How To Increase Your Chances Of Getting Pregnant
If starting a family is one of your biggest goals, then encountering difficulties during your attempts to conceive can be a real worry. Realizing that your quests to get pregnant havent been a success can really get you down emotionally, and this can take its toll on your relationship, too.
Thankfully, there are many tried and tested tips and tricks that you can make the most of to increase your chances of falling pregnant, and it doesnt have to be as difficult as you might expect! So, if you would like to find out more about how you can promote the best possible fertility levels to boost your likelihood of conceiving, then simply read on. As always, consult your physician and listen to your body.
Find A Highly Rated In Vitro Fertilization Clinic
If you have a fertility issue that cannot be properly managed with a good diet and healthy lifestyle, then you may wish to explore the option of in vitro fertilization . During an IVF procedure, an egg is removed from a womans ovaries and fertilized with sperm inside a laboratory environment. The fertilized egg, known as an embryo, is returned to the womans womb so that it can subsequently grow and develop. This process can be done using your own eggs and your partners sperm, or you can choose to use eggs and sperm which have come from donors. IVF is an excellent choice for those who have continually struggled with conception and feel as though they have hit a brick wall, as it can really help to increase your chances of falling pregnant. Many people are under the false impression that such a procedure is far too expensive for the average person to seek out, yet this couldnt be further from the truth. With IVF constantly growing in popularity, affordable IVF clinics are on the rise. Be sure to read lots of reviews from past patients before you decide to visit an IVF clinic, as this will give you a more honest look into the value and quality of the service provided. Let your general doctor know about your decision to pursue IVF, as they will likely want to monitor your health during the process to check that youre in the best condition throughout.
Infertility Is A Common Issue In Couples Trying To Conceive Intrauterine Insemination Is A Reproductive Procedure That Might Help Infertile Couples Here Are 10 Tips For A Successful Iui Treatment
Written by Arushi Bidhuri | Published : July 21, 2021 9:47 PM IST
Fertility is a bit of a mystery for most individuals until they start trying to take pregnancy seriously. Despite the numerous physical issues and surprises that could make natural reproduction difficult, noticing signs of infertility can help resolve the issue early. Everyone wants children at some point in their lives, but for some couples, having a kid is only a dream. When a couple is unable to conceive, the couple and their family goes through a difficult period. However, such couples now have reason to be hopeful.
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How To Increase Your Chances Of Pregnancy
If youve decided the time is right to become a parent, then the odds are that youre eager to get pregnant as soon as you can.
Its rarely as simple as throwing the condoms away, though. For every 100 couples trying to conceive, 80-90 will achieve a pregnancy within one year. The remaining 10-20 couples will find it takes longer or that they need help to conceive.
There are things you can do to improve your chances of getting pregnant. It involves identifying your most fertile days each month and having sex then. You and your partner can also boost your fertility by improving your diet, weight and lifestyle.
Here are 5 top tips to improve your chance of getting pregnant.
Men: Watch Your Testicle Temperature
Love a hot soak in the bath? Tend to hit the sauna after a workout? You may want to cool your jets on these habits while youâre trying to conceive.
âThe testicles are a few degrees cooler than the rest of the body, because that’s a better temperature for sperm production, so anything that warms them up can potentially be an issue,â Eisenberg says.
Studies have found that exposure to wet heat can lower your sperm count. And it takes your body 2-3 months to make new, mature sperm.
Another heat source to watch out for: laptops. âThey’re less warm than they used to be, but they can raise the scrotum about a degree, which is enough to impact sperm production in a pretty short time, sometimes in less than 15 minutes,â Eisenberg says. Play it safe and do your computing on a table or desk.
And how about that age-old boxers vs. briefs debate? Eisenberg says both are fine. âIt really doesn’t matter that much. You should wear whatever’s comfortable to you,â he says.
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Swap Out Your Partners Tight Underwear
Time to make the switch to boxers and trade your partners favorite skinny jeans for a less restrictive pair. Tight underwear and pants can have a negative effect on a mans sperm count and quality a study found that men who wear more forgiving options have higher sperm concentration and count than those who prefer bottoms that leave little to the imagination.
Kick The Smoking And Drinking Habits
Smoking can lead to fertility problems in both women and men. Chemicals found in cigarette smoke, such as nicotine and carbon monoxide, speed up the loss rate of a woman’s eggs, according to the American Society for Reproductive Medicine .
Smoking ages a woman’s ovaries and depletes her supply of eggs prematurely, according to the Mayo Clinic. In a study published in 2020 in the journalReproductive Biology and Endocrinology , researchers looked at scientific findings around smoking, alcohol, addiction and fertility they found that smoking is linked to decreased fertility.
