Have Sex Before You Ovulate
Sperm can survive in your reproductive tract for up to five days, but an egg only lasts for 12 to 24 hours after it’s released. Having sex before you ovulate boosts the chances that there’ll be sperm around to greet the egg once it debuts.
For a typical 28-day cycle , here’s what you’ll do:
- Start having sex a few times per week as soon as your period ends. Getting busy often ensures you won’t miss your most fertile time, especially if your cycle length varies from month to month.
- Make a point to have sex every other day starting around day 10.
- When you have a positive result on your OPK , have sex that day and the next two daysthese are your best days of the month to conceive.
How Much Does Fertility Treatment With Cabergoline Cost
This drug is likely covered by most insurance plans, so check with your doctor. Average prices for cabergoline are about $177 for eight doses but can run as high as $230 to $240.
From the What to Expect editorial team and Heidi Murkoff, author of What to Expect When You’re Expecting. What to Expect follows strict reporting guidelines and uses only credible sources, such as peer-reviewed studies, academic research institutions and highly respected health organizations. Learn how we keep our content accurate and up-to-date by reading our medical review and editorial policy.
Vitex Womans Dietary Supplement
This is yet another widely used over the counter fertility drug. It can also be referred to as chaste berry, as it of the natural extract and is ideal for those women with short luteal phase .
- It also prevents miscarriages and balances reproductive hormones.
- One can also choose to take vitex with other fertility enhancing supplements such as calcium.
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How Much Folic Acid Should I Take
Most women are advised to take a 400mcg supplement every day. You can get these from most pharmacies, supermarkets, and health food shops. Your GP may also be able to prescribe them to you.
You can also get folic acid in some pregnancy multivitamin tablets. If you do, make sure the tablet does not contain vitamin A. High doses of vitamin A can cause developmental problems in the first three months of pregnancy.
You can also try to eat foods that contain folate. These include:
- broccoli
- chickpeas
- fortified breakfast cereals.
Eating foods high in folate alone will not be enough to give the best protection to the baby so it is important to take the tablet too.
How Does It Work
Most birth control pills are “combination pills” containing a mix of the hormones estrogen and progesterone to prevent ovulation . A woman cannot get pregnant if she doesn’t ovulate because there is no egg to be fertilized.
The Pill also works by thickening the mucus around the cervix, which makes it difficult for sperm to enter the uterus and reach any eggs that may have been released. The hormones in the Pill can also sometimes affect the lining of the uterus, making it difficult for an egg to attach to the wall of the uterus.
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Stop Taking Birth Control
If you’re popping birth control pills, pass on your prescription a few months before you start trying to conceive, suggests Christopher Williams, M.D., a reproductive endocrinologist in private practice in Charlottesville, Virginia, and author of The Fastest Way to Get Pregnant Naturally. The same advice goes for other forms of hormonal birth control too.
“After you’ve been using birth control for a while, it may take your body a few cycles to start ovulating regularly and be primed for pregnancy,” Dr. Williams says. This gives you time to track your cycle and figure out when you ovulate, which is key for timing your baby-making.
But remember: Once you stop using birth control, it’s possible to get pregnant at any time!
Get A Preconception Checkup
Before you officially start trying, get a checkup. Ask your doctor aboutprenatal vitaminsthat havefolic acid, which helps protect against some birth defects, such asspina 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.”
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Does The Pill Protect Against Stds
Nope. The pill is really good at preventing pregnancy, but it wont protect you from sexually transmitted infections.
Luckily, using condoms every time you have sex really lowers your chances of getting or spreading STDs. Condoms also protect against pregnancy so using condoms + birth control pills together gives protection from STDs AND awesome pregnancy-preventing power.
Know The Best Position To Get Pregnant
When it comes to the best position to get pregnant, it can be hard to separate real advice from old wives’ tales. Dr. Williams gives some tips to get pregnant fast.
Lie on your back after sex. “Because the vagina naturally slopes downward, resting on your back after sex allows sperm to pool there, which gives them an edge in swimming toward your egg,” says Dr. Williams. Should you keep your legs elevated, too? It can’t hurt, he says, but it probably doesn’t help any more than lying down does.
Have sex before bed. Though some sources report that sperm count is highest in the morning, the truth is that there’s no optimal time of day to have sex. However, doing so before you hit the hay is an easy way to ensure you stay on your back afterward.
Keep it vanilla. While there’s no single sex position that’s best for baby-making , stick to one where you’ll be on your back when it’s over.
