Sarah replies:

If you are interested in becoming pregnant, the first thing to do is to get to your health care provider and speak with them about it. One of the most important things to do is to make sure that your body is as healthy as possible before trying to conceive (that will go a long way toward your having a healthy pregnancy). Untreated diseases or other problems can not only cause you to have difficulty conceiving, but also might endanger yourself and your child. You can also do things like making sure that you have a good, healthy diet, are taking vitamins regularly and are getting plenty of exercise. In order to have the most information available about your particular cycle, you might want to start charting your cycle using basal body temperature, cervical mucus, and cervical position. This will allow you and your doctor to have information about your body. You may want to check out Toni Weschler's book Taking Charge of Your Fertility for more information about charting.

Your doctor can also advise you about steps you can take to help increase your chances of conceiving. Our site is not really geared toward those trying to become pregnant, so you might also want to search around online for other websites that cater more to women who are trying to conceive.

You can find more information about the reproductive cycle in the following link: