Increasing Your Chances of Getting Pregnant
For most couples, getting pregnant does not require extra effort or planning. If you don’t have fertility issues and you have sex regularly, even if you don’t know exactly when you are ovulating, you will eventually get pregnant. That is because sperm can live for up to 5 days inside a woman’s body. If you have sex three times a week, odds are good that at some point you will have intercourse around the same time as ovulation.
If you aren’t in a hurry or you don’t want your trying to conceive efforts to affect your sex life, then you really don’t have to do anything differently. But, if you would like to increase your chances of getting pregnant there are some things you might want to try. Here are a few tips for increasing your chances of getting pregnant.
1. Use an ovulation prediction test. Ovulation tests look for a hormone that spikes just before ovulation. By pinpointing when this spike happens, you can predict when ovulation will occur. Having sex on the day you ovulate is one of the best ways to increase your chances of getting pregnant.
Ovulation tests may be tricky if you haven’t used them before. Unlike a home pregnancy test, seeing two lines on an ovulation test does not mean that your test is positive. In order for an ovulation test to be considered positive, the test line must be as dark or darker than the control line. You may want to try using digital ovulation tests because they are pretty fool proof. You will see a smiley face when the test is positive. Once you have a positive test you can expect to ovulate within the next two days.
2. Have sex on the days before you ovulate and not just on the day that you ovulate. As stated earlier, sperm can live up to five days. However, a woman’s egg only survives for around 12 to 24 hours once it is released. This is why it is important to start having intercourse before ovulation. Once you ovulate and that 24 hour fertile window is over, it doesn’t really matter how much sex you have because the egg is no longer there. The more sperm that is available to fertilize the egg, the better your chances of conceiving. Having sex before you ovulate will give you a better chance of getting pregnant.
3. If you need a lubricant use a sperm friendly lubricant like Preseed. Most of the lubricants you find at the drug store are not sperm friendly and may actually damage sperm, slow sperm down, or block them from getting past your vagina. Preseed is a different type of lubricant. It is not harmful to sperm and may improve your chances of getting pregnant.
4. Have enjoyable sex in positions that work with gravity. Having an orgasm may increase your chances of getting pregnant. When a woman has an orgasm, the spasmic movements may help to pull sperm up into the uterus and for guys a better orgasm may help him to ejaculate more sperm. Also try to have sex in positions that work with gravity. The missionary position or rear entry position may help to keep sperm in place and keep any from leaking back out.
5. Stay in bed after you have sex. Staying in bed for 15 or 20 minutes will help the sperm to stay in place. You may want to prop a pillow underneath your bottom. This will help tilt your pelvis so that sperm stays inside the vagina longer.
