Trying to Conceive
If you decide not to leave everything up to chance, and want to pinpoint your best chances for conception, timing your fertility is the best way to up the odds that you'll get pregnant. Even a healthy couple can try for up to a year before they get pregnant, so if you want to speed things up a bit, consider keeping track of your fertility days.
Timing and Fertility - Identifying your Fertility Days
First, you need to track your menstrual cycles. When your ovaries release an egg, it continues down the fallopian tubes. If it meets with a healthy sperm, chances are conception will occur. You have to count the number of days in between each cycle, as well as the number of days each period lasts. Ovulation occurs about two weeks before you actual menstruate, so you simply subtract 14 days from the length of your cycle if you have 32 days between each period, then ovulation would happen at the 18 day mark, for example.
To increase the chance that you'll conceive, you should be having sex at least every two days starting five days before your ovulation, and continuing for two days afterwards. Sperm usually live for 24 to 48 hours afterwards, but eggs die within 24 hours, so timing intercourse is important.
You can also buy an ovulation predictor kit at your local drugstore, which will help if you have an irregular menstrual cycle. It will test hormones in your urine and make it easier for you to know when you're at your most fertile. You can check your cervical fluid each month, and when it is wet, creamy and white you are fertile however, when it is slippery and stretchy like egg white, you are the most fertile and are ovulating. Use a basal thermometer to monitor your temperature, and when it rises 0.2 degrees past what it's been for five or six days, you're probably ovulating.
If you are healthy and fertile, your chance of conception is about 70 to 85% in a year. At six months, it's about 47%. As you age, this number drops, and as you reach your late 30's your chances are far lower. It's normal for a couple under the age of 35 to take up to a year to conceive, but if it extends past that it's a good time to book an appointment with your physician. If you are over 35 and trying to conceive, you should seek medical advice if you're not pregnant within six months.
|
