Pregnant Time

Pregnant Time

Timing sex correctly is critical to getting pregnant. If you don’t have sex on the handful of days that you’re fertile each month, sadly, you won’t get pregnant. But figuring out when those fertile days are isn’t always easy. There’s a lot of misinformation out there and the best time to get pregnant may not be when you think it is!
In this article, I’ll be looking at some of the myths and facts around the best time to get pregnant, and how to ensure you get your timing right!
Before diving into the facts around the best time to get pregnant, let’s start off with the basics.
As you undoubtedly already know, in order to get pregnant, a sperm from the male partner needs to meet with an egg from the female partner, so that fertilisation can take place and a new life can begin. But as a species, humans aren’t particularly fertile and as a result, this pivotal event often ends up being a game of chance.
Your fertile time each month all comes down to the lifespan of both the sperm and the egg.
Men produce sperm continuously. For this reason, as long as a man’s sperm are fit and healthy, he is always fertile and able to get a woman pregnant at any time.
In contrast however, women produce an egg only once every menstrual cycle. Even if two eggs are produced (which can result in twins), the eggs are released within 24 hours of each other – not days or weeks apart. So not surprisingly, it’s this event that receives so much focus when it comes to trying to get pregnant.
The process of releasing an egg from one of your ovaries is known as ovulation. After the egg is released at ovulation, it doesn’t hang around for long. In fact it lives for just 12 – 24 hours. If it isn’t fertilised by a sperm within this short timeframe, the egg will die and be reabsorbed by your body. Once your egg has died, there’s no further chance for getting pregnant until the next menstrual cycle.
Luckily however, sperm have a bit more staying power! They can survive in the female body for 5 to 7 days – but only in the right environmental conditions . Nature has ensured that this optimal environment is provided during the days just prior to ovulation . At any other time in the menstrual cycle, sperm will not survive for longer than a couple of hours and they’ll never get the opportunity to fertilise the egg.
These precious few days of sperm and egg survival combine to form your ‘fertile window’. And it’s during this fertile window, and ONLY during this time, that sex can result in pregnancy.
The fertile window is a maximum of 6 days long – composed of the 5 days leading up to ovulation and the day of ovulation itself. In practice however, the fertile window is typically shorter than this – often just 2 – 3 days long.
So the best time to have sex to get pregnant is during the 2 – 3 days leading up to ovulation – the time when sperm are most likely to survive. Ideally, you want to have sperm ‘ready and waiting’ in your reproductive tract, so that they can do their thing as soon as your egg is released at ovulation (remember that sperm can live for several days inside your body).
Because the egg survives for a maximum of only 24 hours, any sex you have after ovulation day will NOT result in pregnancy. And actually, even having intercourse on the day of ovulation itself can sometimes be too late – research has shown that ovulation day is typically a less fertile day.
So when exactly is ovulation? This is where it gets a bit tricky. The reason? There’s no single answer that’s accurate for everyone. Ovulation (and therefore the fertile window) can occur on different days for different women, and often on different days within the same woman!
Unfortunately, there’s also a lot of misinformation out there that can easily put you wrong. Here are 3 of the most common myths around the timing of ovulation:
Although many textbooks and websites will have you believe that ovulation always occurs on Day 14 of the menstrual cycle, this is NOT the case. In fact it’s thought that ovulation occurs on Day 14 in only 13.5% of menstrual cycles!
While ovulation certainly occurs around this time for some women, there can be enormous variation. One excellent American study (1) looked at a total of 696 menstrual cycles from a group of 213 women. In this study group, ovulation occurred as early as Day 8 of the menstrual cycle and as late as Day 60! (it’s important to be aware however, that if ovulation occurs beyond Day 25 of your menstrual cycle it’s usually due to stress or some kind of hormonal imbalance).
You may have heard that ovulation will occur 14 days before your next period is due and that this is the best time to get pregnant. But this advice relies on the assumption that the second phase of your menstrual cycle (the luteal phase) is 14 days long. And again this is NOT always the case.
The luteal phase of the menstrual cycle is the number of days between your day of ovulation and the start of your next period. We’re often told that the luteal phase is exactly 14 days long. But in reality it varies in length from woman to woman. A normal luteal phase can be anywhere from 10 to 16 days long.
So if you’re doing the maths to figure out when you ovulate, counting back 14 days from your expected next period doesn’t always work. If your luteal phase is longer or shorter than 14 days, your calculation is going to be wrong. The easiest way to figure out the length of your luteal phase is by learning fertility awareness and charting your fertility (see more on this below).
Again, this myth is based on the assumption that all women have a 28 day menstrual cycle and that ovulation always occurs on Day 14. If this were the case, ovulation would indeed be mid-cycle.
