past the cervix, to where it can fertilize an egg, resulting in conception.

By tracking the changes in her cervical mucus, a woman can increase her chances of conception. She can know when she is ovulating or when she is about to ovulate, and can time her attempts at conception accordingly. Many women choose to track both changes to their cervical mucus, as well as other signs of ovulation such as an increase in Basal Body Temperature, in order to figure out when exactly it is during their monthly cycle that they are going to ovulate.

This entry was posted in Getting Pregnant.