Maximizing Your Chances of Getting Pregnant

If you're like most people trying to get pregnant, you probably remember the years of hassling with birth control and all that entailed-the diaphragms that flew across the room when you attempted to insert them, the condoms that broke at the peak of lovemaking or the pill that caused you to balloon in weight. In fact, you may have even experienced sleepless nights worrying about whether you had accidentally become pregnant, even though you used birth control consistently.


Yet here you are, years later, perhaps bemoaning the fact that you spent so much time and energy trying to avoid pregnancy, only to discover that it may not have been so easy to get pregnant, after all. For some couples, getting pregnant may indeed be difficult. But for many, it can be as simple as learning how to optimize your chances of conception by identifying when your combined fertility is at its greatest. Surprisingly, the chances of a typical couple of proven fertility conceiving in any one menstrual cycle is no higher than about 25%. But you can increase the chances dramatically by identifying the optional time to try.

While most would acknowledge the great benefits derived from advances in medical technology, there are drawbacks. One is that people are often led to believe that the most efficient and only way they will be able to get pregnant is though invasive procedures. Not only is this often untrue, it can also be counterproductive. Modern methods can ironically impede or delay the very pregnancy they were designed to aid (For example, Clomid tends to dry up cervical fluid, and artificial insemination may be inappropriately timed.) Today, there are countless ways to diagnose and treat so-called infertility. But if you think you might face a fertility problem, Fertility Awareness Method should always be the first step in the pursuit of pregnancy.

When trying to get pregnant, dispense with all the misinformation well meaning friends and clinicians seem to perpetuate. If you've read this book in sequence, and didn't sneak a peak at this chapter first, you should already know that there are a number of truths about fertility which differ from the myths you've heard.

Fertility Truths

1. A normal cycle is not necessarily 28 days; it ranges from about 24 to 36 days. It varies from woman to woman as well as within individuals.
2. You can ovulate as early as Day 8, and as late as Day 22 or beyond. The point is that women don't necessarily ovulate on Day 14.
3. Your most fertile day cannot be determined by your temperature. In fact, most women don't even experience the "temperature dip" that they've often been told to look for.
4. You are not most fertile the day of the rise in temperature, either. In fact, by the time the temperature rises, it's usually too late-the egg is already gone.
5. The key to identifying your most fertile phase is through cervical fluid, and not waking temperatures.
6. You don't need to stand on your head for half an hour after making love in order to get pregnant! If you are timing intercourse at the most fertile time, the sperm will swim up through the cervical fluid rapidly, regardless of what position you are in.
7. How often you should have intercourse during your fertile phase (i.e., every day or every other day) is a function of the combination of your partner's sperm count and your cervical fluid. It's not a hard-and-fast rule that applies to all couples alike.
8. Both men and women are equally likely to have a fertility problem. In other words, if a couple has trouble getting pregnant, one cannot assume it's automatically the woman's problem.

Why Some Women Are More Fertile Than Others

Even being armed with accurate knowledge doesn't necessarily quarantee a timely pregnancy. If it is taking longer than you had anticipated, probably the last thing you want to hear are the annoying cliches of well-meaning women about themselves:

"They just call me Fertile Myrtle."

"He just has to look at me and I get pregnant."

"I've gotten pregnant on every method of birth control (giggle, giggle). I guess I was just destined to be a mom."

Actually, there are several reasons why such women do indeed tend to be more fertile than others. In addition to the obvious fact that their reproductive organs are healthy, they may have a long phase of extremely fertile-quality cervical fluid, providing them more opportunities to get pregnant. Also, women with short cycles tend to ovulate more often, which means that they have more fertile days in a given year. But even though these women have a biological head start, you can certainly level the playing field by charting your cycle.

Labels: Getting pregnant, Pregnant and Sex