When it comes to "babymaking," essential preconception tips often correspond with specific fertility products designed to help couples get pregnant or conceive sooner! Just a few short years ago, the only TTC (trying-to-conceive) accessory for home use was as bulky test-tube chemistry-set used for ovulation testing. These early ovulation predictor kits were awkward and test results were sometimes sketchy. They were also prohibitively expensive and made a disastrous mess on the kitchen table. So much for the good old days...

Needless to say, in less than a decade things have changed quite a bit! Unwieldy glass test-tube apparatuses and kitchen laboratories have been slimmed down to an ultra-thin pregnancy test strip format that integrates ease-of-use with much improved accuracy (over 99%) and at just a fraction of the price. In fact, today we have an abundance of fertility products to choose from - from nutritional supplements to support our fertility to ovulation monitors, ultra-accurate home pregnancy tests, and all kinds of newfangled baby-making gizmos.

This article is designed to cross-reference fundamental preconception tips with products that can help you conceive or quicken the pace to a positive pregnancy test!

TTC Tip # 1:

If you know when you ovulate, you can radically boost your odds of getting pregnant!

Related Products: Ovulation Tests, Microscopes, and Fertility Monitors
As you may know, a woman is fertile for just a few days each month. If you can pinpoint when you are most fertile, then you can time lovemaking to increase the chances you will conceive. To this end, ovulation predictor kits (OPKs) are specifically designed to detect sudden shifts in key reproductive hormones - shifts which take place directly prior to a woman's most fertile time of the month. The two key hormonal markers are estrogen and luteinizing hormone, or "LH". Estrogen is the hormone that "prepares" the body and womb for pregnancy. A surge in LH actually facilitates ovulation, the release of the egg. If you can screen for these hormonal changes, then you can pinpoint ovulation and boost your odds of conceiving.

Traditional urine-based (LH) Ovulation Tests remain the favorite method for ovulation testing. That's because this method is not only highly affordable, it's very accurate. The LH hormone actually "causes" ovulation by creating the nexus from which the egg emerges from the ovary. When you get a positive on your urine ovulation test, you know that ovulation is imminent within the next 12 to 36 hours! Today, urine LH tests come in easy-to-use clinical test strips or in handheld "midstream" formats - with accuracy ratings of over 99%! Drugstore brands may cost $10.00 to $15.00 for just two kits. At under a buck each, clinical ovulation tests (like those found at a doctor's office) are very affordable and available at Early-Pregnancy-Tests.com. Join their newsletter while you are there!

Fertility Monitors and Ovulation Microscopes: When it comes to predicting fertility, the options are nearly limitless today. While urine testing remains the traditional, affordable (and favorite) option, newfangled fertility monitors like the ClearBlue, the OvaCue, or OvWatch bring a space-age spin to detecting age-old hormonal patterns. As mentioned above, the two ovulation-predicting hormones of choice are LH and estrogen. A "digital" monitor like the ClearBlue actually integrates a dual-detection system that is able to screen for increases in LH and estrogen. While digital fertility monitors offer many hi-tech advantages, they do remain the more expensive option. Read more about fertility monitors.

A more affordable but nevertheless highly accurate alternative to a digital monitor is the ovulation microscope. Ovulation microscopes work by detecting a woman's "estrogen surge", a more gradual increase in estrogen hormones that occurs about five to six days prior to ovulation. With the ovulation microscope, you simply view a dry saliva sample through a microscope lens. If you are about to ovulate, you'll begin to see crystal patterns in the saliva. The patterns (called "ferning") will gradually sharpen and intensify as you near peak fertility. Fertile Focus remains the "customer favorite" ovulation scope, and it.s endorsed by fertility expert Amos Grunebaum, MD. Convenient, accurate, and easy-to-use, some women elect to use scopes like Fertile Focus in concert with traditional LH urine tests to "focus" on fertility