In reality however, normal menstrual cycles can vary from 21 to 35 days in length. In fact menstrual cycles of exactly 28 days occur just 13% of the time! (2) And as discussed above, the day of ovulation can also vary.
So if you had a menstrual cycle length of 35 days for example and you ovulated on Day 24, the description of ovulation being ‘mid-cycle’ is hardly appropriate!
Many women feel confident that they ‘just know’ when ovulation is occurring. For some, it’s because they experience ‘mittelschmerz’ (one sided pelvic pain around the time of ovulation) or they notice other signs such as sore breasts or an increased libido. For others there’s just a ‘gut sense’ that they are ovulating.
While feeling in tune with your body can help you time sex correctly, it isn’t a fail proof method. Over the years, I’ve met numerous women in my clinic who were confident they knew when they were ovulating, and certain they’d been timing sex correctly. But after learning fertility awareness and charting their fertility (see below), they soon discovered that in fact they weren’t ovulating when they thought they were and had missed valuable opportunities to conceive.
And research backs this up. One study found that only 12.7% of trying-to-conceive women estimated their day of ovulation correctly and only 27% predicted it for when they were actually most fertile! (3)
Another recent study found similar results, with only 13% of women, being able to correctly identify their fertile window. And this was despite the fact that a THIRD of these women reported that they monitor their ovulation! (4)
So while this method works reliably for some, it’s easy to get it wrong. And unfortunately this can lead to an unnecessary delay in getting pregnant.
So at this point you’re probably wondering how on earth you’re supposed to figure out the best time to get pregnant, especially if you have irregular cycles! But don’t worry – it’s easier than it sounds.
Identifying your fertile days is easy when you learn the Fertility Awareness Method . Not only will you discover your best time to get pregnant each cycle, but you’ll also discover a wealth of valuable information about your fertility health too!
The fertility awareness method is based on the observation of scientifically proven fertility signs that all women experience during their menstrual cycles. These fertility signs are recorded on a specially designed fertility chart, either on paper or in a digital format on your computer or device.
Once you learn how to correctly interpret this information, you’ll gain an intimate understanding of what’s happening with your fertility each menstrual cycle and you’ll know whether or not you’re fertile on any given day.
The Fast Track to Pregnancy™ program is designed to make learning fertility awareness easy. You can find out more here .
Many couples choose to use ovulation predictor kits (OPKs) or fertility apps to help them work out the best time to get pregnant.
Ovulation predictor kits are designed to test urine or saliva and they work by detecting the changes in certain hormone levels that occur just prior to ovulation. In contrast, fertility apps or ovulation calculators rely on the input of your menstrual cycle statistics (and sometimes your fertility signs).
Although these options can be useful if you’re trying to get pregnant, they are NOT fool proof and have a number of pitfalls. To find out more, check out the following articles:
Contrary to popular belief, your day of PEAK fertility – the day that sex is most likely to result in pregnancy – is usually NOT the day of ovulation. Research shows that peak fertility can occur as early as 3 days before ovulation day, with conception chances significantly reduced by the time the egg is actually released (and it’s interesting to note that ovulation predictor kits often give a positive result AFTER the day of peak fertility has passed!)
By learning the fertility awareness method however, you’ll be able to identify your day or days of peak fertility every cycle, regardless of when they occur.
The best time to get pregnant each menstrual cycle is during the fertile window – the days leading up to and ending on the day of ovulation. In practice, the length of this fertile window is typically just 3 days or less and its timing can vary significantly from woman to woman and from cycle to cycle.
Despite what you might have heard, ovulation does NOT always occur on Day 14, ‘mid-cycle’ or 14 days prior to your next period. For many couples this is NOT the best time to get pregnant.
Learning to identify the days that are fertile for YOU, and having sex on these days, can dramatically improve your chances of conception and speed up the time it takes to get pregnant. And one of the best (and scientifically proven) ways to achieve this is to learn the fertility awareness method and begin charting your fertility.
If you’re interested in doing this, check out the Fast Track to Pregnancy™ Program for further information.
Hilgers TW, Prebil AM, Hilgers SK, Daly KD: The Occurrence of Ovulation at the Mid-Cycle. Int Rev Nat Fam Plan 4:227, 1980 Vollman RF: The Menstrual Cycle. Philadelphia, PA. WB Saunders Co., 1977 (3) Zinaman M, Johnson S, Ellis J, Ledger W. Accuracy of perception of ovulation day in women trying to conceive. Curr Med Res Opin 2012 May; 28(5):749-54.
Discover the 5 BIGGEST FERTILITY MYTHS that could be STOPPING you from getting pregnant
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The Pregnancy Calculator can estimate a pregnancy schedule based on the provided due date, last period date, ultrasound date, conception date, or IVF transfer date.