It’s also a good idea for women to stay away from secondhand smoke, which may affect their chances of becoming pregnant, according to a 2009 study published in BMJ Journals
Taking or attempting to conceive should also be avoided.
It’s safest for a woman to avoid alcohol entirely when she is hoping to become pregnant. A woman should also stop consuming alcohol if she stops using birth control because she wants to get pregnant.
However, a 2017 study published in the journal Obstetrics & Gynecology found that in the United States, half of all pregnant women drink alcohol around the time they conceive or during early pregnancy, usually before they know they are expecting. And alcohol consumption has long been known to cause birth defects.
Drinking alcohol at moderate or heavy levels can make it difficult for a woman to get pregnant, according toThe American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists .
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Women: Watch Your Weight
If youâre overweight, youâll raise your chances of putting a bun in the oven if you slim down. Extra pounds make you more likely to have irregular menstrual cycles, or to not ovulate at all, McLennan says. âLosing even a small percentage of body weight can increase fertility and decrease health risks during pregnancy.â
Being too thin impacts fertility, too. Not only are you more likely to have irregular periods if youâre underweight, youâre also at risk for preterm birth once you do get pregnant, and your baby is more likely to be born at a low birth weight.
Find Your Fertile Window
Now that you’ve stopped using birth control, you may be wondering, “When is the best time to try to get pregnant?” The answer is during your “fertile window,” or the days leading up to and just after ovulation.
No matter how often you have sex, if you skip the most fertile days of the month, you won’t conceive. “The biggest mistake my patients make is not knowing exactly when they ovulate,” says Dr. Williams.
Many doctors recommend using ovulation predictor kits to detect ovulation. These at-home tests work by detecting a surge in luteinizing hormone in your urine, which occurs about 36 to 48 hours before you ovulate. OPKs help you plan baby-making sex for when you’re the most fertile.
Other ways to track ovulation include charting your basal body temperature , monitoring your cervical mucus, and tracking your menstrual cycle.
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What You Need To Know About Ovulation:
- An egg lives 12-24 hours after leaving the ovary.
- Normally only one egg is released each time of ovulation.
- Ovulation can be affected by stress, illness, hormonal imbalances, travel, or significant changes in weight, exercise, or sleeping patterns.
- Some women may experience light spotting around ovulation.
- Implantation of a fertilized egg normally takes place 6-12 days after ovulation.
- Each woman is born with millions of immature eggs that are waiting to be released during ovulation.
- A menstrual period can occur even if a woman has not ovulated.
- Ovulation can occur even if a woman has not had her menstrual period.
- Some women feel a bit of pain or aching near the ovaries during ovulation called mittelschmerz, which means middle pain in German.
- If an egg is not fertilized, it disintegrates and is absorbed into the uterine lining.
Make Sure Youre Using A Fertility
The kind of lubricant you use during sex can actually make conception more difficult, so much so that the Food and Drug Administration now categorizes certain lubricants as fertility friendly.
This is because the ingredients in many lubricants, such as petroleum, silicone, parabens and glycerin, can harm sperm function. A lubricants pH can also have an effect.
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How Often Should You Have Sex
You might have read that having sex too often reduces sperm quality and quantity. Some research has shown that sperm have better quality when collected after a 2-3 day period of abstinence. Studies have also shown that higher rates of conception are seen in couples who have sex every 1-2 days.
Making love once a day or every other day during your fertile window will increase your odds of getting pregnant.
Try to have sex more often, but dont force yourself into a schedule. It could lead to unnecessary stress. Ultimately, the ideal number of times to have sex is what feels comfortable to you.
If You Have Endometriosis
Endometriosis is another common condition. Its estimated that about 5% of American women have it. One study found that it caused 15% of infertility cases .
In endometriosis, tissue that is usually found only in the uterus grows in other parts of the body, such as the cervix or the fallopian tubes. Even mild endometriosis can lower your chances of becoming pregnant. Treatment for endometriosis may involve suppressing the growth of the abnormal tissue, removing it surgically, or stimulating ovulation and the growth of the follicles. These treatments are often combined with ART .
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Massage Your Way To Pregnancy
Massage can be used to gently manipulate the muscles and connective tissue to reposition the pelvic organs so that any blockages or adhesions and congestion are removed. This allows the body to self-regulate, heal, and regenerate. In addition, there is increased blood flow, and the functioning of the lymphatic system and nervous system are optimized.
Theres data to suggest massage can help open blocked tubes, treat endometriosis, and treat elevated levels of FSH, which can all decrease fertility. A study published in Alternative Therapies in Health and Medicine looked at 1,392 women having difficulty conceiving. After massage, there was a 60% success rate in opening a least one tube and a 57% pregnancy rate for women whose tubes were opened. Both female and male fertility can be improved by using these massage techniques.
