Your Chances Of Getting Pregnant Every Day Of The Month
When sex coincides with your most fertile ovulation days, you’ll increase your chances of getting pregnant. Get to know each phase of your cycle to make conception faster and easier.
To hit the baby-making bullseye, you’ve got to aim for certain sweet spots of fertility in your cycle. Here’s your guide to the best chances of getting pregnant throughout the month so you can plan accordingly.
How Do You Get Pregnant
Healthy semen contains millions of sperm, which are tiny reproductive cells that can swim to an egg. If a sperm fertilizes the egg, the egg then travels to the uterus to attempt to embed itself in the uterine lining. This process, called implantation, begins a pregnancy.
Not all implantation attempts are successful. To successfully produce a pregnancy, sperm must fertilize an egg, and the egg must implant in the uterus.
Sexual contact must take place around the time of ovulation if it is to result in pregnancy. While women can ovulate at any point during their cycle, ovulation typically occurs around the midpoint. Women with regular cycles can usually pinpoint ovulation by taking ovulation tests, using counting methods, and looking for signs of fertility.
How Does Birth Control Impact The Time It Takes To Conceive
If you’ve recently stopped using a non-barrier-based method of birth control , these numbers may look a bit different depending on what you were using.
A team of researchers recently did a systematic review of the existing work on how different methods of birth control impacted the likelihood of getting pregnant within 12 months of TTC. Here’s what they found:
- 74.7% for ex-implant users
- 87.04% for ex-oral contraception users
- 84.75% for ex-IUD users
Among women using different formulations of oral contraception, times to conception are similar meaning how soon you’re likely to get pregnant after stopping the pill isnt affected by whether the pill was a combined oral contraceptive or the progestin-only pill, or by the pill dose. Time to pregnancy is also likely not affected by the duration of oral contraceptive use.
The main takeaway here? There’s no delay in the resumption of fertility for women coming off of the most popular methods of birth control, but women coming off of the implant and injection-based methods may see a slight delay. This no-delay-in-resumption-of-fertility also doesnt seem to be affected by how long contraception methods were used for. For more info, you can check out this post that covers birth controls impact on fertility.
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How Can You Get Pregnant With No Intercourse
If youre wondering if you can get pregnant without penetration, the answer is yes.
A study published in 2019 studied 20 pregnant women who had vaginismus in Tunisia, a condition that affects around one percent of the global female population. Vaginismus causes spasms in the vagina that prevent penetration during sex. The researchers found that 65 percent of them conceived without vaginal penetration , and the rest either used artificial insemination or other assisted reproductive technology to get pregnant.
What To Do If You’re Struggling To Determine The Best Days To Conceive
You’ve been checking for CM and charting your BBT, but for some reason, it seems that you’re not ovulating every month or not at all. If you think you’re not ovulating, check in with your OB/GYN.
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.
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Is It Possible To Get Pregnant During Pregnancy An Amazing Story Of The Birth Of Miracle Triplets
The world knows many amazing and even wonderful stories about pregnancy. But this story is one of the strangest, it literally goes beyond all the boundaries of what has been considered possible until now. When Charlotte got pregnant in the fall of 2020, she and her partner were incredibly happy about it. The couple was doubly happy, because they were expecting twins. However, during the next ultrasound examination, the doctors presented a truly incredible picture! Apparently, Charlotte was expecting triplets! According to doctors, just 10 days after the conception of the twins, the woman conceived a third child! In recent years, triple childbirth has become quite common due to in vitro fertilization and other methods of infertility treatment. But, as Charlotte noted, her children were conceived spontaneously, without medical help. Getting pregnant during pregnancy it sounds incredible and even somewhat suspicious.
Can I Still Get An Std If We Used A Condom
Sexually transmitted diseases, or STDs, are spread through vaginal, anal, or oral sex. There is no guaranteed way to prevent STDs during sexual activity.
For example, condom use may not protect against Herpes infection for several reasons. One is that herpetic lesions may not just be on the penis, which is the only part of the genitalia that the condom covers. Lesions may be anywhere on the male or female genitalia and skin. Once skin-to-skin contact is made, transmission of herpes is possible.
Also, a person does not need to have lesions in order to spread herpes. This is called “asymptomatic shedding.” Since most people are unaware that they have herpes as they have not had any symptoms such as lesions, pain, or burning, asymptomatic shedding is the most common way herpetic transmission occurs.
Condoms also do not also prevent HIV. This is because most people dont use condoms during oral sex, so HIV can still be transmitted that way.
Other STDs are a cause for concern. For example, hepatitis B can cause liver disease and HPV can lead to certain types of cancer.
