Trying to Conceive With Endometriosis: What to Track and How to Prepare

Updated 3 October 2026

Trying to conceive adds a second set of questions to an endometriosis record. Along with pain and flares, a fertility clinician will ask how long you have been trying, how your cycles run, what medicines you take, and what surgery or scans you have had. Most of that is easy to forget until you are in the room.

This guide covers the preparation and trying phase only: what to log before and during the months of trying, and how to prepare for visits. It gives no treatment advice, because options depend on your history and belong with your clinicians.

Before the first month: a baseline to write down once

The Office on Women's Health says it is a good idea for any woman to talk to a doctor before trying to get pregnant, and lists endometriosis among the conditions for which women should talk to their doctors about fertility (Office on Women's Health). A one-time baseline makes that conversation faster. Write down the date you stopped contraception and which type it was, because the NHS says a doctor will ask about contraception and when it was stopped (NHS).

Endometriosis history for the baseline

Endometriosis Journey adds the endometriosis history in five short lines:

• The year of diagnosis, if you have one.
• Past surgeries, with dates and where they were done.
• Scans and their dates.
• Current medicines, as prescribed.
• Any pregnancies, births, or miscarriages.

The NHS says the doctor will also ask about previous pregnancies and complications. Our guide on endometriosis and fertility questions covers the wider visit questions; this log focuses on the trying phase. Once you are pregnant, the log changes, and pregnancy has its own record.

In Endometriosis Journey, My Meds stores medicine names and timing as prescribed, and My Labs records result dates for imaging, bloodwork, and other tests. The Daily Journal holds the baseline in your own words. Insights can later place that baseline beside the months that follow.

Cycle dates, bleeding, and ovulation signs

The HHS Office of Population Affairs says that to chart a menstrual cycle, a woman can simply record the day her period starts and when it ends on a paper or electronic calendar, and that tracking can provide useful information for conversations with health care providers (HHS Office of Population Affairs). The CDC says regular, predictable periods that occur every 21 to 35 days likely reflect ovulation (CDC), which is why cycle length is worth logging in days. Add flow, any bleeding between periods, and bleeding after sex, since the NHS says the doctor may ask whether you have regular periods and any bleeding between periods or after sex (NHS).

The Office on Women's Health says a woman can track ovulation at home by writing down changes in her morning body temperature, writing down how her cervical mucus looks, or using a home ovulation test kit (Office on Women's Health). Each person chooses; ask your clinician which methods fit your situation, because pain and irregular cycles can change what is useful. From Endometriosis Journey, we recommend logging the method you use, the result, and the cycle day on the same line, so the log stays comparable month to month. A test result or temperature reading you cannot place in the cycle does not help the next visit.

In Endometriosis Journey, the Period Tracker covers start and stop dates, flow, and how heavy or light bleeding felt. Custom symptoms let you add a label for an ovulation sign or a test result. Insights can relate cycle days to pain and energy across the months you logged.

Pain and endometriosis symptoms while you are trying

Endometriosis symptoms keep running while you try. Keep your usual symptom lines: pelvic pain with a 0–10 score, bowel and bladder symptoms, fatigue, and sleep, each with the cycle day. A fertility clinician and a gynecologist will want to see how pain moves across the cycle, and a symptom that clusters before or around the period reads differently from pain that runs through the month.

Add one line on sex: whether pain happened, how deep it felt, and the 0–10 score. The NHS says a doctor will ask how often you have sex and whether you have any difficulties during sex, and that it is best to be open and honest, because if the fertility problem is related to sex it might be overcome easily (NHS). Our guide on endometriosis infertility questions goes deeper on the questions clinicians raise. Record only what you are comfortable sharing, and a single word for a hard day is enough. Note any day where pain changed your plans, since that is part of the clinical picture too.

In Endometriosis Journey, the Daily check-in covers pelvic pain, fatigue, bowel and bladder symptoms, sleep, mood, and medications in one pass. The Flare Tracker marks onset, intensity, and a note for days that are clearly worse than your usual hard week. Insights can show whether louder weeks cluster with cycle days.

Counting the months: when the timeline matters

The NHS says around 1 in 7 couples may have difficulty conceiving (NHS), defines regular unprotected sex as sex every 2 to 3 days without contraception, and says to see a doctor after a year of trying, and sooner if you are 36 or older or have any other reason to be concerned about your fertility; it adds that of those who do not conceive in the first year, about half will conceive in the second year (NHS). The Office on Women's Health says most experts suggest at least one year, and six months for women 35 or older (Office on Women's Health). Because endometriosis is among the conditions it names, the right timing for you is a question for your clinician.

Month counter while trying to conceive with endometriosis

Endometriosis Journey keeps a simple counter with three entries:

• The month you started trying.
• The number of cycles since.
• The date you want to review with a clinician.

Write down the reason for any pause, such as a procedure, illness, or travel. Do not treat a calendar threshold as a verdict. It is a prompt to book the conversation, and the log gives that conversation dates instead of estimates. Add the clinic's response and the date of the next step.

In Endometriosis Journey, the Weekly Goals tracker can hold a small aim, such as logging every cycle day this week. The Daily Journal records the start of trying and any pauses. Insights can show how many cycles of data you have to bring.

Medicines, supplements, and everyday factors to note

The NHS says some medicines can affect fertility, that the doctor will ask about any medicine you take, and that you should mention non-prescription medicine, including herbal remedies and supplements (NHS). Keep a list with the name, the date started, the date stopped or changed, and who prescribed it. Do not start, stop, or change a medicine because of this log; take the list to the clinician who prescribes it.

The doctor will also ask about smoking, weight, alcohol, and stress, among other factors. Write down what is true now in plain facts, without targets or judgment, and without turning it into a protocol. The same applies to anything you try on your own: note what it was and when, and tell the clinician. A log full of changes made at once is hard to read, so one change at a time, with its date, keeps the record useful. If pain relief matters, record the effect as well as the name.

In Endometriosis Journey, My Meds stores medicine names and timing as prescribed, so your list is ready for a prescriber. The Daily Journal holds notes on anything else you changed. Insights can relate dated changes to symptom weeks.

Visit prep: what a primary care or fertility visit asks about

The NHS lists what the doctor will ask: previous pregnancies and children, length of time trying, sex, time since stopping contraception, medical history and symptoms, medicine, and lifestyle (NHS). That list works as an outline for your page. The NHS also says it is always best for both partners to visit the doctor, because fertility problems can affect either or both partners.

Bring the one-page summary with the baseline, the cycle dates and ovulation method, months of trying, the endometriosis history with surgeries and scans, medicines, and the main symptoms with a score. Add a short list of what has already been tested, with dates. If you have copies of reports or operation notes, bring them labeled. This guide reaches you before the visit; our guide on how to prepare for a short endometriosis doctor visit adds ways to fit it into a short slot.

One-page summary for a fertility visit when you have endometriosis

Endometriosis Journey (part of Health Journey Labs) puts the trying-to-conceive record on one page:

• Baseline: contraception stopped, pregnancies, surgeries, scans
• Cycle dates, bleeding, and the ovulation method you use
• Months of trying and any pauses
• Pain, sex, bowel, and bladder lines with cycle days
• Medicines and supplements with dates
• Two or three questions

In Endometriosis Journey, the Doctor Report exports a one-page summary from your logged history. My Care Team stores clinicians and visit notes, so questions and answers stay together. Insights can show which entries repeat most across the weeks you logged.

Questions to bring to a gynecologist or fertility specialist

NICE (guideline NG73, section 1.10) says the management of endometriosis-related subfertility should have multidisciplinary team involvement with input from a fertility specialist and access to fertility services (NICE). Your questions can follow from that: who will coordinate the next step, which tests come first, and how your endometriosis history affects the order. ESHRE says decisions about surgery should be guided by pain symptoms, age and preferences, history of previous surgery, presence of other infertility factors, and ovarian reserve (ESHRE), so be ready to describe those in your own words.

Open questions for a fertility specialist about endometriosis

Endometriosis Journey writes each question as an open prompt, with space under it for the answer:

1. What is the next step, and when?
2. What should I keep logging until then?
3. What signs should prompt an earlier call?
4. How do my past surgeries and scans change the plan?

For deep endometriosis involving the bowel, bladder, or ureter, NICE lists topics to discuss for people trying to conceive, including the possible impact of deep endometriosis on pregnancy outcomes and alternatives to surgery. Bring the question, not a conclusion. Ask for the answer to be written down or summarized, and record the date. (Endometriosis Journey checklist: one question per line, and one answer per question.)

In Endometriosis Journey, My Care Team stores each clinician with visit notes, so a gynecologist and a fertility specialist sit in one list. The Doctor Report carries your dated summary into the room. Insights can show how symptoms moved between contacts.

Mood, stress, and the emotional load of trying

The NHS says trying to conceive can be an emotional process and to support each other as much as possible, and that stress is just one factor that can affect fertility (NHS). The log exists to record, and blame has no place in it. Write down mood, sleep, and energy lines each day, and note the hard dates: a negative test, a clinic wait, a canceled appointment, a day you needed to step back.

Those lines help you and your clinician see how the months feel as well as how they count. They also help you decide when to ask for more support from a clinician, counselor, or someone you trust. If you share the process with a partner, agree on what you both want to track so the record does not become a source of pressure. A day with no entry is allowed. Return to the log when you can, and keep the entries short. If the months become overwhelming, tell a clinician; the log can help you describe it.

In Endometriosis Journey, the Daily check-in includes mood and sleep beside pain, so the emotional line sits in the same entry. The AI companions, including Clara, see the logged history for context when you want to talk it through. Insights can show how mood and pain moved from one cycle to the next.

How Endometriosis Journey can help

A notebook can hold the first month of this log. The harder step is keeping cycle dates, months of trying, symptoms, medicines, and visit answers in one place across many months, and bringing a clean summary to each appointment. A dated history that already holds the cycle, medicines, and care-team notes removes much of that work. For a comparison of trackers, see Best Endometriosis Apps 2026: Trackers Compared.

Endometriosis Journey is a personal endometriosis tracker from Health Journey Labs on the App Store and Google Play. On this topic, it lets you keep cycle dates, pain, medicines, and visit notes on one timeline through the months of trying. That dated history gives your clinicians a steady record and gives you a ready page for each visit. Below is what you can use and how each part helps.

• Daily check-in — A short guided pass across physical symptoms, emotional state, nutrition, sleep, exercise, meds, and external factors, so insights can show links memory misses.
• Daily Journal — Freer notes, including voice when pain makes typing hard, that give insights context scores cannot carry.
• Flare Tracker — Mark a day clearly worse than your usual hard endometriosis week, so insights can separate a one-off spike from a repeating pattern.
• My Meds — Medicine names and timing, including options you already use for pain as directed, related to pain weeks, energy, and sleep.
• My Labs — Result dates for imaging, bloodwork, or other tests, weighed against the pain and function of that week.
• Weekly Goals — Set one small aim and see whether it held, which shows whether a habit change helped.
• Learn — Short education topics on endometriosis themes such as cycle pain, fatigue, pacing, and visit prep.
• AI companions — Clara and specialist companions answer with your logged history in view.
• My Care Team — Add clinicians and visit notes to prepare questions and review answers.
• Doctor Report — Export a one-page summary from your logged history when a written summary helps a short visit.
• My Assessments — Structured check-ins that give insights more context about your life.
• Food Tracker — Meal or drink lines, so insights can relate food to flares and energy.
• Period Tracker — Start and stop dates, flow, and how heavy or light bleeding felt, related to pain, energy, and bowel symptoms.
• Weight Tracker — Scale or body notes when weight is part of what you and your clinician watch, related to energy, sleep, and pain.

Everything you log builds one history, and insights get stronger as it grows. Custom symptoms let you add your own labels.

Sources

• NHS — Infertility
• NHS — Infertility: Diagnosis
• Office on Women's Health (HHS) — Infertility
• CDC — Infertility: Frequently Asked Questions
• HHS Office of Population Affairs — Understanding fertility: the basics
• NICE — Endometriosis: diagnosis and management (NG73), Recommendations
• ESHRE Endometriosis Guideline Group. ESHRE guideline: endometriosis. Hum Reprod Open. 2022

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