Pregnancy is a term used to describe a woman's state over a time period (~9 months) during which one or more offspring develops inside of a woman. Childbirth usually occurs approximately 38 weeks after conception, or about 40 weeks after the last menstrual period. The World Health Organization defines a normal pregnancy term to last between 37 and 42 weeks. During a person's first OB-GYN visit, the doctor will usually provide an estimated date (based on a sonogram) at which the child will be born, or due date. Alternatively, the due date can also be estimated based on a person's last menstrual period.
While the due date can be estimated, the actual length of pregnancy depends on various factors, including age, length of previous pregnancies, and weight of the mother at birth. 1 However, there are still more factors affecting natural variation in pregnancy terms that are not well understood. Studies have shown that fewer than 4% of births occur on the exact due date, 60% occur within a week of the due date, and almost 90% occur within two weeks of the due date. 2 As such, while it is possible to be fairly confident that a person's child will be born within about two weeks of the due date, it is currently not possible to predict the exact day of birth with certainty.
Pregnancy can be detected either by using pregnancy tests or by the woman herself noticing a number of symptoms, including a missed menstrual period, increased basal body temperature, fatigue, nausea, and increased frequency of urination.
Pregnancy tests involve the detection of hormones that serve as biomarkers for pregnancy and include clinical blood or urine tests that can detect pregnancy from six to eight days after fertilization. While clinical blood tests are more accurate, and can detect exact amounts of the hormone hCG (which is only present during pregnancy) earlier and in smaller quantities, they take more time to evaluate and are more expensive than home pregnancy urine tests. It is also possible to get a clinical urine test, but these are not necessarily more accurate than a home pregnancy test, and can potentially be more costly.
There are a number of factors that need to be considered during pregnancy, many of which are highly dependent on the individual's situation, such as medication, weight gain, exercise, and nutrition.
Taking certain medications during pregnancy can have lasting effects on the fetus. In the U.S., drugs are classified into categories A, B, C, D, and X by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) based on potential benefits vs. fetal risks. Drugs that have positive benefits for the mother with low risk to the fetus are classified as category A, while drugs with proven, significant fetal risks that outweigh potential benefits to the mother are classified a category X. A person that is pregnant should consult their doctor regarding any medications they plan to use during their pregnancy.
Weight gain is a largely inevitable and necessary aspect of pregnancy that varies between people. It affects many aspects of fetal development, such as the weight of the baby, the placenta, extra circulatory fluid, and its fat and protein stores. Weight management merits consideration because insufficient or excessive weight gain can have negative effects for both mother and fetus, including the need for cesarean section (C-section) and gestational hypertension. While the values vary between women, the Institute of Medicine recommends an overall pregnancy weight gain of 25-35 pounds for women who are considered "normal" weight (BMI 18.5-24.9), 28-40 pounds for those considered underweight (BMI < 18.5), 15-25 pounds for those considered overweight (BMI 25-29.9), and 11-20 pounds for those considered obese (BMI > 30). 3 Our Pregnancy Weight Gain Calculator is based on the Institute of Medicine recommendations.
Studies indicate that aerobic exercise during pregnancy helps to improve or maintain physical fitness as well as possibly decreasing the risk of C-sections. Although it varies between women, regular aerobic and strength-conditioning exercise are often recommended for pregnant women, and women who exercised regularly before pregnancy, who have uncomplicated pregnancies, should be able to continue high-intensity exercise programs. 4 The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists suggests that given an uncomplicated pregnancy, fetal injuries are unlikely to occur as a result of exercise. Nevertheless, caution is advised, and a pregnant woman should consult their doctor if any of the following symptoms present: vaginal bleeding, shortness of breath, dizziness, headache, calf pain or swelling, amniotic fluid leakage, decreased fetal movement, preterm labor, muscle weakness, or chest pain. 5
Nutrition during pregnancy is particularly important for the health of the mother and baby. Pregnancy requires different nutritional considerations than a person would have in a non-pregnant state due to increased energy and specific micronutrient requirements. 6
Certain vitamins such as Vitamin B9, also known as folic acid, can help decrease the risk of certain defects, while other nutrients such as DHA omega-3 that is necessary for proper brain and retinal development cannot be produced efficiently by infants, and can only be obtained through the placenta during pregnancy, or in breast milk after birth. There are many other micronutrients that aid proper fetal development, and there exist myriad sources of information on what pregnant women should or shouldn't eat or do. All of the information can be different to sift through and can vary from person to person. Pregnant women should consult their doctors and/or dietitian to help determine the best course of action for their own specific needs.
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