Timing Intercourse?

Question

I normally have normal cycles of 31 days but have struggled this last two months with having late periods and late ovulation detection using OPK's. I have detected my LH Surge around the 15th day of my cycle for the majority of months I have been TTC. However, I am still not pregnant and have now invested in a fertility monitor. I have switched it on this morning and it has said that has given me the light that I may be fertile today. Is it that I have been getting my cycles wrong and not timing intercourse right? Can I get pregnant a couple of days after my period? Can someone help??? PLEASE

I am on day 7 of my cycle

Answer 1

While it is possible to get pregnant a few days after your period it isn't very likely.


Taken from suite101

I In a typical woman’s cycle, the window of opportunity for conception each month is indeed very narrow. There are countless numbers of women who have conceived without even trying or without knowing exactly when conception happened. But for those of us who are actively trying, and getting to know our bodies better as a result, there is a vast amount of education to be had about the best time to conceive.

An egg is released each cycle when ovulation occurs. This only happens once in a cycle, though rarely another egg will be released within 24 hours of the first egg. Given the fact that the egg will only live for 12 to 24 hours, the window of opportunity is very narrow for pregnancy to occur. It is important to time intercourse to make sure that there are sperm present when the egg is released from the ovary. From this standpoint, a woman has 12 to 24 hours to actually get pregnant each month.

However, sperm can live up to 5 days in good fertile quality cervical fluid. This gives somewhat of an increase in the window of opportunity. Unless you have been charting and know for certain that your cervical fluid is excellent fertile quality, don’t totally count on this. To be absolutely sure of when ovulation occurs, chart your fertility signs - basal body temperature, cervical fluid and possibly cervical position. That way you can best pinpoint the most beneficial days to have intercourse in order to conceive.

With all this in mind - the longevity of the sperm and egg - how often you should actually have intercourse depends upon a few things. If your man has a normal sperm count, then having intercourse every day wouldn’t hurt. If he has a low sperm count, you may want to try the every other day approach. At the very least, if you know when ovulation should occur, have intercourse starting 3 days prior to ovulation until 1 to 3 days after. This will insure that there are sperm present when the egg(s) is released.

The best time to conceive will depend on when you actually ovulate. Whether you find out when ovulation occurs by charting or by ovulation predictor kits (I recommend charting or a combination of the two), it’s important to time intercourse so that the sperm will be there, ready to fertilize the egg. It is rare that the egg will actually become fertilized from having intercourse the day after it has been released. Usually by the time the egg is released it’s beginning to die by the time the sperm reach it. It gives you a better chance to have intercourse right before and on the day of ovulation.

One last piece of advice - keep the romance alive in your relationship. Relax and have fun. It seems that when relaxed, the body will function better and do what it’s meant to do to aid in conception. Enjoy yourselves; this is meant to be a fun journey. I believe that stress sometimes hinders conception, it’s the body’s way of protecting itself from further stress. So live in the moment and keep those positive thoughts in your head and conception will occur at the right time!


I hope this helps and good luck!

Answer 2

Have you been fertility charting, monitoring BBT, cervical mucus and cervical position??? it is more important that you do these things than just go out and purchase an OPK to look for LH surge and fertility monitors can be pricey, but they do tell you quite a bit of information.

Basically you need to tiem intercourse so that you are having 'baby making sex' duering your most fertile time which is 2 days before ovulaiton and the day of. But yes you need to actually determine when that is by cvharting. Anything used alone can giv eyou false negatives or posotives. And yes, though unlikely, you can actually ovulate during and right after your period.

The goal of fertility charting is to predict your next ovulation as accurately as possible so you can time sexual intercourse for a successful pregnancy. It will show you when you are most apt to be fertile, when you have probably ovulated, when you are no longer fertile, when to expect your period if you are not pregnant and when you can expect a reliable pregnancy test result. The key to charting is learning to recognize the effects of specific hormones on your body. From the information you gather, you will learn to document the changes on your specially designed fertility chart. Constant, and careful, use of your fertility chart will allow you to time intercourse so you can maximize your chances of becoming pregnant. It will also allow you to recognize any potential problems that may be occurring within your cycle. As mentioned above, the chart requires very little expense, thought or work. I must admit, though, that you may eventually find it to be very tedious and stressful. Your fertility chart will contain a variety of your personal information. Each chart has some difference, but basically, you will find that all charts have three common parts (BBT, cervical mucus and cervix changes). You will find that all BBT charting will require you to have three simple pieces of equipment - your fertility chart, a quality basal thermometer and a pen. You can use your thermometer in any of the traditional means such as vaginally, orally or rectally, not on the skin or in your ear. The key is to have a good quality thermometer that measures in small increments and to learn to use, and read, it with accuracy. You will also need to learn to recognize changes in your cervix and cervical fluids. Your chart has areas to document each of these categories and than some. Checking, and documenting, these fertility signs take only a couple of minutes each day. These signs do not necessarily occur at any precise time frame and need to be monitored throughout the cycle. Some of the most important changes happen a couple of days before, on the day and immediately following ovulation. You will also begin to pay more attention to body changes such as tenderness on one side (ovulation pain -mittelschmertz, which means ‘middle pain’), increased sex drive, fuller vaginal lips, breast tenderness, slight pain of discomfort in the pelvic region, headaches, midcycle spotting, and vaginal sensations. Any, or all of these, can occur at, or around, the time of ovulation. If you don’t notice any of these additional signs, it does not indicate a lack of fertility. You may notice other signs throughout your cycle and from cycle to cycle, that are not mentioned here. You may want to record any additional observations on your fertility chart. I know I always feel the egg release and travel down the fallopian tube that is my person sign.

