Get A Preconception Checkup
Before you officially start trying, get a checkup. Ask your doctor about prenatal vitamins that have folic acid, which helps protect against some birth defects, such as spina bifida. Folic acid works during the early stages of pregnancy, so that’s why it’s important to make sure you’re getting enough folic acid even before you get pregnant.
“Do this the cycle before you start trying,” says Paula Hillard, MD, a professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Stanford University. “If you have any underlying medical problems, they need to be under control before you can safely become pregnant.”
Understanding Your Menstrual Cycle
Your menstrual cycle begins on the first day of your period and continues up to the first day of your next period.
You’re most fertile at the time of ovulation , which usually occurs 12 to 14 days before your next period starts. This is the time of the month when you’re most likely to get pregnant.
It’s unlikely that you’ll get pregnant just after your period, although it can happen. It’s important to remember that sperm can sometimes survive in the body for up to 7 days after you have sex.
This means it may be possible to get pregnant soon after your period finishes if you ovulate early, especially if you have a naturally short menstrual cycle.
You should always use contraception when you have sex if you don’t want to become pregnant.
Does A Lubricant Affect The Odds Of Getting Pregnant
Just under of women use a lubricant during sex, but there have been questions about whether these products might affect sperm quality. In lab studies, water-based lubricants like Astroglide and K-Y Brand Jelly reduced sperm movement by 60 to 100 percent.
Before you panic and throw out the lube tube, of actual couples trying to conceive have found no negative effect on fertility. In fact, lubricant might aid in your efforts to get pregnant by making sex comfortable enough to have more often.
If youre concerned about lubricant reducing your chances of getting pregnant, try sperm-friendly brands like Pre-Seed.
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Can Oral Sex Affect Chances Of Conception
One prevailing myth about oral sex and conception is that saliva can be a sperm killer. While there is a little bit of truth to the claim, like all things in trying to conceive, it’s complicated.
According to some studies, large amounts of saliva can produce a “shaking” effect in up to 12% of sperm, which dramatically reduced their motility and progression. In other words, large amounts of saliva killed some sperm. The National Library of Medicine notes that this is a particular issue for couples dealing with infertility issues that include a low sperm count.
So if oral sex helps you get in the mood, go for it!
Understanding Ovulation: When Is The Best Time To Get Pregnant
When youre trying to conceive, knowing when you are most likely to get pregnant is crucial. Each month, there is a short window when an egg can be fertilized and implant in the uterus. Learn how to calculate these best days to conceive by tracking ovulation and seizing the opportunity on your most fertile days.
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What Is An Epidural
An epidural is an injection of local anesthetic given into the space around your spinal cord and nerves. It numbs the lower part of your body, giving you substantial relief from pain. Doctors use epidural injections for:
- Pain relief during childbirth, including cesarean sections
- Numbing the lower half of the body for surgery
- Pain relief after some types of surgery
- Pain relief for sciatica or slipped disc, in combination with steroid medicines.
Epidurals are also known as epidural anesthesia, epidural block, and regional anesthesia. Your doctor will inject local anesthetic drugs such as bupivacaine, chloroprocaine, or lidocaine. Sometimes, they combine these medicines with narcotics like fentanyl or sufentanil to decrease the required dose of local anesthetic. Epidurals start working 10 to 20 minutes after the first dose is given.
How Long Will It Take Me To Get Pregnant
Some women will get pregnant quicker than others. In fact, for up to 40% of women it took more time than , but more than 80% of couples will usually conceive within a year if they are having regular sex.The time it takes to get pregnant depends on factors such as
- family and medical history.
Most experts recommend women see a doctor if they cannot conceive within a year if they are under 35. If you are aged 35 or more, then see your healthcare provider if you cannot conceive within six months of trying. If you are over 40, you should see your doctor straight away.
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How Many Days After Your Period Do You Ovulate
Your menstrual cycle and a pregnancy is tracked from the first day of your last period, the day you began bleeding. Ovulation usually occurs between 13 and 15 days after your last period began. This number can vary based on how long your menstrual cycle is, which is why its a good idea to track your cycle for a few months before you start trying to conceive.
Many people think a menstrual cycle is exactly 28 days, but thats an average. Your cycle might be as short as 21 days and as long as 40 days. The important part: ovulation is usually at the midpoint of your cycle, so if yours is 40 days, ovulation will likely be between days 19 and 21 and not the average days cited above. Bottom line: get to know your body and your cycle.
