All over the web, you can find one or more ancient Chinese conception charts, which are purportedly based on an ancient Chinese chart found in a 700 year old Chinese tomb near Beijing.   The original chart is supposedly kept in the Institute of Science in Beijing.

It is said that the chart can predict the gender of the child based on the month of conception and the mother’s age at the time of the conception.  It is said to be accurate to 93 percent.  Some are based on the mother’s calendar age, while others make an extra calculation and base the gender on the woman’s Chinese lunar age.  Interestingly, the answers may be different depending on which calendar you use, so you need to decide whether or not you want to use the lunar age or the actual age.

The idea behind the chart is to determine whether or not you are having a boy or a girl.  The basic chart has the age of the mother along one axis and the month of the year on the other axis.  In the middle of the chart is a “M” for male and an “F” for female.  The calculation based on lunar age, asks for the mother’s age at the time of the conception and asks for the actual date of conception and the time zone the conception occurred in.  The mother’s lunar age is calculated and the rest is the same as the basic chart.

Such charts can, if you believe in them, tell you when to conceive if you want a boy or a girl.  Simply plug in your age and figure out which month to conceive your baby in.  If you are already pregnant, put in the age at the time of conception and the month you conceived in and you can determine whether you are having a boy or a girl.   Again, the chart is said to be 93 percent accurate.

It is of special interest in Chinese culture, where there is a “one child only” policy.  Women want to have a boy as a means of carrying on the family name.  It appears the chart works because women in China have a boy: girl ratio of up to 130:100 in rural areas as opposed to a ratio of 104:107 in other countries who do not use the conception chart.

The conception chart can be used to select the gender of the children you have.  For example, if you want a boy first and then a girl, use the chart to first select the proper month of conception for a boy based on your age and then select the proper month of conception for a girl the next time around.  While the results are not a hundred percent accurate, they can perhaps give you a better than average chance of having the gender of child you’ve been hoping for.

Ancient Chinese conception charts can be found anywhere on the web and it is up to you to decide if you want to use a chart based on your Chinese lunar age or your actual age.

Progesterone is an important hormone in the female reproductive cycle and is vital in maintaining a pregnancy in the last half of the menstrual cycle as well as throughout the pregnancy.

After conception, it is the progesterone produced by the corpus luteum (the cyst left over when the egg is released) that maintains the pregnancy until the minute placenta takes over and begins to secrete the progesterone that helps the pregnancy go on.

Progesterone is important in creating a fertile and warm environment inside the womb, helping the new embryo (fertilized egg divided) grow through a healthy implantation.  It also strengthens and maintains the secretory endometrium that the new embryo imbeds itself in.  It prevents the premature shedding of the secretory endometrium in menstruation.

A low progesterone level can result in a period which is just a few days too early for the embryo to take hold so it is lost in menstruation. In normal menstruation, when no egg is fertilized, there is a precipitous drop in progesterone, triggering menses.

In a healthy pregnancy, progesterone increases rapidly at the time of ovulation to create a secretory-type endometrium, which is the kind of endometrium suitable for implantation.  The progesterone level remains high and goes exponentially higher as the pregnancy progresses.

In low progesterone infertility, the egg gets normally fertilized but cannot implant because the progesterone levels from the corpus luteum are too low or they fall off before implantation can take place, leading to a lost pregnancy from lack of implantation.

Women who suspect they have low progesterone infertility need to have one or more progesterone levels checked during the last part of the menstrual cycle to make sure the level is in the normal range.  If not, a woman can be supplemented with progesterone during the last half of her cycle in order to protect the pregnancy until such time that the pregnancy protects itself.

Another way to determine if the progesterone level is remaining high is to do basal body temperature charts throughout the menstrual cycle.  The time at which the temperature is elevated should be a full 12-14 days.

If it falls off ten or less days after the time of ovulation (the day before the rise in temperature), there may be a luteal phase deficiency, which is a low progesterone infertility syndrome. A period that is shorter than 28 days could be a result of an inadequate luteal phase.  In addition, a significant drop in progesterone during the first 12 weeks of pregnancy could indicate an impending miscarriage.

There are a couple of ways in which progesterone can be given in the latter half of the pregnancy.  Natural progesterone suppositories can be inserted vaginally for every day after ovulation and this will provide enough progesterone to maintain the pregnancy.

Women can also use natural progesterone cream which is especially designed to rub into the skin during the luteal phase of the menstrual cycle in order to support any potential pregnancy.  Natural progesterone cream or suppositories should only be used after one is sure that ovulation has taken place.