Natural Pregnancy

How to Get Pregnant Naturally?

As a Fertility Specialist, whom so many patients are consulting for the want of a Natural Pregnancy, it’s important that they are aware of their own Fertile Window or a Fertile Period.

In every menstrual cycle, the uterus and more so the endometrium undergoes a process where there is a development of the Endometrium to a particular thickness and then it prepares itself for the arrival of the embryo, should the fertilization occur in order to sustain a natural pregnancy. This is beautifully governed by a simple play of endocrinology which is done by the ovary. And to be more specific, the developing follicle.

The follicle, which is a dominant follicle, usually has a healthy ovum or a healthy egg inside it. The ovulation occurs usually during the mid-cycle and this allows for an excellent opportunity to have a pregnancy if certain processes are followed.

Importance of Preconceptual Counseling

Couples should know that in order to attain a natural pregnancy, it’s important that they undergo a counseling session with a fertility specialist. During this pre counseling session, the male partner would also be doing his semen analysis, also called as a sperm test. This test would typically require an abstinence of about 3-5 days, but this is not mandatory though.

The female partner should also undergo selective blood tests like AMH, TSH and Prolactin along with a routine Pelvic Ultrasound as well as a Saline Sonosalpingography (SSG) for assessment of the tubal patency. Basically this is a test to make sure that your tubes are open and it’s important again that a specialist would assess it. Contrary to the popular social media opinion, let me assure the patients that this is a painless procedure when done correctly.

If all the tests are in order and you start to try naturally, there are also some rules of having sexual intercourse which you need to be aware of. Please make it clear that sexual intercourse is an act of pleasure and not an act of compulsion, which needs to be programmed. Many young couples often keep alarms to have sex and end up in performance anxiety.

Sexual intercourse has a normal frequency as the commonest question in your mind would be, how often should I have sex to become pregnant? The normal frequency of intercourse is about 2-3 times a week. The patients normally would accept that the frequency is much lesser than that amongst most of the young couples.

Timing sex when a woman is most fertile (the fertility window)

During the Fertile Period, which is about 6 days, it’s better to have sex every day or every alternate day to ensure a higher pregnancy rate. Basically the objective is that during the fertile period, there is an adequate concentration of sperms to achieve a pregnancy, and that can only happen by repeated sexual acts.

One must also note that the sperm can survive in the females for about 24-48 hours. But the Egg can only retain its fertilization potential for about 12 hours or so, following ovulation. Now, honestly, one can’t exactly time the ovulation, and that’s why repeated sexual acts during the fertile period are important.

Couples often also wonder as to how a pregnancy will happen when most of the sperms leak out or drop out of the vagina after having sex. Again, the couple should note that this happens in all the couples and usually 70-80% of the ejaculated sperms usually leak out. That’s normal guys…! No need to worry.

Also, one need not lie down in any position after sex. The sperms which are destined to reach the egg will find their way. Though lying down on the bed for about 5 mins or so after sex can be practiced, but it’s not that effective. Many women tend to think that lifting the legs up, might help to retain more sperms inside. Again, that’s not true. The best advice would be, not to really focus so much on it.

I will also touch upon the aspect of monitoring ovulation using ovulation kits here. That’s really the In thing sort of. Because everyone wants to track it through an app.

Remember, the ovulation kits are only going to track an LH surge in the urine, which means that if you see those 2 lines on the ovulation kit, it means you may ovulate in the next 1-2 days.

Be very careful of these kits as many of them have false positives and negatives both. I usually recommend that couples delete these apps from their phones. Funny as it may sound, Often many conceive in the immediate next month, once these apps are gone.

A simple calculation of your fertile period is your mid cycle.

Let’s say one has a 28 day cycle. Remember the mid cycle is the 14th day. So 3 days before and after that, become your fertile period. That means day 11-17 is your fertile period if you have a 28 day cycle. Similarly for a 30 day regular cycle, day 12-19 becomes your fertile window. Now, comes the question on how to track this window in Irregular cycles. See, for those patients the answer is simple. The best way is to then monitor it with ultrasound.

Women also often ask if they need to make any specific diet and exercise changes to conceive naturally. The answer to that is a simple NO. Nothing is really needed. Just eat the healthy stuff. And the list of things which are healthy, is readily available all across the internet.

Couples can continue to exercise, work out, go to office, attend parties, social gatherings, drive, swim etc during the fertile period. The realistic expectation is that about 8-10% couples conceive naturally in every month they try. So one has to be patient and give themselves a window of minimum of 8-9 months to have a pregnancy. One cannot really give up in 2 months of trying.

Folic Acid can be continued but it’s not mandatory and no other vitamin supplements are recommended for the couple in this period. The trick is to be patient and be happy. GOD usually takes care of the rest. However, do visit a fertility specialist, should you not be able to conceive after 12 months of trying naturally.

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