Disclosure: collaborative post
When you are ready to have a baby, it can seem like all you do is wait. You wait for the right time in your cycle. You wait for your missed period. You wait for the pregnancy test to make those two little lines appear. While you wait, you try to do everything right. You give up alcohol, coffee, and some of your favorite foods. You start taking quality fertility supplements and prenatal vitamins to support egg health and the health of your future child. Even so, the average, healthy, 30-year-old woman has a one in five chance of getting pregnant each cycle. If you are over the age of 35 or even 40, the odds go down even more. You have the power to increase your odds of getting pregnant. There are safe and effective methods you can implement to increase your chances of getting pregnant next cycle.
Conception Is a Delicate Dance
A carefully coordinated set of factors needs to be in perfect alignment to create a fertilized egg. Once the egg is fertilized, there are still barriers to overcome to achieve a successful pregnancy.
Each month, your body goes through hormonal changes to prepare an egg for release into the fallopian tube. For most women, the egg is released around the midpoint of their menstrual cycle. This can be anywhere between 10 and 18 days after the start of your period.
Once released, the egg has a very short amount of time, between 12 and 24 hours, to be united with a sperm to create a zygote or fertilized egg. Your odds for fertilization increase if you have sex in the days right before ovulation since this gives the sperm time to travel through the cervix and uterus into the fallopian tube. Sperm have a much longer lifespan than an unfertilized egg, surviving for up to five days.
How to Increase Your Chances of Getting Pregnant
Timing is only one piece of the conception puzzle. Your health, your partner’s health, and other factors all play a role in how quickly you can get pregnant. If you are trying to conceive, here are five ways you can increase your chances of getting pregnant.
- Go for a Checkup
Once you are pregnant, you will be spending a lot more time at the doctor’s office. You will have routine checkups to monitor the progress of your pregnancy, the health of your baby, and how your body is handling the stress of being pregnant. Before trying to conceive, schedule a routine checkup. This can identify any potential problems that need to be controlled like problems with your Lh level, high blood pressure or diabetes. Your doctor can help coach you through any anxiety you may have so you can start trying to conceive with confidence. Stress can alter hormone levels and impact your ability to conceive.
- Start Taking Supplements
The healthier you are, the more likely it is that you will be able to conceive successfully. An essential part of fertility is cellular health and nutrition stores. You should start taking prenatal vitamins at least 3 months before you start trying to conceive. This ensures your body has the essential nutrients a growing baby needs to develop healthily.
Folic acid is just one critical nutrient that has been linked to reduced birth defects when pregnant women get enough through supplementation and their daily diet. DHEA helps support ovarian health and ubiquinol CoQ10 supports egg health both of which are essential to egg health and your ovarian environment so that you’re in the best shape possible for conception. A daily fertility supplement in addition to a balanced diet can improve the odds that you will be able to conceive.
- Move More
Exercise and pregnancy have a complicated history. Past research yielded mixed results as the study sizes were small, and the women examined were extremely athletic examples that did not reflect the physical activity of the average woman. A recent, larger study of nurses showed that moderate physical activity most days of the week was associated with fewer difficulties trying to conceive.
If you want to get pregnant, any extra movement can help. A 30-minute walk a day or a Zumba dance exercise class at your gym would be a great option. Exercise increases your body’s sensitivity to insulin and enables you to maintain a healthy weight, which are essential factors for women trying to conceive.
- Use Sperm-Friendly Lubricant
Sperm motility is critical to help them reach the egg in time to fertilize it. Certain lubricants can make it harder for sperm to move, while some can shorten the lifespan of sperm. Check your current lubricant to make sure it isn’t hindering your chances of becoming pregnant. Sperm-friendly lubricants are usually glycerin-free, isotonic, and PHP-balanced. If your current lubricant contains parabens or glycerin, switch to a new product while trying to conceive and throughout pregnancy.
- Try an Ovulation Kit
Take the guesswork out of your cycle by using an ovulation kit to know with more confidence when your fertility window is. Ovulation kits work similarly to pregnancy test kits, but instead of testing for hCG, they test for luteinizing hormone.
Just before an egg is released, your LH levels surge. The ovulation kit detects this in your urine and signals that you are in your fertile window. A positive ovulation test should correlate with a change in the color and consistency of your cervical mucus. Your body produces more discharge that is designed to increase sperm motility and improve your chances for fertilization.
Be Patient But Know When to Seek Help
Most couples do not get pregnant on the first try. It usually takes a few cycles before you will see a positive pregnancy test. If you have been trying for a year without success, it’s time to see a specialist for help. For women over 35, you should see your doctor if you have not been able to conceive after six months of trying.
While it can be disappointing and disheartening when you do not get pregnant right away, try to keep a positive attitude. Trust in the process and do what you can to stay relaxed. Put these five tips to work to help improve the odds that you will be able to conceive quickly.
Thank you for reading - if you enjoyed this content, please consider buying me a coffee here or browse my Amazon wishlist I really appreciate your support and it helps to keep the site running and for my time 🙂
1 Comment
I was diagnosed infertile at 19, told was never gonna have kids never had a regular period, pretty much checked off all the symptoms of PCOS BUT last 2 months we celebrated my daughters first birthday conceived naturally with herbs remedies
December 14, 2021 at 5:44 am