Monitoring Cervical Mucus

What is Cervical Mucus?

There are many different types of vaginal discharge, one of which is cervical mucus. The type of mucus your body produces provides clues to your fertility. You can check your cervical mucus using either your fingers or toilet paper. On days when you're not fertile, the mucus from your cervix is either light or sticky (about the same texture as sticky rice). During the few days leading up to ovulation, when you're most fertile, you'll have more discharge - clear and slippery with the consistency of raw egg white. It should also be stretchy. You are most fertile on the last day you notice cervical mucus of this kind. It usually happens either the day before, or the day of, ovulation.

The change in volume and texture of your cervical mucus is due to the increase in estrogen levels that accompanies ovulation. After ovulation, progesterone abruptly suppresses the peak mucus and the mucus pattern continues with sticky mucus for a day or two, and then returns to dryness. Clomid changes cervical mucus patterns on an individual basis, so you might have to get used to a new pattern in terms of buildup of mucus and interpretations of peak mucus.

How to Check Your Cervical Mucus

There are 3 ways you can do this: using toilet paper or your fingers across the opening of your vagina, wearing a panty liner (which is sometimes hard to detect) or inserting your finger into your vagina. Note its consistency. You may also want to monitor its texture throughout the day.