Running To The Bathroom After Sex
Many women rush to the bathroom after making love to clean up. It is essential to stay in bed for some time after sex to ensure that the sperm gets a chance to reach the egg and fertilize it. If you get up and rush, as soon as you are done with the act, you are letting gravity drag the sperm down and the rest of it is washed away when you clean up. And, this could be one of the natural reasons for not getting pregnant.
What next?
Focus on relaxing and lying in bed for a while after sex so that you can improve your chances of conception and pregnancy .
Have Sex Every Other Day During The Fertile Window
The “fertile window” spans a six-day interval the five days prior to ovulation and the day of it, according to the American Society for Reproductive Medicine. Every month, a woman is most fertile on these days.
Many women are turning to new technology tools, such as fertility-tracking apps and websites, to help them keep tabs on when they may be more likely to conceive, but a 2020 review in the journal BMJ Sexual & Reproductive Health suggests that there is limited independent research on their accuracy. In a study published in 2016 in the journal Obstetrics & Gynecology, scientists analyzed 50 popular fertility-tracking websites and apps with a hypothetical woman, and found that the results varied wildly, with many mistakenly tagging days outside of the fertility window, Live Science reported.
When a woman has identified that fertility window, should they have sex every day? Research has shown that there hasn’t been a big difference in pregnancy rates between couples who had sex every day during the “fertile window” compared with couples who did it every other day , Pavone said. “And having sex every other day might be easier for a couple to pull off,” she added.
- Glow Ovulation, Period Tracker
- Fertility Friend FF App
- Clue: Health & Period Tracker
But she said there are some water-based vaginal lubricants that can decrease the movement of sperm, so Pavone recommended using Pre-Seed rather than Astroglide or K-Y Jelly when lubrication is needed.
Getting Pregnant After 40
Your odds of getting pregnant after age 40 drop dramatically, compared to your 20s and 30s. Heres what you need to know.
Alison Woodcock wasnt planning on holding off until her 40s to have kids. I just didnt meet the right partner until I was 40, so by the time we were ready to have a baby, I was 41, she says.
The odds were not in her favour. According to OB/GYN and reproductive endocrinologist Beth Taylor of Olive Fertility Centre in Vancouver, only about 50 percent of women age 40 to 43 will be pregnant after a year of trying, compared to 80 percent of women under 40. Your odds are certainly declining at 35, but by 40 they really start to plummet, she says.
Fertility check-upsWoodcock got lucky: she conceived almost right away. But she didnt leave it all to chance. As soon as she was ready to start trying, she made an appointment with her doctor to get a referral to a fertility clinic. We really wanted to do this, and given where I was, age-wise, we knew we didnt have time to waste, says Woodcock. The general recommendation for women over 40 is to start trying and then call your doctor if you dont conceive after three months. The reality, though, is that in Canada most patients have to wait to see their physician, so its not unheard of for people to go to their doctor sooner to get things moving, since most know that time is of the essence, says Taylor.
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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 journal Reproductive 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. should also be avoided while trying to conceive.
It’s safest for a woman to avoid alcohol 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. That said, a 2019 Danish study of 1,708 women over a five-year period did not find a link between regular alcohol consumption and binge drinking, and fertility, according to the study published in the journal Human Reproduction.
However, a 2017 study published in the journal Obstetrics & Gynecology found that about half of pregnant women in the United States drink alcohol around the time they become pregnant or in early pregnancy, usually before they know they are expecting.
Once a woman becomes pregnant, there’s no safe amount of alcohol, Pavone said.
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.
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This Is How Long It Takes People On Average To Get Pregnant
Spoiler: longer than you’d think.
From the moment we start having sex , it’s drummed into us to use protection, because we WILL get pregnant and terrible things WILL happen. Okay, so maybe it’s not that extreme, but the ‘prevent pregnancy’ message is certainly a strong one among teenagers and young women.
But when you settle down with the person you’d like to start a family with and you start to think about taking the plunge and ditching contraception, will it be as easy to conceive as you were led to believe in your sex-ed lessons all those years ago?
According to research carried out earlier in the year by online community Channel Mum, who asked 1,194 parents to share how long it took them to fall pregnant, it seems the average time it takes with regular ‘trying’ is six months.
