What does watery mucus mean

And it's not one of the early pregnancy symptoms that women commonly report during those first few weeks. If you suspect you might be pregnant, your best bet is to take a pregnancy test around the time you would expect your period.

Many things affect the texture and consistency of cervical mucus. For example, changes in your health, medications, feminine hygiene products, douching, sex, and lubricants can all interfere with cervical mucus and make it difficult to tell where you are in your cycle.

Infections can also alter your cervical mucus. If you notice your vaginal discharge change color to yellow-gray or green, develop a strong fishy odor, or if you feel burning, irritation, or swelling around your vagina or when you pee, seek medical attention. Not everyone will experience the same variations in cervical mucus.

For instance, you may not have much mucus except right before ovulation. The main thing to look for is some kind of change in cervical mucus mid-cycle. And if your cervical mucus pattern doesn't end up helping you predict when you ovulate, consider other methods for predicting ovulation.

Find out how to predict ovulation by charting your cervical mucus and basal body temperature. Also, learn the pros and cons of charting versus using an ovulation predictor kit. Top signs of pregnancy. BabyCenter's editorial team is committed to providing the most helpful and trustworthy pregnancy and parenting information in the world. When creating and updating content, we rely on credible sources: respected health organizations, professional groups of doctors and other experts, and published studies in peer-reviewed journals.

We believe you should always know the source of the information you're seeing. Learn more about our editorial and medical review policies. Fertility awareness-based methods of family planning. American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. Stanford JB, et al. Timing intercourse to achieve pregnancy: Current evidence. You can use your fingers to feel for fluid at the entryway to your vagina, or at your cervix directly.

Look for color and consistency. Feel for things like thickness, wetness, slipperiness like soap and stretchiness of the fluid. Another way is to look for fluid on your toilet paper. Cervical fluid should be visible on the paper and look different than your other vaginal moisture. If you want to get into it, you can also try dipping fluid-covered fingers into a glass of water. Cervical fluid will either stay stuck to your fingers or will sink to the bottom of the glass in a little clump.

Vaginal moisture, on the other hand, will dissolve in the water. It will take some trial and error to find a method that works best for you. Beginning of your cycle: menstruation. On day one of the cycle, the first day of your period, levels of both estrogen and progesterone are low. Since estrogen levels determine cervical fluid production, the cervix is not producing much fluid at all at this time 4.

Just after your period: absent, dry. In the days just after your period, estrogen is rising estrogen is produced by the follicle growing in your ovary as it prepares to release an egg at ovulation. Leading up to ovulation: sticky, white, creamy, lotion-y.

As estrogen levels rise, the cervix produces more fluid. At first, it might be thick and sticky or tacky, and become more wet and creamy, like a lotion.

In a day menstrual cycle, you may first notice this fluid around day 9 or 10 1,4. Around ovulation: eggy, wet, slippery, clear, stretchy.

As ovulation approaches, much more cervical fluid is produced. Your vagina will likely start to feel much wetter, and fluid becomes more slippery as its water content rises. This is particularly true for watery cervical mucus, which often dovetails ovulation and heralds the opening of this window. Cervical mucus is a type of vaginal discharge produced by your cervix and regulated by your hormones estrogen and progesterone.

It is composed of:. Cervical mucus helps form the first line of defense against foreign and infectious agents looking to enter your genital tract. It also plays a key role in functions within this tract such as keeping its lining moist and allowing or blocking the passage of:. Mucus tends to be thick and scant at the start of your menstrual cycle. Mucin proteins form a mesh-like structure that serves as a barrier to sperm and other agents. As estrogen levels rise, water levels also rise while mucin lessens.

This relaxes the mucin barrier and makes your cervical mucus increasingly thinner. These changes peak at ovulation with the watery mucus becoming more copious and resembling raw egg white. Cervical mucus responds to hormone changes. Mucus thinning is tied to higher estrogen levels and normal fertility whereas thickening brought on by higher progesterone is thought to play a key role in contraception.

Noting changes in mucus that occur over your menstrual cycle may help predict your fertile window. The window opens 3 to 5 days sperm lifespan before ovulation, which just happens to be the number of days sperm can survive after ejaculation. The ovulation window closes 1 to 2 days, which is the average number of days an oocyte, or immature egg, can survive after being released.

The water content of mucus tends to be thinnest and most profuse during ovulation, as well as just before and after it. You are more likely to get pregnant if you have vaginal sex during this fertile period. Tracking the amount and quality of your cervical mucus a few times a day for several cycles may help pinpoint your ovulation pattern and your fertile window. You can simply observe any cervical mucus present outside your vulva, or you can collect mucus with your fingers or a tissue.

Using an app or online tracker may also help you know when this window is most likely to be open. You enter information about your cervical mucus, and the app analyzes the information to help predict your ovulation cycles. People with normal menses with molimina symptoms such as tender breasts, bloating, and fatigue are more likely to ovulate. In a typical menstrual cycle, measuring basal body temperature BBT daily may help pinpoint whether ovulation has occurred.

BBT is the lowest natural body temperature charted after a period of rest using a thermometer calibrated to easily read the temperature range. This is done around the same time each day usually each morning before rising. One method of fertility monitoring uses changes in cervical mucus to predict ovulation. When a person is fertile, the cervical fluid is watery, thin, and slippery, and it may appear similar to an egg white.

Cervical mucus is fluid that the cervix releases into the vagina. It has several functions, including keeping the vagina lubricated and preventing infection. Throughout the menstrual cycle, hormonal shifts influence the amount, texture, and appearance of cervical mucus. There may be enough mucus for a person to notice it in their underwear. Although the cervix always produces some mucus, it makes more right before and after ovulation.

So, if a person notices an increase in vaginal discharge, they may be seeing fertile cervical mucus. Fertile discharge is thin, clear or white, and slippery, much the same as an egg white. This type of discharge signals that ovulation is approaching. Fertile cervical fluid helps sperm move up the cervix to fertilize an egg. It also keeps the sperm healthy during the journey.

People usually notice fertile discharge a few days before ovulation. The discharge may become wetter and more slippery over several days. After ovulation, the amount of discharge usually decreases. A ripening egg grows inside an enclosure, called a follicle, in the uterus.

The follicle grows and produces estrogen. When the follicle ruptures, the body ovulates, releasing an egg. The estrogen that the follicle produces softens the cervix and opens it slightly.