When the time comes for to try and start a family, it can feel like the end of a long journey – a journey towards maturity and stability that allows you to feel confident about raising a child – but in truth it’s the beginning of a longer journey still, and the first step is getting pregnant. If you experience a delay in conceiving, whether it’s an expected one from a health issue that you’re already aware of, or simply poor luck, it can be very depressing. You can feel like you’re caught in limbo, unable to begin this new phase of your life, and even questioning if there is something wrong with you.
Today we’re taking a look at the things you can do to shorten this wait and get pregnant quicker.
The Fertile Window
The most important thing you can do is make sure you’re trying at the time when you’re most fertile. While a man’s fertility remains relatively constant across the course of any given few weeks, a woman’s varies with her menstrual cycle. If you’re not trying to identify the time when you’re at your most fertile, and focusing your attempts to conceive on that time – your fertile window – you’re denying yourself an important advantage!
Using an ovulation monitor can help you here: if you can identify when you ovulate, you can work back and find your fertile window. When you ovulate, the egg remains fertile for up to 24 hours, while sperm can survive as long as five days in a woman’s body after ovulation. This gives you a six day ‘fertile window’ in which you have the best chance of getting pregnant!
Egg and Sperm Health
If you’re tracking your ovulation, you can give yourself a further boost to your fertility by ensuring that both eggs and sperm are in the best possible health, and have the longest lifespan so they have more of a chance to meet and combine successfully!
Health conditions, diet and lifestyle can all affect the health of eggs and sperm – fortunately a lot of the things you can do to help are equally effective for both genders. A moderate exercise routine that doesn’t overtax your body can ensure you’re in the best of shape for both conceiving and carrying a child, and adding more green vegetables to your diet can give you a boost in the vitamins and minerals that bodies use for making sperm, and regulating the menstrual cycle and ensuring eggs are matured and released on a regular and predictable schedule!
