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Wonder if you can get pregnant on ovulation day? Yep, you sure can. But it’s not the holy grail of conception. In reality, the three days leading up to ovulation offer the best odds of pregnancy.
Keep reading to learn your chances of getting pregnant on ovulation day – and every other day in your fertile window.
But first, let’s cover some basics.
Takeaways
- Your chances of conceiving are highest in the three days leading up to ovulation.
- Having sex on the day of ovulation yields a 20% chance of conception.
- Around 31% of women have irregular menstrual cycles, which makes predicting ovulation tricky.
- Most couples will get pregnant within a year of trying to conceive. Your chances of conception depend on your age, health conditions, and how often you have sex during your fertile window.
- Using a fertility monitor like Inito that measures LH, FSH, estrogen, and PdG helps pinpoint your fertile days and confirm ovulation. That way you know the best days to have sex.
- You can boost your chances of getting pregnant by maintaining a healthy lifestyle, avoiding sex during your luteal phase, and tracking and confirming ovulation.
Getting pregnant 101
Midway through your menstrual cycle, one of your ovaries releases an egg. This is known as ovulation. Ovulation occurs roughly 12-14 days before your next expected period.
The key to getting pregnant is for sperm to greet the egg. If sperm does fertilize the egg, this is known as conception. Conception is the first stage of pregnancy. However, it’s just step one.
For conception to be a success, the fertilized egg must travel to the uterine wall to prepare for implantation.
This usually occurs around 6 to 12 days after fertilization. Once a fertilized egg implants, your pregnancy officially begins.
What are my chances of getting pregnant on ovulation day?
This may come as a surprise, but sex on ovulation day without protection only offers a 20% chance of pregnancy. The good news is ovulation day isn’t the only day you can get pregnant.
To help you understand, let’s do a quick refresh on your fertile window.
What is the fertile window?
Your fertile window is the time during your menstrual cycle when you have the best chance of pregnancy.
It lasts for six days: the four days leading up to ovulation, your ovulation day, and the day after.
Sperm can remain alive in the reproductive tract for up to 4-5 days. But an egg only survives for around 12-24 hours after it’s released.
This means the more sperm on hand when an egg is released, the better your chances of conception.
That’s why it’s important to nail the timing of intercourse when you’re trying to conceive. And it’s why you don’t need to wait for ovulation day to do the baby dance.
What are my chances of getting pregnant before and after ovulation?
To get pregnant, you need to have sex during your fertile window. It’s that simple. Yet certain days during your fertile window offer a better chance of conceiving.
One study from Fertility and Sterility tracked the cycles of over 98,000 women over five years.
Here’s what they found:
As you can see, the day before ovulation offers the best chance of conceiving – NOT ovulation day.
In fact, even having sex three days before ovulation offers a better chance of getting pregnant than sex on ovulation day.
As the data shows, 27% of couples that had sex three days before ovulation got pregnant. Compare that to 20% who had sex on ovulation day.
So if you want to get pregnant, your best bet is to have intercourse in the days leading up to ovulation.
How can I tell when I’m ovulating?
The easiest way is to track your ovulation. You can do this with an ovulation predictor kit (OPK) or a fertility monitor, like Inito. Here’s how they work.
Around 24-36 hours before you ovulate, luteinizing hormone (LH) surges. This triggers the release of an egg.
Ovulation predictor kits (OPKs) measure LH to detect the surge and predict when ovulation will occur. The problem is, by the time LH surges, a good chunk of your fertile window has passed.
This is where Inito can help. Inito measures LH, estrogen, PdG (urine metabolite of progesterone) and FSH on a single test strip.
Estrogen starts rising around 3-4 days before ovulation. So by catching this rise, you get a better gauge of your entire fertile window, and hence you can maximize your chances of conception. Plus, unlike most ovulation tests that base results on thresholds, Inito measures your actual hormone values.
Another thing – while OPKs predict ovulation, they don’t confirm it actually happened. However, progesterone and its metabolite PdG do.
After an egg is released, progesterone and PdG start rising. So to confirm ovulation, choose a fertility monitor like Inito that tests PdG.
Now that you know how to tell when you’re ovulating, let’s take a look at some factors that can affect conception.
Different factors that affect conception
Around 75% of couples will conceive within a year of trying. There are a few factors that influence your chances of conception.
Age
Fertility peaks in your twenties and declines with age. One 2020 scientific review found that women under 30 have an 85% chance of conceiving within a year.