Ovulation isnt an exact science and some months you might ovulate earlier or later or not at all. This variance is typically normal, but it can be frustrating if youre trying to conceive and want to up your chances. Thats why tracking your ovulation is a must.
How Much Time Do You Need To Get Pregnant
Everyones experiences of family planning are different, and if its taking you longer to conceive than you first thought, then youre not alone. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimate that around one in five couples experience difficulty conceiving after one year of trying.
Try not to put too much pressure on yourself or your partner at this time. If youre struggling with the mental weight of trying for a baby, then reach out to your health care provider for support.
You can increase your chances of becoming pregnant by:
- Having sex every day or every other day throughout your cycle. You dont need to time sex around your fertile window, but doing this may increase your chances of conceiving.
- Try to exercise and eat a balanced diet. Extreme weight loss and gain have been associated with conditions that can impact fertility.
- Try not to drink more than the recommended amount of alcohol. It can impact your chances of conceiving and affect your health during pregnancy.
- Smoking can affect your fertility, hormone balance, and reproductive health.
- Try to find lubes that are sperm friendly. Some lubricants can harm the sperm, so when youre buying a new one, try to find one thats approved by the US Food and Drug Administration and is fertility friendly.
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Changes In Body Temperature
When youve just ovulated, your body temperature may increase very slightly, by about half a degree Celsius. If youre using temperature as a means of keeping track of when you are most fertile, you need to use a special thermometer to take your temperature every morning before you get out of bed. If you record the readings every day using a graph or a spreadsheet, its possible to learn your pattern over time. The time when you are most fertile is 2 to 3 days before the rise in temperature.
Take Note Of Crampy Aches
Another clue that you’re at your most fertile point is mid-cycle abdominal pain. Called mittelschmerz , this cramping may be mild or painful. It often happens on one side, by the ovary that’s releasing an egg, but it also can be an allover ache. Don’t worry if you never feel a thing, though only about one in five women have mittelschmerz.Trusted SourceNational Institutes of HealthMittelschmerzSee All Sources
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Determine The Best Days To Get Pregnant With The Fertility Calculator Daysy In The Blink Of An Eye
Lots of advice, aides and supplements exist that are supposed to support a quick conception. But regardless of the benefits of all these methods, only one thing is really important: knowing when you can get pregnant. All supporting measures yield nothing when there is no egg that can be fertilized. Because every woman only ovulates once in every cycle, there is only one chance per cycle to get pregnant. So the question Which are the best days to get pregnant? is a very important one. The better you can answer this question for yourself, the bigger your chances are to get pregnant.
This means that if you want to conceive quickly, you should try to find out when is the best time to get pregnant. Daysy can help you there: Daysy is a highly modern fertility calculator that determines your fertile days for you. Daysy’s algorithm has been used for many years and proven itself with thousands of women. The software draws recourse to the knowledge of five million evaluated cycles and all it needs from you for its calculation is your morning temperature and the entering of your period. The specifics of the female cycle and the fact that every woman can only get pregnant during precise days form the basis for Daysy’s calculations.
When And How Often To Have Sex To Get Pregnant
Planning sex can help you increase your chances of becoming pregnant
Rachel Gurevich is a fertility advocate, author, and recipient of The Hope Award for Achievement, from Resolve: The National Infertility Association. She is a professional member of the Association of Health Care Journalists and has been writing about womens health since 2001. Rachel uses her own experiences with infertility to write compassionate, practical, and supportive articles.
Meredith Shur, MD, FACOG, is board-certified in obstetrics and gynecology, as well as a certified medical examiner.
Verywell / Jessica Olah
If you want to get pregnant faster, it’s important to know when you should have sex, how frequently to have sex, and whether there are factors that can increase or decrease your chances of becoming pregnant each month.
You’re most likely to conceive just before or during ovulation, but you can get pregnant at any time during your menstrual cycle, even if you are having your period. This is one of the reasons that birth control methods like the “rhythm method” are not reliable in preventing pregnancy.
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Your Best Days For Making A Baby
Brandi Jeter Riley and her husband, Terrence, were ready to give their 8-year-old daughter a baby sister or brother.
