Getting Pregnant
- Getting Pregnant
-
- UPDATED MARCH 22, 2024
by Tasha Mayberry
430 shares
So, you and your partner have decided that this is the right time for you to get pregnant. How do you start? Have frequent sex, duh! Of course, having sex is a part of your journey to get pregnant, but there are a lot of other factors that decide when you get pregnant and everything else involved with the same.
What are the Odds?
This is perhaps the most common question that women trying to get pregnant ask. It has been found that of every 100 couples trying to conceive, around 80 percent will conceive within the first year of them trying. On a monthly basis, you could say that your chance of getting pregnant is anywhere between 15 and 25 percent. But, do keep in mind that there are various factors that could affect these odds, which are:
- Your menstrual cycle: If you happen to have an irregular menstrual cycle for some reason or the other, or for no reason at all, analyzing and calculating your ovulation cycle gets difficult, which in turn makes it hard to know the right time to have sex to increases your chances of getting pregnant.
- Your age: If you are over 30, your odds of getting pregnant on a monthly basis goes down, and it further decreases with age.
- Any prevailing medical condition, like PCOS, thyroid, etc. can also affect your chances of getting pregnant.
- The number of times you have sex also plays a part here. The more you have sex, the more likely you are to get pregnant.
If you have been trying to conceive for more than a year now, it is best to consult your doctor, just to make sure that you and your partner and healthy and fertile.
Menstrual Cycle
While you may be vaguely aware of what a menstrual cycle is, knowing more about it can help with getting pregnant.
Your menstrual cycle typically begins on the day you notice bleeding (not spotting!), lasts anywhere between 21 and 35 days (or more for some women), and ends when your next cycle starts. If your menstrual cycle seems to vary month after month, it could mean that you have an irregular cycle, which is quite common among women. As mentioned before, having an irregular menstrual cycle doesn’t necessarily mean you have some underlying condition.
Knowing Your Fertile Days
Your fertile days are the five days before the day an egg gets released from your ovary. The process is referred to as ovulation, and the day your egg releases is your fertile window. Having sex during these days is known to increase your chances of getting pregnant multifold.
To know your fertile days, you should track your ovulation, which will be around two weeks before your menstrual cycle begins, if you have a regular cycle. Fortunately, the tracking process is made very easy with the introduction of different products and apps; from home ovulation prediction kits to ovulation tracking apps, you can find a lot of resources with a simple online search.
Having Sex
Once you track your ovulation and know your fertile days and fertile window, have sex every other day during this time period. Since these are the days you will be most fertile, having sex in this frequency during this period will significantly increase your odds of getting pregnant. An important point to remember here is that being very calculative or mechanical about having sex can spoil everything; therefore, go with the flow.
Is there a best sex position to get pregnant fast?
Contrary to popular belief, your sex position does not really have a say in your conception, as long as your partner ejaculates sperm into your vagina, and the sperm will do its job on its own. It is also believed that having your legs raised after sex can help the sperm get to your womb easily and quickly and that standing up after sex can cause the sperm to come back out, both of which are false beliefs.
On the Pill?
If you are on birth control pills, you should obviously stop them in order to get pregnant. It might take some time for the effects of the pills to subside from your body, and it could even be a few months before your ovulation gets back to its normal cycle. Know that it is very much possible for you to get pregnant soon after you stop your birth control medication, and it is safe too, for both you and your baby.
Once you decide to start the process of getting pregnant, you could start taking prenatal vitamins too. Your doctor will be able to guide you in this matter, and you could be given a multivitamin, folic acid tablets, and the like to ready your system for the happy change that is to occur.
Another step that you could take on a personal front is to start eating healthy foods if you normally don’t. You don’t necessarily have to search for foods that enhance fertility, but rather stick with regular healthy foods, from fruits and vegetables to grains, and more. Maintain a balanced diet, making sure that your meals include all of the critical nutrients, like iron, protein, calcium, etc.
If you have smoking and/or drinking habits, it is best to start reducing the frequency to help your body get ready for your pregnancy. Also, try to stay as much stress-free as possible.