6dpo, the obsession continues.

Today my vagina felt moist!

Yes, I know you're thrilled to know that and thinking "WTF, Trish? That deserves an exclamation point?"

Well, that's how the mind of an infertile works.

You may have heard someone say "We charted."
People think that means taking your temperature. Which is correct- just not complete. It also means digging your fingers up to your cervix and swirling them around in the hopes of finding gold. Or... rather.. egg whites.

In the TTC circle, we call it EWCM- Egg White Cervical Mucous. You see, during the month, the mucous (or "fluid" as some prefer) changes consistency. Right after your period you are dry. Sexy, I know. I'll pause while you go splash yourself with water to cool down.





Okay. Welcome back.

As the month continues and you get closer to ovulation you start to produce some fluid (ahh.. what the hell, we're friends now..) mucous. If you're charting, you take note of this. I use the FAM (fertility awareness method) which means I try to decide between four different descriptions for it. The best sign is EWCM. It means that ovulation is imminent. It's clear and thin & will stretch- you guessed it- like egg whites. (My OB/GYN commented that I had great cervical mucous during my IUI. I blushed as though she had told me she liked my tits.) This is the most fertile type of cervical mucous. It functions in a few ways, but a really important one is that nourishes the swimmers so they aren't killed by the big, bad, chemically dangerous vagina and can make it up into the cervix and beyond.

As an educational side note there is another group out there that uses cervical fluid as a fertility diagnosing tools.. they have something like FIFTEEN different descriptions. I'm not one of those, though. I get four. Which is hard enough.

Also, as you get closer to ovulation your cervix gets higher, softer and more open. This is a very subjective interpretation but I've pretty much got the hang of mine. Yes, I DO spend a lot of time with my fingers in my vagina. I'm hoping any leftover sperm would see the finger and realize it's pointing out the path they should be following.

I use a program called ovusoft to chart (available for download at www.ovusoft.com. The best 40 bucks I've spent.) On it there is a page where I am asked to enter some info each day. They include temperature, cervical fluid, cervical feel, cervical position and cervical opening. But my favorite is "Vaginal sensation." Your choices?

"Dry."
"Sticky."
"West, gooey, cold."
"Slippery, moist, lubicrative."


And today I feel lubricrative. The reason I'm excited about this is because I'm obviously past ovulation. I should be dry. I'm not even checking my cervical fluid. There shouldn't be any. But after deciding I felt moist, I did a cursory check. Cervical fluid present in a fairly large quantity. Creamy - I know you wondered.

Now, it's entirely possible that it's just a side effect of Clomid which is notorious for screwing with your cervical fluid, but it could mean that my estrogen is rising because a teeny little ball of cells has burrowed its way into my uterine lining.

Only time will tell.