17 Tips For Getting Pregnant – Maximize Your Chances To Conceive

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Here you’ll find tips for getting pregnant related to your lifestyle and the timing of your most fertile days.

If you want to get pregnant fast – or at least maximize your chances every month, there are some steps you might want to take to make the most of your fertility. In addition to making love during your most fertile days, you may, for example, want to look over your diet, your weight, and how often you make love.

Some Tips For Getting Pregnant As Soon As Possible

• How Quickly Do People Get Pregnant?
• Important Health Tips
• Your Eating Habits
• Sperm Count Tips
• The Right Time
• Other Options to Try
• Fertility Book Tips

How quickly do people get pregnant?

For the average (healthy) couple, the chances to conceive are somewhere between 10% and 20% in every cycle, depending on age and health.

So even if it takes 6 months or even more before you get pregnant, it is still considered completely normal. For many women and men, once they have decided to try to get pregnant, it becomes a big frustration and worries when nothing happens. It is tough. The waiting, hoping, the timing of ovulation, counting days to menstruation…

Not very sexy!

If you are lucky, you will get pregnant on your first or second try. Most will not. Of course, several things can be done to increase your chances of getting pregnant.

Important Health Tips

• See your gynecologist. It’s a good idea to have a checkup before you try to conceive. This way any medical problems can be dealt with before you try to get pregnant and your doctor can give you some helpful advice on getting pregnant too. Also remember that if the mom is older than 35 years, the general advice is to see a gynecologist no later than after six months of unsuccessfully trying to get pregnant. For women younger than 35 years, the advice is usually to see a doctor after 12 months of trying.
• Stop taking birth control as soon as possible. You’re obviously going to need to stop with any kind of birth control that you are using. Anything hormone-related can remain in your body and interfere with your fertility for a couple of months after stopping the hormones. Therefore, it can sometimes take a couple of months for you to get your cycle back to normal. One option is to stop using pills for example and instead use a condom for a while until you want to start trying to conceive.
• Stop smoking. Smoking can reduce your fertility. The infertility rate among both male and female smokers is double compared to nonsmokers! In addition, the eggs die at a higher speed among female smokers, so menopause comes one to four years earlier than for nonsmokers. And if this is not enough, miscarriage and birth defects are also higher among smokers.
• You should stop drinking alcohol too, or at least cut down to only light drinking. Heavy drinking can cause problems with ovulation, and if you do get pregnant, you’ll need to abstain anyway. You can learn more about how alcohol affects fertility here.
• Stay at a healthy weight. Women and men who are overweight find it more difficult to conceive a baby, so you need to stay at a healthy weight to optimize your chances. Read more about weight and fertility in women here. And learn here about the link between weight and fertility in men.
• Don’t get all stressed when you want to get pregnant. This is one of the most important tips to remember and the most hopeless to follow once the months without conceiving pass by. You’re more likely to get pregnant if you’re relaxed, so whatever you can do, including following all our other tips and knowing that you are maximizing your chances of getting pregnant, may help to keep the stress away.

You can learn more about the connection between your and your spouse’s health and your odds of getting pregnant here.

Your Eating Habits

• Get help for eating disorders if you deal with them or they will make getting pregnant difficult. Many women with eating disorders don’t even have periods, so if this is a problem you deal with, get help now.
• Cut back on caffeine or give it up entirely. Some studies show that those who drink caffeine are less likely to get pregnant.
• Eating a healthy diet is one of the important tips to remember too. This can help you keep your weight in check and can keep your body in top shape so you can more easily get pregnant.

Sperm Count Tips

• Your guy’s sperm count is important to you getting pregnant. Have him avoid tight jeans and underwear, which can decrease sperm count.
• Don’t have sex too often. If you overdo the sex, this can drop your guy’s sperm count, making it harder to get pregnant. However, research does give somewhat contradicting results here. According to some studies, more sex is always better than less.
• Don’t douche either if you are interested in getting pregnant. Women who douche are less likely to get pregnant, and researches think this may stop the sperm.
• Another of the tips for getting pregnant to remember is to avoid lubricants during sex. This can change the balance in your vagina, keeping the sperm from being able to swim toward the egg.

The Right Time

• Know your cycle well and when you will be more fertile. Then you can plan the best times to have sex.
• Have sex a couple of days before, during, and a couple of days after your ovulation day, too, for the best chances of conception. You can learn more about the important ovulation symptoms here.

To understand what is going on in your body during the weeks before conception, read our articles on the first week of pregnancy and the second week of pregnancy. (Clue: These two weeks are actually when you are menstruating and ovulating, but they are calculated as your first two weeks of your pregnancy if you do get pregnant.)

You can also learn all about basal body temperature charting here.

Other Options to Try

• There are herbal supplements that some women think help with getting pregnant. Although there are not a lot of studies backing them up yet, they may be worth a try. Nature’s Way Vitex (Chaste Tree Berry), Dong Quai Root, False Unicorn Root (Helonais), and Nature’s Way Wild Yam Root, 425 mg, Capsules 100ea are four herbs that are often mentioned for having positive effects on the female reproductive system and hence the fertility. Just talk to your doctor before you try these options.
• Acupuncture is another alternative option to try out. Some small studies suggest it may help you to get pregnant. One of my own best friends actually finally conceived and carried a baby to term after four miscarriages after trying acupuncture. Learn more about acupuncture for fertility here.

Fertility Book Tips

If you want to more information and tips for getting pregnant, check out any of these books.

• Taking Charge of Your Fertility, 20th Anniversary Edition: The Definitive Guide to Natural Birth Control, Pregnancy Achievement, and Reproductive Health
• It Starts with the Egg: How the Science of Egg Quality Can Help You Get Pregnant Naturally, Prevent Miscarriage, and Improve Your Odds in IVF
• Restoring Fertility by Drs. Brandon Horn, Ph.D., LAc (FABORM) and Wendy Yu Ph.D. (c), LAc (FABORM)(DVD)

Paula Dennholt

Paula Dennholt founded Easy Baby Life in 2006 and has been a passionate parenting and pregnancy writer since then. Her parenting approach and writing are based on studies in cognitive-behavioral models and therapy for children and her experience as a mother and stepmother. Life as a parent has convinced her of how crucial it is to put relationships before rules. She strongly believes in positive parenting and a science-based approach.

Paula cooperates with a team of pediatricians who assist in reviewing and writing articles.