MyDearDiary.com - TheLostAngel's Diary Notes

u don't have to have a period to ovulate, and jason is right u can bleed lightly when u get pregnant. most woman have a little bit of spotting when the egg plants itself to the uteran wall.

How to Use the Conception Kit

First, the couple identifies the best day to conceive, using the LH surge ovulation predictors provided with the Conception Kit. The day after the LH surge is the best day to become pregnant.

The couple should have intercourse normally using the non-latex semen collector and sperm-friendly intimate moisturizer.

The semen is then immediately squeezed from the semen collector into the Conception Cap.

The Conception Cap is placed over the cervix for six to eight hours, or overnight.

At the end of the monthly cycle it is time to use the pregnancy test kit to determine if she was successful.

The Conception Journal is provided to give instructions and helpful hints on what a couple can do to enhance their chances of conception. The Conception Journal includes a chart that when completed will become a detailed record of your cycle. The chart can be useful tool to your doctor if you need further assistance later on.

The Conception Wheel will help in timing conception and planning a pregnancy.

The Health Care Provider Note is designed to let the patients’ medical provider know that they are trying to conceive. It is also a way to let you, the health care provider, know this in case she is currently taking medications which might diminish her chances of becoming pregnant.

The Conception Kit should be used for six months (two kits).

The normal number of attempts required to conceive will vary from couple to couple. If your patient has not become pregnant after using the Conception Kit for six months, they are instructed to consult you as their medical provider. Make sure to have them bring their Conception Journal to the medical appointment. Their personal chart in the Journal will be invaluable to you should your patient need to seek your further medical assistance. www.conceptionkit.com

Conception can be a bit of a lottery, but here are some tips that can really make a difference to both your levels of fertility. While most people know that sperm need to be in the right place at the right time, it is also important for both of your bodies to be providing the right condictions.

1 - Eat a healthy balanced diet Food is amazingly important. The body needs vitamins and minerals that are found in a range of foods to provide it with the chemicals it needs to produce the lining in the womb. If you have been on the pill for a long time you may be low on certain vitamins and minerals, especially vitamin B complexes. This means that you might consider checking up on your diet.
Women should also take a 400 mcg folic acid tablet as part of their daily diet as this can prevent spina bifida and neural tube defects.
2 - Avoid alcohol It is a good idea for you both to avoid alcohol or at least to really cut down. There are many reasons for this, but the key is to remember that however much you like a drink, it does act as a poison in the body. It lowers men's sperm count even when men are only drinking small amounts. It also prevents the body from taking in those essential minerals and vitamins that are needed for conception. Finally, it is worth knowing that as well as potentially causing damage to unborn babies, it can also cause miscarriages
3 - Give up Smoking Just like alcohol, smoking is another poison for the body. There is plenty of research to show that both men's and women's levels of fertility drop when you smoke. Sadly, smoking also causes babies to be born prematurely and this affects their long-term health and even ability to survive.
4 - Take some gentle, regular exercise Exercise has many benefits and can help to reduce stress as well as stimulate some essential hormones. You should both, however, avoid excessive fitness regimes as these can actually reduce your levels of fertility.
5 - Enjoy each other's company and find time to do things together It is not unusual for couples to find baby making stressful. It can quickly become clinical and this in turn is likely to have some effect on your ability to conceive. Spending time together and enjoying yourselves can reduce any stress. It's not perhaps surprising that many couples who go away on holiday, having decided not to bother with baby making for a while, return only to find that a pregnancy has been achieved.
6 - Keep sperm count up by wearing cotton boxer shorts and avoiding hot baths. A common cause of low sperm count in men is simply down to the testes being overheated. This means that you should avoid tight fitting underwear, lycra shorts and having hot baths and showers. You should also avoid sitting down for long periods as this can reduce your fertility. Choose boxer shorts made if possible out of cotton. As it take up to six months to improve sperm count, you should keep up this regime until conception has taken place.
7 - Get to know your cycle and work out when you are likely to ovulate It you take the time to work out when your body releases the egg during your cycle, you will start to get an idea of when you should be making love. See learning about your cycle (women only)
8 - Have sex around the time that you ovulate. As conception is about sperm being in the right place at the right time, you can maximise your chances of conception by making love when you are at your most fertile.
9 - Avoid seeing "baby making" as a race or competition Stress can really affect conception. Although it can be disheartening to suddenly notice that everyone else seems to have a baby or young children, try not to see it as a race. Also consider additional stresses in your life, at work or home, as they may also reduce your chances of getting pregnant. Deal with these issues as best you can, take regular breaks from work and time out for yourself and your partner. Do think about visiting your GP, however, if you have not conceived after 12 months of trying. Take any useful information with you, like a temperature chart and your diary, so the doctor can see how your cycle works.
Ovulation Kits