When Riley didn’t get pregnant right away, she worried about infertility. But before seeing a specialist, she tried something she hadn’t done before — tracking her cycle and timing it right.
It was a success. Less than 2 months later, Riley, who lives in Oakland, CA, was pregnant. “Nine months later, I was giving birth to my little baby boy,” she says.
“When a couple is having issues getting pregnant, the first step is to make sure they’re doing it right,” says Kara Manglani, a certified nurse midwife and fertility expert in New York. They need to learn about the woman’s menstrual cycle and ovulation — that time every month when one of their ovaries releases an egg.
How Often Should You Have Sex To Get Pregnant
There is no magic number of how many times you have to have sex to get pregnant. When you’re trying to conceive, when you have sex is more important than the number of times you have sex. But that’s not to say that you can’t maximize your chances of getting pregnant by having sex more than once during your fertile window.
You may think that cutting down on sex to “save” spermor only having sex during ovulationwill make getting pregnant easier. But abstaining too much can throw off conception odds.
Indeed, while holding off on sex can increase sperm count, it can also decrease sperm motility. What’s more, “it’s easy to miss the fertile period if sex is limited only to when you think you’re ovulating, because many people believe they’re ovulating when they actually aren’t,” says Samuel Wood, M.D., medical director at The Reproductive Sciences Center in La Jolla, California.
There is the risk creating stress by forcing yourself to sticking to a schedule. The best bet is to have as much sex as you feel comfortable having and using your ovulation calendar to help guide when the optimal times may be.
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First Response Can Help You On Your Pregnancy Journey
When youre trying to conceive, information is power. Use First Response products to help you know when youre most fertile, enjoy sex with enhanced lubrication, and know if youre pregnant.
- Choose your favorite First Response Pregnancy Tests, including strip tests, digital tests, and combination packs for your peace of mind knowing whether its a positive or a negative.
- Having sex on demand to try to conceive can lead to vaginal dryness. Plus, non-sperm-friendly lubricants can limit sperm motility and lower your chances of a pregnancy success. Use Pre-Seed Fertility Lubricant from the makers of First Response on your conception journey. Designed to be isotonic and pH balanced similar to that of the vaginal environment to aid in supporting sperm survival.
The Cons Of Waiting To Share The News
If youd rather have a support network in place regardless of your pregnancy outcome, feel free to share the news right away.
The first trimester may be tough for some women because of fatigue, nausea, vomiting, and other unpleasant symptoms. Letting a few key people know may help ease the burden. And if you do end up miscarrying, you might not want to have to go through it alone.
You may also want to tell your employer about your pregnancy right away if your job requires you to do physical labor that might be dangerous. These hazards might include:
- bending repeatedly at your waist
- standing for long periods of time
- lifting heavy things, like boxes, more than once every five minutes
- being exposed to chemicals
Your job may require these tasks. The data isnt concrete on whether or not these activities directly lead to miscarriage, but its still worth considering in the overall picture. Speak with your doctor about the recommendations for lifting during pregnancy for more specifics.
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Increasing Your Sperm Count
Tip: In addition to cutting out unhealthy snacks like chips and sweets, especially avoid processed meats like bacon. Processed meats may lower your sperm count more than other unhealthy foods.
Why Six Days + One
Sperm can live inside your body for up to five days. So lets say that you ovulate on day 12 of your cycle. If you have sex on days seven, eight, nine, 10, or 11, there could still be sperm living inside you on those days.
When your egg is released on day 12, there could be sperm available to fertilize it.
If you have sex the day after you ovulate, you may also become pregnant. After you ovulate, an egg survives for about 24 hours.
If you happen to ovulate in the afternoon or evening on day 12, then the egg could be fertilized in the 24-hour period after.
This is why its best to avoid having unprotected sex the entire day after you ovulate.
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The Best Time To Get Pregnant
When you’re trying to conceive, tracking your cycle and knowing when you ovulate is key.
May 1, 2018
One Friday night, when our toddler was finally asleep, my husband was giving me a tutorial on the fertility app he had been using to guide our natural family planning. He pointed out that it was the middle of my fertile window and, if I got pregnant, our baby would be born in August. We had been using the app to avoid pregnancy, but visions of backyard birthday parties danced in our heads. We decided to tryjust for fun. I was surprised when my period failed to appear two weeks later, but it turns out we had picked the best time to get pregnant.
