Okay, so we know what you are thinking. An article about how to get pregnant? Really? And that is precisely the problem.’
Most people spend a large part of their sexual life trying to avoid pregnancy. With age and maturity, you realize that getting pregnant can occur anytime you think about having sex. So you go to great lengths using birth control, condoms, and other methods of birth control in order to avoid an unintended pregnancy. Then suddenly, the inklings of parenthood hit and you think that by simply coming off of the pill or foregoing the use of barrier methods, you will blissfully conceive on desire alone. And while you are right that getting pregnant requires the meeting of a sperm and an egg, it is a very specific act that essentially requires thousands of bodily reactions to occur seamlessly. And even then, with all things in order things may not go as exactly as planned.
First, let’s discuss statistics. On average, it takes around 5 months for the average couple, with no fertility issues to conceive. These are those folks that just stop trying to avoid pregnancy and wing it. For couples that have history of irregular periods, female problems or who smoke it takes on average of one year. For this reason, most fertility doctors do not intervene until a couple has tried for 6-8 months without success. Even then, the intervention is a series of very basic tests. And around 1 out of every 3 couples has some sort of bodily condition that impedes fertility. This could be low sperm count, blocked fallopian tubes, failure to ovulate or even something such as a hormonal imbalance and most commonly’.stress!
Figuring out how to get pregnant isn’t as simple as you might have first thought.
The first step in learning how to get pregnant is to for the women to figure out when she ovulates. There are plenty of methods to do this. The first step is counting the days in your cycle. A cycle starts on the first day of your menstrual period and continues to the next menstrual cycle. For most women this is around 28 days, but can be as little as 21 or as much as 45. Women, who cycle every other month, are likely only ovulating on one side meaning they aren’t fertile every month. Planning to have a baby will make you much more in tune with your body and by noticing changes, differences in the way you feel and keeping up with them, you can become a pro at predicting ovulation.
Next up, infiguring out when you ovulate is pinpointing it so you can time sex. Most often women ovulate around day 10 14. There are telltale signs of ovulation such as increased cervical mucous, cramps, increased libido, and even breast tenderness. Additionally, if you take your basal body temperature, which is a complex but, accurate way to detect ovulation, your body temperature will be raised by a tenth of a degree for around 2-3 days. During these 2-3 days, you can assume you are ovulating. The easiest way to detect ovulation is to use the quick ovulation predictor tests available in your local drug store. You should start taking the tests on day 10 from the first day of your last menstrual cycle and continue for one week. As hormones that act as a catalyst for ovulation increase, they will be detected in your urine.
When you know you are ovulating, it is time to figure out when to have sex. The medical community is still a bit up and arms over what is the best method. Some doctors say having sex every day, during the week of ovulation is a no fail way to get it done right. Others say that this weakens sperm counts and advises couples to have sex the day before ovulation, the day off, and the day after. Regardless, ovulation alone wont end the how to get pregnant woes. But it is definitely the best place to start.
Once the sperm are released into the uterine environment, they can survive for as much as 5 days. However, if the cervical mucous or uterine environment is acidic, the sperm may not survive at all. If there isn’t enough lubrication to move the sperm into female reproductive organs pregnancy will not occur. And if the egg cannot travel into the fallopian tubes and into the uterus to be fertilized, 7 million sperm will be all for not. Then, say the sperm and egg meet there are thousands of mini chemical reactions that must take place in order for it to implant, and another hundred or so to ensure that the female body hosts the pregnancy. And perhaps, this is why it is so hard to get pregnant. If one mechanism is off, lying with your legs up in the air after having sex for 10 minutes or two hours, will not help.
The good news is that many of the things that impeded pregnancy to begin with are simple to fix. For instance, lots of women have a thyroid imbalance which sort of hot wires the hormonal responses needed to get pregnant. And stress, worry, and other outside issues can affect performance for both men and women as well.
Your best bet when trying to get pregnant, is to make sure that you are healthy in body and mind first. Start taking prenatal vitamins, eliminate stress, figure out when you ovulate, and stay away from toxins like alcohol or nicotine. Start eating healthily, see your doctor for a check up to make sure that you don’t have any underlying issues and then have sex because its fun, rather than simply because you want to conceive. If things don’t work out right away, refrain from worry! At some point, you WILL get pregnant! With the first hard-core step of deciding that you want out of the way, there is likely nothing that can stop you.
