ovulation

i have been on many websites, all giving my ovulation date different, can you help:- first day of my period was 12th and usually lasts 5 days i have 28 day cycle usually too! what would be the best dates to have intercorse to conceive? also whilst looking for the ovulation calculators i found a site which told me you could have your desired sex if had intercourse on their listed dates around ovulation, is this true? when would be best to try and concieve (conceive) if in this case for wanting a girl, i always thought it was just a 50/50 chance and nothing could be done to imrove the chances of having your desired sex??? please help ??

[findinghumility]

Well if you have an average cycle you most likely ovulate around cycle day 14.  (the only way to be confident would be to track your fertility cm/temp, and/or use an ovulation predictor kit)

Assuming this is the day you ovulate and you are ttc you should have sex every day or every other day starting about 5 days prior..so cycle day 9.  The reason for this is most women produce cervical mucus several days prior to ovulation and sperm can live for up to 5 days in cervical mucus.  You should also use the day of and day after ovulation so cd 14 & 15.  The egg only lives for about 24 hours after ovulation so the best bet for conceiving is using the several days before ovulation and the day of. So your best days again ASSUMING you ovulate on cd14 would be cycle days 9-15.  

If you want to try for a girl they say you should have sex before you ovulate by several days so in that case you would use like cd9-12 and hope the sperm lives long enough to fertilize on the 14th.  My personal opinion is that it is more or less a 50/50 sort of thing, but you can read more about the gender selection theory here: It's called The Shettles Method

http://www.babyhopes.com/articles/how-to-conceive-a-girl.html

Good luck!