With the research indicating it takes an average of 78 sex sessions to conceive, this figure was divided by 13, the number of times the couples in the study reported having sex each month while trying to get pregnant. Et voila: six months of unprotected sex is what it takes.
Of course, this figure really is just an average – it’s different for everyone. According to the NHS, one in seven couples will experience fertility difficulties, and then there’s the people who get pregnant almost immediately, or by accident.
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When Should I Get Help With Conception
Around 1 in 7 couples have difficulty conceiving. This is approximately 3.5 million people in the UK.
Speak to your GP if you have been trying for a year conceive.
Many doctors prefer you to have been having regular sex without contraception for at least a year before referring you for fertility tests. Regular sex means 2-3 times a week.
You should see your GP sooner if:
- you are over 36
- you have a known fertility issue, such as endometriosis or polycystic ovary syndrome
- your partner has a known fertility issue, such as low sperm count
- you are concerned you or your reproductive partner may have an undiagnosed medical issue that may be affecting your ability to get pregnant.
There are ways to help couples conceive if they’re having problems getting pregnant. Find out more about fertility problems.
Find out more about how you will know when you are pregnant.
Sozou PD,Hartshorne GM Time to Pregnancy: A Computational Method for Using the Duration of Non-Conception for Predicting Conception. Plos One. Published: October 4, 2012
Gnoth C, Godehardt D et al Time to pregnancy: results of the German prospective study and impact on the management of infertility, Human Reproduction, Volume 18, Issue 9, 1 September 2003, Pages 19591966,
RCOG Reproductive Ageing. Scientific Advisory Committee. Opinion Paper 24. London: Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists. www.rcog.org.uk
Review dates
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Start Taking Folate Supplements
Also known as vitamin B9, folic acid is incredibly important if you are trying to conceive. Folic acid supports the neural tube formation of your baby, ensuring proper brain development.
Doctors recommend taking at least 400 micrograms of folic acid a day leading up to conception and for the following 12 weeks after conception.
Why should you start taking folic acid before youre pregnant? The neural tube begins to develop quite soon after conception and is usually complete just four weeks into your pregnancy. Therefore, it might start to develop before you know youre pregnant.
Start taking a prenatal vitamin with folate as soon as you start trying for a baby. You can also get folate from eating beans, green leafy vegetables, and whole grains like brown rice.
You’re Blaming Yourself For Not Getting Pregnant
People tend to blame the woman for infertility. But in fact, Dr. Curtis says, cases of infertility are about 40 percent male-related, 40 percent female, and 20 percent a combination of both partners. “Frequently, the would-be mom rushes in to see her doctor at the first sign of a delay in getting pregnant. This is wrong, since it’s really an even playing field in terms of diagnoses.” And remember: It usually takes a healthy couple between 6 months and 1 year to conceive.
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Do You Definitely Ovulate After Lh Surge
Not necessarily. Think of the LH surge as a sign that your body is preparing for ovulation. Ovulation usually will follow the LH surge, but having an LH surge is not a guarantee that ovulation will occur.
To confirm that ovulation occurred, you would need to observe an increase in basal body temperature, or have your progesterone levels checked by your doctor.
There are several reasons why you would have an LH surge but not ovulate:
- PCOS: This can cause elevated LH levels throughout the menstrual cycle
- Luteinized unruptured follicle : even though hormone levels leading up to ovulation are normal, the follicle doesnt rupture, so the egg is never released.
Between 6 25 percent of women with infertility have LUF, and its one possible cause of unexplained infertility. It can also occasionally happen to women with otherwise normal cycles.
In normal menstrual cycles, the ruptured follicle becomes a corpus luteum, which releases progesterone and stimulates the lining of the uterus to build up. But with LUF, even though the follicle never ruptures, it still releases progesterone. From the outside, your cycle will look completely normal: youll still get a regular period each month, and youll still get positive results with the temperature method or ovulation sticks. In fact, the only way to detect LUF is via ultrasound.
How Does Pregnancy Happen
Before we get into the ways you can increase your chances of getting pregnant, lets find out exactly what takes place on the road to conception.
The journey to pregnancy begins with ovulation. This is when your ovaries release an egg in anticipation of fertilization. Your uterus also prepares its inner lining, called the endometrium, for the fertilized egg to attach. All this happens over a monthly sequence your menstrual cycle. When no sperm is available within 1224 hours of the egg being released, it degrades and you get your period.
