Most women watch their menstrual cycles and are taught that their prime time to fall pregnant is during mid cycle or biological ovulation.

What they might not know is that the moon can trigger ovulation and bring on fertility at any time during the menstrual cycle including before, after or even during your menstrual period. It all depends on what phase the moon was in when you were born.

The moon has been linked to female fertility for thousands of years. In fact, the ebb and flow of the moon is responsible for the spawning, mating and birthing behaviour of many creatures on our earth. So really, why should we humans be any different?

Intuitively, women have always understood that the moon, their menstrual cycles and fertility are intimately connected. In folklore and ancient traditions the connections between the three are taken as fact.

Consider the following:

A healthily fertile woman's menstrual cycle runs its course in about twenty-nine days, one lunar cycle.

A standard healthy pregnancy runs for 42 weeks or 10 lunar months.

The relationship between the moon's cycles and menstruation is so basic that our words, 'menstruation', 'moon' and 'month' all come from the Greek word for 'measure of time.'

Recent scientific research has revealed how the moon plays its part in female fertility. They have discovered that the production of the hormone Melatonin is controlled by the amount of moonlight reaching the eye.

The Body Clock, which is also responsible for our sleep / wake cycle, responds to the levels of moonlight reaching the eye to produce varying amounts of Melatonin. These Melatonin changes tell the ovaries, through other hormones to develop the egg at the beginning of the menstrual cycle and to release the eggs at mid cycle, so ovulation will occur.

When we all lived in huts or caves without artificial light, women generally bled on the new moon and ovulated and gave birth on the Full Moon. That's just the way it was.

But as humankind has embraced artificial light, the female fertility clock has been disturbed. Women now ovulate and give birth at any time during the lunar month. This means that women now have two fertility cycles to work with.

The truth is that the FULL Moon still exerts a powerful influence on women even if they were not born under that phase.

Many women find that they do in fact ovulate with the full moon. But if they were not born under the full moon phase then they will have a SECONDARY LUNAR fertility pattern that can and does trigger spontaneous ovulation.

Remember the moon's trigger effect is increased by two factors - stress and sexual intercourse. That is, if you are having sex during your lunar fertile time, the chances of ovulation being triggered and conception occurring increase.

This can come as quite a surprise to many people and can be very worrying for women who are not looking to get pregnant.

Being aware of lunar fertility and synchronising you biological cycle to your lunar cycle can be beneficial for many women.

For example:

if you are trying to avoid pregnancy it is essential to know when your natal lunar fertile time occurs so you are prepared with appropriate contraception.

if you are trying to fall pregnant, synchronising your cycle maximises your chance of falling pregnant at your fertile time, and

if your menstrual cycle is irregular then using the moon can be a simple, non invasive technique to help you get regular again. .