In many situations, timing is everything. For example, if you spend enough time star gazing, you just might catch a glimpse of a shooting star. Of course, if you happen to be watching during a meteor shower, you've just raised your odds of seeing something spectacular. Similarly, trying to conceive a child by making love randomly may be great fun – but your chances of adding another life to the universe are improved if you know when to shoot for the moon.

If you and your partner have tried to conceive but have not yet hit the mark, you may need a lesson in both fertility and punctuality. First, you must understand the key to a woman's fertility: the menstrual cycle. To increase your chances of achieving pregnancy, you must follow this cycle very carefully. A closer look reveals its incredible, miraculous functionality.

The menstrual cycle begins every month on the first day of menstruation and lasts an average of 28 days. Ovulation generally occurs on or around the 14th day of the cycle. It is important to remember, however, that many women have cycles that are very different from this pattern.

Ovulation is the essence of a woman's fertility. So it makes sense for a couple to track ovulation to increase their odds of conception. Normally, ovulation occurs once every month. Thousands of eggs, which are present at the time a woman is born, are stored in the ovaries. An egg is released from one of the ovaries, where it then travels down through the fallopian tubes (the passage between the ovary and the uterus) and into the uterus.

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