However, when you have sex around the time of ovulation, sperm makes its way up your vagina, through your cervix, and into the uterus.
Usually one sperm fertilizes one egg, resulting in one baby. When sperm fertilizes an egg, and the resulting embryo splits into two, you get monozygotic twins. Sometimes two eggs are fertilized, and dizygotic twins are formed.
After fertilization, a thick coat, known as the zona pellucida, forms around the egg and denies entry to the other sperm cells. This fertilized egg will begin splitting into many cells and stays in the fallopian tube for around three or four days.
It will then begin to descend into the uterus, where it implants into the inner lining. You will sometimes experience some spotting when this happens. Your body will then flood your system with a number of hormones to maintain a healthy pregnancy.
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Reasons For Not Getting Pregnant The Second Time
Your fertility can reduce from your first pregnancy and women may find it difficult to become pregnant for the second time. This is known as secondary infertility. Here are some common reasons for not getting pregnant:
- If you are a woman over 35 years, then the egg count will fall, leading to no or lesser eggs
- Men over 50 have a decreased fertility and abnormal sperm
- Changes in ovulation and menstrual cycles due to hormonal dysfunction, weight issues, stress, medications , and substance abuse
- Complication in your first pregnancy or labor
- Damage to fallopian tubes due to abdominal surgery, endometriosis, sexually transmitted infections
There are certainly ways to fix infertility and conceive easily. But, first you must recognize the problem and then work towards the solution.
If you have more suggestions on how infertility can be dealt with, then tell us in the comments section.
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You’re Having Sex Too Muchor Not Enough
If you’re gonna do it, do it right . Dr. Curtis recommends having intercourse every day or every other day during your most fertile period. If you, like so many other women, don’t know when that is, stick to every other day throughout the time you think you’re most fertile. That’s because having sex too often could deplete your partner’s sperm count, while not having enough sex might cause you to miss that critical fertility window!
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Getting Pregnant Can Be Harder Than It Looks
Getting Pregnant Can Be Harder Than It Looks
Nancy Karabaic and her husband Chris LaChat of Wheaton, Md., are self-professed “late bloomers.” They courted for five years before deciding to tie the knot, but they never expected the pattern to follow them into parenthood. It did. They tried to conceive a baby for a full three years before Karabaic finally got pregnant.
“It was a surprise because I fully expected, like every woman does, that when the birth control was gone, it would happen next month,” she says. The couple had even begun some initial infertility testing to make sure everything was OK, although Karabaic got pregnant shortly thereafter.
Their story is common. Maybe we all learned our lessons too well back in junior high, squirming uncomfortably in our desks as our sex ed teacher ominously warned how easy it was to get pregnant. Many of us certainly devoted enough effort trying to avoid it all these years until the time was right.
The fact is, however, that getting pregnant is often more difficult than we’ve assumed, especially the older we get.
“Many people think that human reproduction is a much more efficient process than it really is,” agrees Dr. Robert Stillman, medical director of Shady Grove Fertility Centers in the Washington, D.C., area.
So to avoid the surprises — and disappointments — that might come with failure in those first few attempts, here’s the lesson you probably never heard from your parents or teachers on how to get pregnant.
You’re Not Relaxing After Sex
No one knows why, but there’s some anecdotal and scientific evidence to support the fact that after intercourse, it helps to remain lying flat in bed, with your hips elevated, for about 20 to 30 minutes. In other words, after getting busy, Dr. Curtis advises, “don’t jump up and certainly don’t run to the bathroom or douche!” That one change alone, he says, could solve up to 80 percent of fertility problems. So, as much as you might want to do a happy dance after you think you just made a baby, refrainfor a little bit, at least.
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Problem Is With Him Not You
Women may carry the baby, but it takes two to tango. Twenty to 30% of infertile couples discover fertility factors on the man’s side. Another 40% find infertility factors on both sides.
Another thing you need to know: male infertility rarely has symptoms that are observable without a semen analysis, which is a test that measures the health of the semen and sperm. When you do see the doctor, make sure you are both tested.
Why Is It So Hard To Get Pregnant Common Causes And How To Handle Them
Now that you understand the process, you might be asking yourself, How hard is it to get pregnant? Depending on the circumstances, sometimes it can be quite hard! There are a number of factors that can work against you if youre trying to get pregnant. Weve outlined some of them here, along with ways to solve them.
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