When you realise the time is right to start your own family, you don’t want to wait any longer! Unfortunately you may find it takes you longer than you’d like to finally see that positive result on your pregnancy test. Today we’re looking at how to get pregnant fast, so you won’t have to wait as long to move on with your journey towards parenthood!
Timing it Right
The most important thing you can do is identify the right time to try to conceive: you are fertile for a relatively short span of time within each menstrual cycle: the five days before you ovulate, as sperm can survive for this five days and potentially fertilise the egg when it is released, and the one day after ovulation, because the egg is viable for no more than twenty-four hours. This span of six days is called your fertile window.
Identifying the Fertile Window
The most important thing you can do to identify your fertile window is learn when you will ovulate. You can then count back five days to mark the beginning of your fertile days.
There are lots of different signs your body gives you that can help you identify when you’re close to ovulation: your fertile mucus changes in appearance and texture, becoming translucent and slicker, resembling egg white; your sense of smell becomes more sensitive (evolutionary speaking, this is to help you sniff out a mate!) and you may experience breast tenderness or sensitivity.
These are all subtle, ambiguous or hard to interpret signs. If you’re trying to use the information to give yourself an advantage to your fertility you might want to get some more definitive proof.
OPKs
Ovulation Predictor Kits (or OPKs) are hormone tests, like pregnancy tests. They test urine for Luteinising Hormone or LH. This is the hormone that spurs your ovaries to actually release that egg. After a big surge in levels of the hormone pass from the pituitary gland to the ovaries, it’s filtered out of the blood stream through your kidneys, so it can be detected in your urine.
BBT Tracking
Your Basal Body Temperature is the low level your core temperature sinks to overnight. This is mostly stable, but it changes in response to your body’s ovulation cycle. If you take your temperature every day immediately after you wake up (before your rising metabolism heats up your body) you can see changes across the weeks of your cycle, and will be able to recognise when your body is telling you that you’re ovulating.