Positions Orgasms And Lube
There are a lot of myths about sex, fertility, and how to make pregnancy more likely. Some of these recommend different positions or keeping the hips elevated after sex for a period of time.
Others claim that if the woman orgasms , conception is more likely. Unfortunately, there are no studies that support these claims.
The one thing you should think about is your lubricant. Certain products can decrease sperm motility and viability. These are important when trying to get pregnant.
Youll want to avoid:
If you need to use a lubricant, try:
These products wont interfere with your partners sperm.
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Use The Lube You Prefer
Some lubes are formulated to be fertility-friendly with ingredients that are non-toxic to sperm and may even support sperm health. These do workat least in a test tube. However, in real life, a study of almost 6,500 women found that the type of commercially available lubricant the women used did not affect how long it took them to conceive . So feel free to use whatever lube you like .
Foods That Increase Men And Womens Fertility
Eat Fat to Increase the Odds of Getting Pregnant :
One of the primary reasons couples have difficulty conceiving is inflammation. Chronic levels of inflammation are often the result of micro contaminants found in the air we breathe, the water we drink, but mostly in the foods we eat. Inflammation elicits an immune response, which sends our bodies into further turmoil. An overactive immune system can attack egg, sperm, embryo, and even a developing fetus. This can result in difficulty achieving pregnancy, maintaining pregnancy, or repeated miscarriages.
Eating fat is one of the easiest ways to reduce inflammation and improve immunologic function. Fat is an essential component of our diet and plays a vital role in total body health. Fat gives our cells structure. Its necessary for bone health, to protect our liver from toxins, make our immune system function correctly, and fat allows our bodies to absorb a number of essential vitamins.
Saturated fat and omega-3 fatty acids may help reduce inflammation , whether its through dietary consumption or intravenous intralipids. Fat may suppress the activity of natural killer cells in our immune system and help dial back the immune response and thus inflammation. At CNY Fertility, Dr. Robert Kiltz recommends a high fat, moderate protein, and low to no carbohydrate diet. He calls this the B.E.B.B.I. Diet for its mainstay foods: Bacon, Eggs, Butter, Beef, and Ice cream made from full-fat heavy cream .
Antioxidants Can Boost Fertility
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How Long After Sex Can You Test For Pregnancy
How Long After Sex Can You Test For Pregnancy
There are a variety of home pregnancy tests on the market, all of which claim to be 99% accurate. However, there is no one definitive answer to the question of how long after sex you can test for pregnancy. The answer depends on a number of factors, including the test you use and the timing of your ovulation.
Generally speaking, home pregnancy tests are most accurate when used no earlier than the first day of a missed period. However, some tests may be able to detect pregnancy earlier than that. If you are trying to conceive, it may be helpful to track your ovulation so that you can test as early as possible.
If you are unsure of when you ovulated, or if you had a irregular period, it may be best to wait until at least the first day of your missed period before taking a home pregnancy test.
Other Questions About Getting Pregnant
Can you get pregnant while breastfeeding?
Yes, a woman can get pregnant while breastfeeding . It is possible to become pregnant as soon as three weeks after giving birth, even if the person is exclusively breastfeeding and has yet to begin menstruating again, according to the U.K.’s National Health Service .
Can you get pregnant on your period?
Yes, it is possible to get pregnant if a woman has sex during their period, according to the Cleveland Clinic . A woman is less likely to get pregnant during menstruation, but it is still possible. Women are most fertile around the time they ovulate, but predicting this window is not an exact science and this is particularly true for women who have irregular periods.
How to get pregnant fast
Many people want to know how to get pregnant as quickly as possible. There is no sure-fire way of ensuring a speedy conception however, by following the science and evidence, the above tips can help you find the most optimal times to have sex and get pregnant.
Are pregnancy tests accurate?
When used properly, pregnancy tests are claimed to be up to 99% effective, according to the Mayo Clinic . If your test reads positive, this is rarely an error however, false negatives are more common, according to the NHS.
A pregnancy test works by detecting the human chorionic gonadotropin hormone . Around 6 days after successful fertilisation, the body produces this hormone.
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If The Test Is Negative
Stay positive. Remind yourself that if it didnt happen this time and if its meant to be, it will happen. Dont put the rest of your life on hold because you are trying to get pregnant stay busy and have fun. Its disappointing and worthy of grieving. Dont fight that, but dont let it take over.
If its been a few months of negative tests, consider making an appointment with your OB/GYN. At some point, it may be worth considering a fertility specialist. If you and your partner have been having frequent, unprotected sex for a year with no luck six months if youre over 35 you might start to ask about seeing a fertility specialist.
