While getting pregnant can be a little too easy for some couples, others can struggle for years to make their little miracle. The first thing to understand is, of course, how the woman becomes pregnant. Yes, of course, the man has sex with her—this is the easy part. In order for a woman to get pregnant, the man needs to ejaculate inside her between 1-3 days BEFORE her egg comes down for the month (ovulating). Sperm live, on average, for 3 to 5 days, and a woman's egg lives just 6-12 hours after being released from the ovary. Because of this, it is best if the sperm are there waiting for the egg when it is released.
Women can do a lot to increase their chances of getting pregnant by understanding how their bodies work. In the first part of a woman's monthly cycle, she menstruates for 4-7 days. Generally around the 14th day of her cycle, she will ovulate (drop her egg). If a woman is going to have a shorter or longer cycle, the extra days will show up BEFORE she ovulates. Once she ovulates, she will be in the "luteal phase" of her cycle. During this time, her temperature is elevated. The luteal phase is almost always exactly 14 days and rarely varies. A woman can predict when she will start her period by adding two weeks to the date she ovulates. How do you know when you ovulate?
Ladies, every morning, first thing before you get out of bed, take your temperature. Write it down. Try to make sure you take your temperature around the same time every morning. If you get up 2 or 3 hours early to pee or get a glass of water, take your temperature at this time. You can easily see when you HAVE ovulated (past tense) because afterwards, your temperature will jump up anywhere from 0.5 to 1 full degree above your highest earlier waking temperature (called your basal body temperature).
You can tell when you are about to ovulate by observing your vaginal discharge. After your period, most women are generally dry. Usually about 3 days before ovulating, women will get a thick, creamy discharge. On your most fertile day (the day before or day of ovulation), your discharge will be clear, slippery, and viscous. The reason for this is because semen live longer inside the woman when there is an environment similar to the seminal fluid—the sperm can move around easier and thrive. When the discharge is non-existent or thick and pasty, the sperm will have a short life span and have to work much harder to swim all the way up to the fallopian tube where the egg will come. Along with your morning temperatures, chart when you observe discharge and the type—thick/pasty or clear/slippery.
After gathering just a month or two of temperature and discharge data, you will get a good idea of when ovulation is happening and therefore when to have sex. If the man has a healthy, high sperm count, have sex every day for the three days leading up to ovulation. If the man has a low sperm count, have sex just once (no masturbating) the day before the anticipated ovulation. This is how you get pregnant! Good luck...and don't forget to have fun "practicing."
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