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Best Book: William Morrow & Company Taking Charge Of Your Fertility: The Definitive Guide To Natural Birth Control Pregnancy Achievement And Reproductive Health
Celebrating its 20th anniversary, this book helps women in a clear and comprehensive way that is warm and approachable. Chock full of information, the guide is over 500 pages and includes intuitive charting systems for menstruation, breastfeeding, menopause, and other bodily functions, a color insert highlighting the main topics, and so much more.
This useful and award-winning book will help women understand their bodies, gain comfort, and feel empowered.
Designed to support a womans reproductive system, this supplement includes Myo-Inositol and Folic Acid which have been shown to improve ovulatory function. Its flavor-free, easy to take, and gentle on your stomach.
Women will appreciate that the supplement comes in small, discrete individual packets that blend easily with water, beverages, or soft food. Twenty-eight packets are included in each order.
Figure Out The Best Time To Conceive
Are you wondering, “When is the best time to get pregnant?” 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.
Most doctors recommend using ovulation predictor kits to measure ovulation. These work by detecting a surge in luteinizing hormone in your urine, which occurs about 36 to 48 hours before you ovulate. OPKs let you plan baby-making sex 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. Learn more about ovulation tracking methods here they can help you get pregnant fast and easy.
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First Consider What You’re Eating
We can’t talk about supplements without first talking about food. That’s because popping a pill won’t do the maximum amount of good if your overall diet is junk. The good news: Most women don’t need to completely overhaul their diets to optimize fertility.
“Women who are considering pregnancy don’t need a special diet per se, but ensuring that the diet is rich in antioxidants, colorful, and minimally processed is the ideal goal. If a woman is generally in good health, then that should be enough,” says Wendie Trubow, M.D., functional medicine gynecologist.
A good approach: forgoing highly processed carbs and eating an anti-inflammatory Mediterranean-style diet, as several large studies have shown that this way of eating is associated with enhanced fertility. “Even among women undergoing IVF, when you’re essentially overriding their normal hormones, there was an increased rate of conception among women who were eating a Mediterranean diet,” says Victoria Maizes, M.D., executive director of the Arizona Center for Integrative Medicine and author of Be Fruitful: The Essential Guide to Maximizing Fertility and Giving Birth to a Healthy Child.
If you wouldn’t describe your current health as “great,” you may want to take your dietary changes a step further. “Some patients who have polycystic ovarian syndrome or autoimmune issues could benefit from a paleo or elimination diet, but that’s individually based,” says Bindiya Gandhi, M.D., functional family medicine physician.
Stop Drinking Alcohol Smoking And Using Certain Drugs
Smoking, drinking alcohol, and using certain drugs can cause many problems during pregnancy for a woman and her baby, such as premature birth, birth defects, and infant death.
If you are trying to get pregnant and cannot stop drinking, smoking, or using drugsget help! Contact your doctor or local treatment center.
Alcohol and Drug Resources
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How Soon Can You Get Pregnant
This is a different question just because your fertility has returned doesnt mean pregnancy will happen right away.
This can be a really odd experience for someone who has spent years preventing pregnancy. You might assume that without birth control, you would have conceived immediatelybut thats not entirely accurate.
Once you stop contraceptives, you may conceive the very first fertile month, or you may need to try for up to a year. This is the same as for those who have not used any birth control.
If You Still Have A Negative Result
Sometimes, life doesnt go according to plan. You might try to get pregnant for a long time and keep getting disappointing results from pregnancy tests. You might wonder whether youre trying the right sex positions for conception, or if it just isnt meant to be.
Many people have to try for several months before getting a positive pregnancy test result.
If you think your partner may have some fertility issues or health concerns, you still have several options for growing your family.
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Healthy Body Healthy Pregnancy
Before trying to get pregnant, you should try to be as healthy as possible. In fact, most doctors will recommend that you make an appointment with your obstetrician before youre pregnant.
At this preconception visit, youll talk about existing health problems and get screened for genetic diseases. You can also address other health concerns you might have.
Your doctor might recommend that you make lifestyle changes before you get pregnant. These might include:
- getting to a healthy weight
- improving diet/exercise habits
Take Vitamins And Folic Acid
Take a vitamin and mineral supplement that includes at least 0.4 milligrams of folic acid.
- Folic acid reduces the risk of birth defects, especially problems with the baby’s spine.
- Start taking a vitamin with folic acid before you want to get pregnant.
- Avoid high doses of any vitamin, especially vitamins A, D, E, and K. These vitamins can cause birth defects if you take more than the normal recommended daily amounts. Regular pregnancy prenatal vitamins do not have excessively high doses of any vitamin.
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How Successful Are Hormone Shots
Many variables come into play when looking at success rates of these hormonal medications, including the womans age, her BMI, the reason for the fertility challenges and so on.