Chlamydia, however, is very common and easy to treat. The same is true for gonorrhea.
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Age Is A Major Factor For Women
Youve probably heard the phrase your biological clock is ticking. This phrase refers to your fertile window. Women cant conceive after their menstrual cycles stop, usually sometime in your 40s or 50s. Men produce sperm throughout their lives, but women are born with a set number of eggs that decreases as you age.
At birth you have about two million eggs but naturally lose hundreds of thousands of them by the time you reach puberty, says Cross. Your body continues to lose eggs no matter what you do. And the rate at which women lose eggs accelerates around the age of 37.
The quality of eggs stored in the ovaries also declines over time. The eggs youre born with are naturally paused in the process of dividing their DNA, Cross explains. They complete that process, or ripen, when you ovulate them 20 to 40 years later. The longer eggs are stuck in the mid-division stage, the more likely that process will go wrong creating eggs with the wrong number of chromosomes. That results in not becoming pregnant, experiencing miscarriages or having babies with genetic syndromes due to chromosomal abnormalities.
The bottom line: The quality and number of eggs a woman has decreases throughout her lifetime and egg loss accelerates around the age of 37, which makes it more difficult to become pregnant.
Risk Of Imminent Pregnancy If You Have Repeated Sexual Intercourse
Similar studies have indicated the presence of spermatozoa in Cowpers fluid in cases of a lack of sexual abstinence of at least two days. In fact, during previous ejaculations an accumulation of semen would have occurred at the tip of the penis.
The pre-seminal fluid released during the following sexual intercourse, within two days, could therefore be carrying the remaining semen. Now containing spermatozoa, it will be transported along the usual route of the sperm and eventually reach the fallopian tube where the fertilization takes place. In this context, the risk of an unwanted pregnancy involving the pre-ejaculatory fluid is imminent.
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Truth: Male Fertility Also Declines With Age
Youve likely seen stories of male celebrities fathering children past age 60. This may have given you the impression that male fertility has no age limit, but thats not entirely true. While men dont go through a biological process like menopause, with a definite ending to their fertile years, male fertility does decline with age.
Besides an increased risk of infertility, pregnancies conceived with men over 40 are more likely to end in miscarriage or stillbirth. There is also an increased risk of certain diseases and conditions, including autism, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, and childhood leukemia.
One study found an increased risk of fertility problems when both parents are older. They found that when a woman was age 35 to 39 and her partner was five or more years older than she was, their odds of conception dropped from 29% to just 15%.
What About Right Before Your Period
The likelihood of getting pregnant right before your period is extremely low. For women with a typical 28- to 30-day cycle or longer and their cycles are regular, it is fairly safe to say your ovulation occurred between Day 11 and Day 21. The egg is only available for 12 to 24 hours for conception.
This means the days right before your period are the safest to have sex without the expectation of getting pregnant. The number of safe days right before your period go up with longer cycles and lessen with shorter cycles.
If you wait 36 to 48 hours after ovulation, you should be beyond the possibilities of conception. The further you are from ovulation, the less likely your chance for conceiving. This is not the time to have sex if you are trying to conceive. Its still a good time to enjoy intimacy with your partner.
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What Is A Retroverted Uterus
A retroverted uterus curves backwards from the cervix towards the rectum, rather than tipping forwards towards the navel. It is also known as a tipped, retroflexed, or backward uterus.
How common is a retroverted uterus?
A retroverted uterus is not unusual and is not defined as an abnormality. Medically, it is described as a standard variation of pelvic anatomy. Many women are born with a retroverted uterus, or it can be acquired in maturity. Estimates of its occurrence vary between 20% and 25%, so one in four or five women have a retroverted uterus, though its likely that many of them do not know it.
What causes a retroverted uterus?
Your genetic inheritance is most often the cause of a retroverted uterus.
Where it isnt, and has been acquired later in life, underlying causes can include:
- Endometriosis, in which endometrial tissue can effectively glue the uterus into a backward position.
- Uterine fibroids can make the uterus misshapen or stuck in a backwards tilt.
- Pelvic inflammatory disease can cause scarring if left untreated, with effects similar to endometriosis.
Prescription Medications And Conception
It’s also possible to have a medical condition that doesn’t affect ovulation or fertility, but to be on medications for that condition that do affect ovulation or fertility. For example, there’s no reason to think that people with mild musculoskeletal pain would have issues with ovulation. But a recent study showed that the medication used to treat pain in a group of these women nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs decreased progesterone levels and impaired ovulation, both of which negatively impact chances of conception. There’s also evidence that medication for mental health conditions, like antidepressants, can have an effect on fertility.
