Cervical mucus tips from a fertility awareness educator

Out of all your fertility signs, cervical mucus is the most important marker of your fertility. Your cervix responds to changing levels of hormones throughout your cycle, triggering different crypts in the cervix to produce different types of mucus. Cervical mucus is a hydrogel that facilitates the journey of sperm to the egg by creating a hospitable environment for sperm to stay alive for up to 5 days. HOW are our bodies so cool!? 😎.

Your own unique pattern will vary, but as ovulation approaches and estrogen rises, your cervical mucus goes from something drier to progressively more slippery, clear and stretchy. After ovulation, your cervical mucus switches back to something drier. Before your period, you may notice the presence of more mucus as your mucus plug dissolves to allow for the flow of menstruation.

Why is tracking cervical mucus important?

Because the cervix responds directly to your cyclic hormone levels, cervical mucus is your most accurate, real-time fertility sign. We need cervical mucus in order for sperm to stay alive and for conception to occur. For both avoiding pregnancy and achieving pregnancy with fertility awareness, cervical mucus gives you an intimate look into your fertility levels each day.

For some folks, cervical mucus tracking feels like one of the most challenging aspects of fertility awareness. There is a learning curve involved in observing this fertility sign. It’s just not something we’re told from a young age to pay attention to! Until you pull out your own unique pattern, it can feel overwhelming or confusing. I promise, you will get the hang of it. Here are a few tips to make your learning process easier.

1. Simplify your cervical mucus categories

I used to use the Kindara app, and it was a great first app for me to use fertility awareness with. However, the mucus categories in the Kindara app (dry, sticky, creamy, eggwhite, watery) tend be confusing, especially when you’re just learning FAM. Now, this depends on the method of fertility awareness you’re using, but for most symptothermal methods of fertility awareness it’s only important to distinguish between three main categories of cervical mucus.

I teach the three categories which are dry, non-peak and peak. Within those categories is some nuance and can fit to what your own experience of those categories are. Every body is different and not everyone will experience clear, stretchy eggwhite mucus, for example. That’s completely normal and a-ok!

A note if you’ve been on hormonal birth control: Hormonal birth control (hormonal IUD, the pill, ring, patch, injection, implant) and the copper IUD all have some impact on the cervix and cervical mucus. There is a normal adjustment period after you come off birth control where you might notice diminished mucus or have the same mucus day after day. In my experience as a fertility awareness educator, it takes some people a year to see good quality cervical mucus. If you’re in this boat, know that it might take your body some time to adjust, and remember that your body is working hard to restore balance.

2. How does it feel? Track sensation.

As you’re walking around during the day and when you’re wiping in the bathroom, you will notice a change in sensation throughout the cycle. Sensation is the invisible element of mucus tracking. Just like you notice your period is starting by the feeling, you can identify your fertile days by paying attention to the sensation at the vulva.

This can be especially helpful if you don’t experience a lot of observable mucus. Your sensation is just as reliable, because you only need a very small quantity of mucus in order to feel it at the vulva. Practice paying attention to sensation by closing your eyes as you’re wiping in the bathroom and decide what the sensation is before you look at the toilet paper.

3. Stop comparing. Find your own patterns.

Some folks look at my guide to cervical mucus with photos and ask me if their mucus pattern is normal. They see the pictures and progression of mucus and feel that they don’t fit exactly into those categories or feel that their mucus is depicted in all of the photos.

Not everyone will observe exactly the mucus that they see in the photos. This is perfectly normal. Aside from mucus with any abnormal smell or colour (such as grey- or green- tinged mucus), there is nothing to be worried about.

It’s more about pulling out your unique spectrum of fertility than falling into a prescribed pattern.

Notice what your experience of dry, non-peak and peak are. Sometimes it can be helpful to take photos of your mucus each day and write a few words of what your mucus feels and looks like. At the end of your cycle, you’ll have a birds eye view of your own pattern, with peak as the anchor. As yourself, what your most fertile observation is. This is your experience of peak.