Some estimate that the odds for a successful pregnancy and birth for a woman under age 35 after using fertility injections with IUI are 5 to 15 percent per cycle, and with IVF about 50 percent per cycle.
The Oral Contraceptive Pill
Its the little tablet taken once a day. The oral contraceptive pill is the most commonly reported method of contraception used by Australian women. There are a few different types of pill to choose from, so its about finding the one thats right for you. The combined pill contains estrogen and progestin and mini pill contains only one hormone, a progestin. The pill can have many benefits, however remembering to take it on time is a must.
Pros of taking the pill include: Highly effective when used correctly permits sexual spontaneity and doesnt interrupt sex some pills may even reduce heavy and painful periods and/or may have a positive effect on acne.
Cons include: Forgetting to take your pill means it wont be as effective it can only be used by women is not suitable for women who can’t take oestrogen-containing contraception it does not protect against STIs.
The pill is only available by getting a prescription from a medical professional so visit your local doctor or sexual health clinic.
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Reach And Maintain A Healthy Weight
People who are overweight or obese have a higher risk for many serious conditions, including complications during pregnancy, heart disease, type 2 diabetes, and certain cancers .1 People who are underweight are also at risk for serious health problems.2
The key to achieving and maintaining a healthy weight isnt about short-term dietary changes. Its about a lifestyle that includes healthy eating and regular physical activity.
If you are underweight, overweight, or obese, talk with your doctor about ways to reach and maintain a healthy weight before you get pregnant.
Take A Pregnancy Test
The earlier you confirm the pregnancy, the sooner you can see your doctor and start prenatal care. Home pregnancy tests work by detecting levels of human chorionic gonadotropin in your urine. Levels of this hormone, produced by the placenta, continue to rise in early pregnancy.
Tests marketed as “early results” or “early response” may be more sensitive at detecting lower levels of hCG, but you’ll still get the best results if you wait until the day you expect your period. Testing too early is more likely to yield a “false negative” resultwhen the test says you’re not pregnant, but you really are. What’s happening is that your body isn’t producing enough hCG yet to be detected by the test. Waiting and testing again a few days after your missed period will give more accurate results.
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Weight Loss To Restart Ovulation
Many women with PCOS struggle with obesity. This is because PCOS negatively affects how your body processes insulin, which can, in turn, cause weight gain.
One of the main reasons women with PCOS cant conceive is they dont ovulate, or they dont ovulate regularly. Women with PCOS who are overweight are more likely to experience more severe anovulation, going months between periods.
Studies have found that losing some weight may bring back ovulation. According to the research, losing 5% to 10% of current weight may be enough to jump-start menstrual cycles.
Unfortunately, theres not much evidence that losing weight will help you conceive on your own. You may still need fertility drugs. Research has found that women who have lost weight have a great chance of having fertility treatment success.
Losing weight isnt easy for anybody, and it may be even more difficult for those with PCOS. Also, not all women with PCOS are overweight. If that’s your situation, weight loss isn’t a solution to help with fertility.
Get Flu And Whooping Cough Vaccinations
Some infections, such as rubella , can harm your baby if you catch them during pregnancy.
Most people in the UK are immune to rubella, thanks to the uptake of the measles, mumps and rubella vaccination.
If you have not had 2 doses of the MMR vaccine, or you’re not sure if you have, ask your GP surgery to check your vaccination history.
If you have not had both doses or there’s no record available, you can have the vaccinations at your GP surgery.
You should avoid getting pregnant for 1 month after having the MMR vaccination, which means you’ll need a reliable method of contraception.
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When Should I Start Taking A Prenatal Vitamin
The best time to begin taking prenatal vitamins is before you conceive. The folate in a prenatal vitamin taken before conception significantly reduces the chances of neural tube irregularities like spina bifida.
A babys neural tube, which will develop into both the brain and spinal cord, develops during the first month of pregnancy. That could happen before you even realize youre pregnant.
If you arent already taking a daily prenatal vitamin, start taking one as soon as you find out youre expecting. Youll continue taking your prenatal vitamin every day during your pregnancy.
Your doctor might also recommend you continue to take prenatal vitamins after delivery, especially if you decide to breastfeed.
If you have pregnancy complications or other health concerns, your doctor might recommend a prescription prenatal supplement. Otherwise, over-the-counter vitamins are available at the pharmacy or online.
While there are many brands available, youll want to choose a prenatal vitamin that includes:
Most pregnant people dont get enough choline, so its important to include choline-rich foods like egg yolks in your diet or take a supplement that contains this vital nutrient.
Choline is important for your health and is essential for fetal brain development and placental function.
Some supplements also contain DHA, which is important for your babys brain tissue growth and function especially during the third trimester.