If you have a diagnosed medical condition or are taking prescription meds, talk to your doctor before TTC. They will be able to give you crucial insight into how your diagnoses and meds may impact your chances of conception , and suggest steps to help you maximize those chances.
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What To Expect At Your Appointment
During your first visit with a fertility specialist, your doctor will ask a lot of questions about your history, to try to understand factors that may be making it harder to become pregnant. They may order some blood tests to try to understand any irregularities that might be keeping you from getting pregnant, and to make sure you are in the best possible health to become pregnant. Theyll also order a semen analysis on your partner though this wont be performed on the day of your initial appointment. Depending on your medical history, you might also plan an ultrasound and additional imaging to further explore. If you arent ovulating, your doctor may prescribe medications, including ones that can help induce ovulation. The best choice is very personal and your doctor will help you understand all of your options.
Wherever you are on your fertility journey, remember that approximately 85% of healthy women will get pregnant within a year of trying. For those who struggle to conceive, you can increase your chances by mixing love with science and seeing a doctor who specializes in fertility.
We want our patients to feel as comfortable as possible during this emotional and sometimes stressful time. Our team is committed to providing the most caring, compassionate, and leading-edge fertility care available.
How Does Conception Happen
Conception happens when sperm joins a healthy egg, usually by swimming up through the vagina. Simply speaking, conception happens when sperm and egg meet each other. But for this to happen, this meeting needs to occur at the proper time, place, and circumstances . During ovulation, the ovaries release one or more eggs, which travel down one of the uterine tubes toward the uterus.
Ovulation typically occurs 12 to 16 days before your next period, but the exact timing can vary from month to month. In 2020, Flo collaborated with the University of Adelaide to conduct a large study on cycle length. It showed that only one in seven females in the study ovulated on the 14th day of their cycle.
Sometimes, ovulation might occur twice within one cycle, or an egg could be released from the ovary right before a period. Once the egg is released, it can live for 12 to 24 hours. Because sperm can live inside the female reproductive system for up to five days, the five days leading up to ovulation and the day after are known as the fertile window.
The fertile window is when its possible to get pregnant. The precise timing of the fertile window can be difficult to predict. Tracking your cycle with Flo and using ovulation kits can help you predict the timing of your fertile window more accurately.
Millions of sperm are released in each ejaculation. Most or almost all of them will die on the journey toward the egg, but it only takes one sperm fertilizing an egg for conception to happen.
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Finding Out If You Are Perimenopausal
If you are over 35, many doctors will recommend fertility testing 6 months after you have started trying. The big test is the FSH test, which is said to tell how near the menopause you are. A high FSH is said to be near menopause. I did a home FSH test, which can be an indicator of your fertility. It does not give you an exact figure like the test you get at the doctor, but instead a degree of color on a test strip). The home test I did looked OK and when I did get my FSH results my number was 7.6, which equated reasonably well to the home test that I did.
However, do not despair if you have a high FSH as all is not lost. FSH can differ from cycle to cycle for a start. It can also be affected by stress. Also, I know of two ladies right now who are pregnant with an FSH of over 25.
When Does Ovulation Happen
Ovulation usually happens about 10 to 16 days before the start of your next period, so it helps to know your cycle length before you start trying to get pregnant.
You may have not known when you ovulate within your cycle, and if you have been using a hormone contraceptive such as the Pill, you wont have had a natural menstrual cycle for a while, because the Pill prevents ovulation from happening.
As a first step, mark on your diary the dates that you bleed during a period. You can then count how many days from the first day of your period to your next period to work out the length of your cycle.
The following signs can also help you know when you ovulate:
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A Fluid That Prepares The Way For The Final Ejaculation
Pre-seminal fluid, or Cowpers fluid, is ejaculated before the seminal fluid or semen. Its function is to prepare the passage of the final ejaculation by reducing the acid levels in the urethra and vagina.
It should be noted that the quantity of Cowpers fluid emitted varies from one subject to another. Some men dont produce any, while others can produce up to 5 ml.
The Best Times In Your Menstrual Cycle To Get Pregnant
Whether youre trying to get pregnant knowing when you are most fertile is very important. If you and your partner are trying to have a baby, you can increase your chances of conceiving by having sex at the right time.
On the flip side, if you are trying not to get pregnant, understanding when your fertile window is can help avoid pregnancy by abstaining from sex at those times. Having said that, if you want to take the stress factor out of it completely, nothing beats protection like a condom, IUD, or another form of birth control to prevent an unwanted pregnancy. We recommend you discuss birth control options with your healthcare provider.
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