Some women use ovulation predictor kits to help them predict their fertile phase. Ovulation predictor kits are available from chemists and are reasonably reliable and fairly simple to use. They work by detecting a hormone in your urine that increases when ovulation is about to take place.
Ovulation kits are not able to tell you exactly when the egg is about to be released, but will be able to predict that you will ovulate between 12 -36 hours after a positive result. You may have to keep repeating the tests on different days to find out when you are most likely to ovulate.
While some couples find that ovulation predictor kits are very helpful, others find that they can create tension and it can make sex feel very clinical and planned.
Cycle Changes
As well as using a diary method to learn about your menstrual cycle, some women find it useful to notice the way that their cervical fluid changes. The cervix secretes mucus throughout the menstrual cycle, but the mucus changes at different points in the cycle.
Around ovulation, it increases and becomes much thinner, slippery and stretchy. If you were to put some mucus between your finger and thumb, you would find that it would stretch several centimetres. It is often compared to raw egg white. This mucus is designed to help the sperm swim easily through it and nourish it. This is a good indicator that you are in your fertile phase.
This is the time to have sex if you want to get pregnant, or to use contraception if you do not! A few days after ovulation, the mucus changes again. This time there is less of it and it is thick and cloudy. In this state it is hostile to sperm.
The best time to make love if you want a baby is at the end of the first phase of your menstrual cycle, just before you ovulate. Look out for thin, stretchy and clear cervical mucus as a sign that you are about to ovulate. If you have been taking your temperature each day when you first wake up, you should see a small drop followed by a rise

Implantation Study

Embryo's are actually "sticky"

Scientists learned more about implantation this year when they studied how the fertilized egg actually implants into the uterine wall.

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Researchers funded by the National Institutes of Health said the information will make it easier to understand what causes miscarriages and what role implantation has in infertility problems.

According to the National Institutes of Health, a department of the U.S. government, the study showed the fertilized egg has a coating that attracts and adheres to the molecules on the surface of the uterus.

About six days after fertilization, when the egg is referred to as a blastocyst, it is shaped like a sphere and covered by a layer of cells that form a coating. The coating is made of the same cells that will later go on to form the placenta.

Russell Foulk, M.D. of Nevada proved that at about this time -- six days after fertilization -- the blastocyst revs up the amount of special coating on its surface, just in time for the egg to contact the wall of the uterus.

The researchers believe that as the blastocyst travels along the uterine wall, the coating of sticky cells on its surface binds to the carbohydrates on the uterine wall, until the blastocyst gradually slows to a complete stop, according to a press release from the National Institutes of Health.

"It's analogous to a tennis ball rolling over a table top covered with syrup," said the study's senior author, Susan Fisher, PhD., UCSF professor of stomatology, anatomy and pharmaceutical chemistry. "The embryo's journey is arrested by the sticky interaction with the uterine wall."

Once the sticky coating has done its job of stopping the blastocyst on the uterine wall, the cells multiply and begin to form the placenta. The placenta is made up of cells from the baby and the mother that interact in such a way that the baby can draw nutrients and resources from the mother without actually sharing blood.

In the very first stage of building the placenta, the cells that came from the sticky coating of the fetus invade the uterine wall by sending finger-like extensions into it. These projections make contact with the maternal blood supply, becoming the pipeline through which the fetus derives nutrients and oxygen, and rids itself of carbon dioxide and wastes, according to the National Institutes of Health.

Dr. Fisher explained that learning about the molecular processes leading up to implantation may provide information useful for treating infertility. Some cases of unexplained infertility and early pregnancy loss are thought to be caused by a failure of the coating to properly attach to the uterine wall.

The study used samples of uterine lining from volunteers, collected at different times during their cycles. The researchers found that the amount of sticky carbohydrate molecules on the uterine wall was greatest at the time when the uterus was most receptive to the fertilized egg.

In women with luteal phase defect, the uterine lining is not at the proper point in development when the fertilized egg arrives. This study shows how important it is for the uterine lining to be ready with the proper sticky molecules on its surface when the fertilized egg lands in the uterus and comes in contact with the uterine wall.

The researchers in this study also took the coating from the blastocyst to see how well it bonded to the uterine lining. They found that the coating bonded more firmly to sections of uterine lining collected when the uterus is most receptive to implantation than to those collected when the uterine lining is least receptive.

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The finding appears in the January 17th Science. The research was conducted by scientists at the University of California at San Francisco (UCSF), the Nevada Center for Reproductive Medicine in Reno, the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in Berkeley, California, and the University of Wisconsin, Madison. It was begun after another scientist discovered the sticky coating, called L-selectin, is the reason white blood cells can come to a stop in the correct places in blood vessels.

"This discovery opens up a promising new realm of research," said Duane Alexander, M.D., Director of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD). "It may lead to insight into infertility, early pregnancy loss, and perhaps to an understanding of the life-threatening complication of pregnancy known as preeclampsia."

Part of the funding for the study was provided by the NICHD, the National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS), the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI), and the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research (NIDCR), all part of the National Institutes of Health.

Article by, Alice Foeller

sorry to add so much but i was hoping something i found could help. good luck.