Mucus is your friend. I know it can seem disgusting and annoying especially when you have to clean it up from a runny nose or have to cough it up from your lungs and you start to really hate it. But it is very important to your body, used in many bodily functions. And when you’re a woman, you will even encounter it in places like your cervix. With that said, did you know that that cervical mucus also helps with your fertility? Your cervical mucus has a specific and essential function in reproduction and you would do well to get to know it a little better.

The cervix is one of the essential parts of the reproductive system. It serves as the connection between the vagina and the uterus. This connection is the only way that sperm from the male penis entering the vagina can get to the uterus where the egg from the woman’s ovaries is waiting to be fertilized. So without the cervix, you can’t get pregnant. And without cervical mucus, the cervix doesn’t work. The mucus serves as a sustaining fluid for sperm. You see, the vagina isn’t that friendly to sperm. It’s actually downright mean. The acidity of a woman’s vagina is deadly to sperm. So the sperm need to be deposited near the cervix, where the cervical mucus allows it to travel up into the uterus. Without it, the sperm would die before reaching the egg. It also serves to protect your reproductive organs. Not all sperm can swim through the mucus so that serves as a way to eliminate unhealthy sperm cells. It also has anti-bacterial properties to guard your uterus and organs from any possible outside contaminants that can enter through the cervix.

The mucus actually changes form regularly. Within a month, it should predictably change from passable to impassable or infertile, depending on your menstrual and ovulation cycles. A regular cycle would be something like the following: Day 1 is the first day of your menstruation. From this day to around Day 5, you will experience bleeding. Day 6 would see a very dry feeling from your cervix as the mucus will still be in an infertile form. Day 10 will see it transform into a more moist form. This is the beginning of its transformation into a more fertile form, passable by sperm. This will happen all the way to Day 20, but it will usually hit its peak at around Day 17 and ovulation should occur within 2 days before or after that day. Day 21 will see your mucus again begin to transform into an infertile form, thicker and relatively impassable by sperm. You may feel dryness but the mucus is there, just not in a very fluid form. This will continue until the last day of the cycle, Day 30, and will repeat again on Day 1, the start of your next period.

Some women, though, can’t produce this mucus on their own. This condition can be treated with drugs that stimulate production if the glands just need a little push. If they are damaged, sometimes they can be repaired with surgical procedures.

Another problem with the mucus is with its regular transformations. Sometimes it doesn’t transform into a passable state for sperm. This can be treated with chemicals that loosen mucus. Remember those runny noses and coughs? Cough medicine that works by loosening mucus can be a treatment for overly thick cervical mucus.

Sometimes, the cervical mucus just doesn’t like the sperm. Although it is supposed to be very sperm friendly, sometimes its anti bacterial properties work against the sperm. This can be tricky to treat as there is sometimes no way to stop the mucus from producing the anti sperm chemicals.

If your cervical mucus proves to be too much of a problem, an intrauterine insemination may be required. This procedure uses a long tube called a catheter to insert sperm directly into the uterus, completely bypassing the cervix and the mucus.

So there you have it. Hopefully you got to know your cervical mucus a little better. Remember to treat it well and have it check out regularly to ensure no problems exist.