This is the body's temperature as it rises and falls in accord with hormonal fluctuations. Each morning before rising, the woman takes her temperature with a specialized basal body thermometer and marks the result on a graph-paper chart. The woman also notes the days of menstruation and sexual activity. Ovulation normally occurs about 14 days after the beginning of the last period. After maintaining the chart over several menstrual cycles, a couple can often anticipate the rise in temperature and so time their sexual activity for those days when fertility is most likely.
Conception is most likely to occur two days before and on the day of ovulation.
Conception after 24 hours following ovulation is unlikely. Couples must try to avoid becoming fixated on the chart, however, in scheduling their sexual activity. Spontaneity can be lost, and the stress on the relationship can be quite severe, possibly impeding fertility. The fertility process is a roller coaster of emotions that are present throughout and in both failure and success. There are almost no sure ways to predict which couples will eventually conceive.