Today, more and more women are opening up about their infertility struggles and taking a proactive approach to reproductive health. Fertility specialists advise seeking a fertility diagnosis after a year of trying to conceive naturally for women between the age of 20years and early 30s. For women aged 35years and above, one should try to conceive naturally for 6months before seeking a fertility specialist’s help. The good thing is, various fertility treatment options are available at fertility clinics such as Procrea Fertility to help you conceive. Here are some facts about ovulation and fertility to help you get pregnant.
Understand your menstrual cycle
When you understand your period cycle, you can easily time your fertility window. Your period cycle starts on the first day of your period. Your body releases hormones such as the follicle-stimulating hormone that trigger the growth of eggs in the ovaries. Within 2-14days, these hormones thicken the lining of the uterus in readiness for a fertilized egg.
Ovulation period
The ovulation period takes place between the 11th to 21st day of your menstrual cycle. Basically, every woman has a 28-35days cycle. During the ovulation period, a hormone known as luteinizing hormone surges to trigger the most fertile egg release. The cervical mucus becomes slippery to enable sperm to swim its way to the egg.
Probability of conception
Naturally, you usually release one fertile egg each month ready for conception. The egg travels through the fallopian tube. If your timing is right, sperm may fertilize it as it heads to the uterus. However, if fertilization doesn’t occur within 24hours of the egg leaving the ovary, it breaks hence menstruation. The sperm can live up to 3-5days in your body, so identifying your ovulation day is essential to plan the best time for intercourse with your partner, which is when you are most likely to conceive.
Monitor your most fertile days
Ideally, the best chance to conceive is when sex happens during 1-2days before ovulation. For instance, if you experience a regular 28day cycle, you can count back 14days from when you expect your periods and try to conceive every day around this time. Depending on your cycle, which may be more prolonged or shorter than the average 28days, you can track your most fertile days. There are online fertility calculators these days to help you out.
You can predict ovulation using an ovulation kit.
A surge in Luteinizing Hormone triggers the ovaries to release the fertile egg. In most cases, the surge happens 36hours before the egg is released. You can utilize an ovulation kit to predict ovulation by testing LH levels in the urine. It helps you pinpoint your ovulation day—test one to two days before when you expect the surge to monitor the rise in LH.
Check your BMI
Research has found that women with a high BMI are likely to twice as long to get pregnant as women with a normal BMI. However, a drop in weight improves the chances of ovulation and getting pregnant. Also, significantly being underweight can cause fertility problems. If you are obese or overweight, losing weight 0increases your conception chances.
The last thought
Many factors can cause infertility. If you are unable to conceive, the first thing should be to see an infertility specialist.