By age 30, your chances of conceiving within a year drop to 75%. That number falls to 66% at age 35, and 55% by age 40.
Learn More: Chances of Getting Pregnant by Age? Check Out Our Chart
Health conditions
Certain health conditions can make it challenging to get pregnant, including:
- Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS): This hormonal condition causes the ovaries to produce high levels of androgens, such as testosterone. Many women with PCOS have irregular cycles and problems with ovulation. In fact, around 80% of anovulation infertility cases (meaning ovulation doesn’t occur) are due to PCOS.
Learn More: Anovulation: Everything you need to know about the #1 cause of infertility
- Endometriosis: This is when tissue similar to your uterine lining goes rogue and grows outside your uterus. It can cause pelvic pain, abnormal cycles, and infertility. Roughly 6-8% of women have endometriosis. Yet around 20-25% of people with endometriosis have no symptoms. Meaning you could have it, without knowing!
Learn more: Your Guide to Getting Pregnant With Endometriosis
- Thyroid problems: When your thyroid hormones get imbalanced, it can throw off your reproductive hormones. This can disrupt your menstrual cycle and make it more difficult to get pregnant.
Frequency of sexual intercourse
No surprise here, but couples who have sex more frequently near ovulation are more likely to conceive. Most fertility experts recommend sex every day or every other day during the fertile window.
But remember, the three days before ovulation offer better chances of conception than ovulation day. That’s why getting a clear picture of your fertile window is crucial when trying to conceive.
How can you increase your chances of conception?
Here are a few things you can do to up your odds of pregnancy:
Keep a healthy lifestyle
The better you and your partner take care of your health, the better your chances of conception. Eating a nutritious diet, getting regular exercise, and maintaining a healthy BMI are good places to start.
Smoking and drinking can also harm fertility. So if you smoke or drink, consider quitting, or cutting back at the very least.
Also, try to keep a lid on stress. Too much stress raises the stress hormone cortisol. This can decrease progesterone levels and make it tougher to get pregnant. Set aside time for activities that help you recharge, whether that’s yoga, nature walks, journaling, or meditation.
And try to not let babymaking turn into a chore. Relax, have fun with it, and enjoy yourself!
Track ovulation properly
Remember, your best chance of getting pregnant is to have sex before ovulation day. So don’t wait for ovulation day to hit the sheets! Make the most of your entire 6-day fertile window.
Inito measures LH, estrogen, PdG and FSH to give you a complete picture of your fertile window. That way, you know exactly when to have sex to boost your pregnancy odds.
Skip sex during your luteal phase
If you’ve been TTC (trying to conceive) for a while without any luck, you may want to avoid sex during your peri-implantation window (around 5 to 9 days after ovulation).
The research is mixed, but some studies show sex during this period may disrupt implantation. So if you’ve tried everything and aren’t getting pregnant, you may want to play it safe.
Learn more: Is It Safe to Have Sex During Implantation?
FAQs
Maybe. As mentioned, an egg survives around 12-24 hours after it’s released. So while it’s possible, the chances are only 8-20%. That’s why your best bet is to have sex every day or every other day during your fertile window
Yep! As long as sperm fertilizes an egg, it’s possible to get pregnant. What is the success rate of getting pregnant on ovulation day?
As mentioned, your chances of getting pregnant on ovulation day from unprotected sex are 20%. But your chances of getting pregnant the day before ovulation are 42%. Meaning, it’s twice as easy to get pregnant on the day before ovulation compared to ovulation day.
If you’re tracking ovulation accurately and know when your fertile window is, there’s a good chance of getting pregnant if you have unprotected sex. But it can take some time. So don’t lose hope if you’re not successful in the first few cycles.
Unfortunately, no. An egg only survives for around 12-24 hours once it’s released.
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- Implantation and Establishment of Pregnancy in Human and Nonhuman Primates – PMC
- Findings from a mobile application–based cohort are consistent with established knowledge of the menstrual cycle, fertile window, and conception
- Sperm content of pre-ejaculatory fluid – PMC
- What are the chances of getting pregnant with a condom?
- Menstrual Cycle Length and Patterns in a Global Cohort of Women Using a Mobile Phone App: Retrospective Cohort Study
- Real-world menstrual cycle characteristics of more than 600,000 menstrual cycles | npj Digital Medicine
- Knowledge about the impact of age on fertility: a brief review – PMC
- Treatment of infertility in women with polycystic ovary syndrome: approach to clinical practice
- Endometriosis and infertility – PMC
- Peri-implantation Intercourse Lowers Fecundability – PMC
