Is cervical mucus only present for the 24 hours that an egg is viable?

the egg is visible til you make an omelette...

Some women find its only around in its egg-white form for around 12 hours, while others have copious mucous for the week preceding ovulation. The consistency and appearance of your cervical mucous changes over the course of your cycle.

Here's the typical pattern.

Just after your period, your mucous is usually dry and tacky, white and kind of pasty. As your fertile period approaches, your mucous gets more slippery and stretchy. At your most fertile, when you're ovulating, your mucous will become clear (not white) and very very stretchy, and look and feel a lot like raw egg white. If you stretch it between your thumb and index finger, it'll stretch an inch, easily. After your ovulation, your cervical mucous will quickly dry up to a tacky white appearance again for a couple of weeks. (Sometimes, it'll be thin and watery, instead). Then, your period is due again!

Every woman is a little different, but that's the basic pattern. If you want to learn your own pattern and watch for signs of fertility, you might like to keep a diary and write down what type of mucous you had each day.

And remember, having unprotected sex can change what your secretions look and feel like, so don't check just after having sex, or the morning after you had sex the night before. Check in the evening before having sex, or at some other convenient time of day.

Good luck TTC!

:)Bronwyn

From what I understand it is present before the egg is released. I have read Taking charge of your fertility and I have a fertility monitor. Typically the CM is a sign of pending ovulation.

No it is always there, but it changes in consistency, at times it is thick, other times its thin