The first day of each fertility chart begins on the first day of your menstrual period. It will end on (but not include) the first day of your next period. Your temperature will be taken each morning, upon waking, at approximately the same time each morning. All other body changes can be noted as the day progresses, but for accuracy, I suggest that you try to set a regular time for each test. Morning is best, before you urinate, for most things, except the OPK test. Remember your fertility chart is to predict ovulation trends based on past menstrual patterns, but close observation of your cervix and cervical fluids can be used to predict impending ovulation, specially when combined with an OPK. It is extremely important that you remember that your predictions have limited accuracy, the care you put into your monitoring, and documenting, will have a major impact on your results. There is always going to be a certain degree of error both as a result of outside factors and human error. Your fertility chart is a calendar used to show the patterns of your fertility cycles, the more regular your cycles are, the more effective the calendar method is for predicting your ovulation patterns. The more careful you are, with monitoring and documenting, the more accurately you can predict ovulation, the higher the chance is that you will become pregnant sooner.

The goal to fertility charting is pregnancy. The idea of predicting ovulation is to time sexual intercourse during your most fertile time. Most fertility, and relationship experts, recommend that you have sexual intercourse on a regular basis. Reproduction specialists recommend an increase in sexual activity to daily during your most fertile time. But, if the man has sperm issues, every other day is still the best practice. In the beginning of ‘trying to conceive’ (ttc), sex two to three times per week, every week, sounds like fun. Unfortunately it can become structured and routine. Surprisingly, it is often the men who find the sexual demands of ‘baby making sex’ to be stressful - can you say ‘performance anxiety’. I suggest that you take this into consideration, right from the start. You need to be careful that ‘baby making sex’ does not take priority over making love. If you find this is becoming an issue, take a break from planed sex for a bit, work on you two, as a couple. You should still try to chart and prepare so that next month you can start fresh and new. Sometimes the entire process can become way too overwhelming and you need to take a charting holiday. If you need to take that break, do it! Drop it all for a bit and pick it up when you feel better about everything. You need to stop and think about how important it is that this baby has both of you when it is born. You will find a special section on your chart to document the days that you have intercourse.

You should find that your menstrual cycle is made up of three phases. The first stage is the beginning on your cycle and is known as menses. Charting begins on day one of menses. The second phase is the follicular phase and occurs after menses and before ovulation. The length of the follicular phase may vary from cycle to cycle and from woman to woman. The follicular phase length determines your cycle length. Ovulation divides the follicular phase from the luteal phase. The luteal phase occurs after ovulation and lasts from 12 to 14 days, but may last from 10 to 15 days. The luteal phase length is usually fairly consistent rarely changing, more than a day or two, from cycle to cycle in an individual woman. You may have been told that most ‘regular’ cycles last from 29 to 30 days, as you are probably aware, we are all different and so are the lengths of our cycles. A typical menstrual cycle may be anywhere from 21 to 35 days, according to the American Society for Reproductive Medicine. Our cycles are all individual and different things can affect each cycle, but hopefully yours will show the hormone patterns that you seek. Life happens and things affect our bodies differently. You will probably find that no two cycles are exactly the same, but they should be similar. Charting will help you to realize when the three phases occur in your cycle so you can determine when you are most likely to conceive. You probably grew up believing that you ovulate, or are most fertile, on day 14 of your menstrual cycle, mid cycle or 14 days before your period is expected. This time frame is known as the cover line, but the assumption is based on broad averages and they may not be true for you, even if your cycles are regular. When cycles are irregular, it is usually a result of ovulation occurring earlier or later than expected. Knowing when you ovulate allows you to have a good idea if intercourse was well timed for conception and lets you determine your luteal phase length. Knowing your luteal phase length tells you when to expect your period or a positive pregnancy test result. Though not accurate either, the luteal phase is supposed to be 10 to 17 days long. By using this, you count back the length of your longest luteal phase from the length of your average cycle. It is suggested that you mark and ‘O’ on your chart to signify the earliest that you may ovulate. If you have a ‘regular’ length cycle, this means you should mark you ‘O’ at, or around, day 11 in your upcoming cycle. You can use this ‘O’ as a warning point for you to be a bit more observant in your monitoring.