People falling pregnant first month!?

I always did- ovulation day without fail, but had 5 miscarriage. Getting one to stick was the tricky part for me. My daughter was from once on ovulation day as well.

We were told we would definitely struggle due to my PCOS and very long cycles and went home deflated from a consultant appointment. Stopped using contraception as thought it was pointless anyway, but sure enough fell pregnant within a month! Just goes to show, there is so much we don't understand about fertility and there is definitely a randomness to it all...

Some maths. If you have a 20% chance of conceiving every month, that means 80% chance of NOT conceiving. So your chance of NOT conceiving after 2 months is 80% x 80% (not conceiving in month 1 AND not conceiving in month 2), after 3 months is 80% x 80% x 80%, etc.

So

After 3mo, ~50% of couples would be pregnant
After 6mo, ~75%
After 9mo, ~87%
After 12mo, ~93%

Note that it's not linear. So if you had 12 friends who all started trying on 1 Jan, the default tendency is to expect that 1 falls pregnant each month, i.e. 3 by the end of March, 6 by Jun, etc. But actually, you would expect 6 (50%) to be pregnant by March, 9 (75%) by Jun, etc.

This adds up to quite a lot of extra women falling pregnant "unexpectedly soon" :)

Really interesting thread. I'm in the pregnant first try bucket (first pregnancy, albeit early days) and genuinely wasn't anticipating this at all, was very anxious that it would take a year, etc. Lovely problems to have but it has caused a bit of logistical difficulty due to the unexpectedness.

@NervyBee I tend to agree, I think the messaging of "it's normal to take a year" is maybe not up-to-date, especially these days when many women track ovulation, do SMEP etc vs just randomly having sex a few times a month. I think there's something to the "bimodal distribution" thing - maybe the guidelines on when you can access fertility scans etc should be decreased.

I conceived the first month of trying (the first month from stopping the pill). It did end up being a missed miscarriage. Then once that was all resolved it was the third month when I conceived again and that was a successful pregnancy. I say third month and we did dtd that first month after the surgery but my ovulation signs and my period were both very different to normal.

That first time being pregnant I didn’t really track it, I just looked for natural signs of ovulation and took the relaxed approach thinking it could take a while. The second time the second and third month after the miscarriage/surgery I used ovulation tests, partly to make sure I was still ovulating after the worrying signs (no cm, incredibly light periods). However it was also nice to know we had dtd before ovulation occurred.

I do have friends who took 8 months and 4.5 years to conceive though. So I do realise how lucky we are for the conceiving part. Although going through a long winded miscarriage and the worry of it happening again wasn’t nice.

I remember getting caught up over the statistic that most couples will conceive within 2 years. It is true, I've naturally conceived twice within the last two years, neither of them made it to term. If the statistic was "Most couples who have unprotected sex every month for two years will conceive AND carry to term", then it can be said that it's a load of baloney.

I was 27 and 29 and conceived first month each time.

In my experience, people rewrite history. I've had friends crying that it's taking too long to conceive. Fast forward to them having a baby and then they'll laughingly say "oh, my partner just has to look at me, and I'm pregnant".

Interesting - I haven't mis remember but pill and bf probably played a role - I suspect pill delayed and was surprised me still bf hadn't delayed conception with later pg.

I have noticed couple who announce TTC do seem to take much longer - I started to assumed it was all the additional stress from people constantly asking if they were pg yet.

Ds1 was a surprised as i was on the pill but had been unwell. Ds2 I had my coil taken out, was told it could take a year to conceive but was back at the doctors 6 weeks later 5 weeks pregnant. That’s was a shock as we hadn’t expected it so fast.

In my experience, people rewrite history. I've had friends crying that it's taking too long to conceive. Fast forward to them having a baby and then they'll laughingly say "oh, my partner just has to look at me, and I'm pregnant". Maybe it jarred with me as I've had 4 rounds of ivf and two miscarriages so I'm a bit more aware of how sh*t it can be ttc... who knows, maybe in a few years I'll say that rounds of failed ivf were the best days of my life? ;) I find it interesting though - is it genuine forgetfulness? Self preservation? Wanting it to all have been ok? People are interesting:) good luck to you ttc x

I also got pregnant the first month of trying twice. It was a bit of a shock the first time! But I truly appreciate how lucky we were.

Remember half of all pregnancies are unintended. My first was and second happened on the second month ( like others first month of really trying and I think i may have had a chemical) aged 27 and 29.

I was 33 and got pregnant first month. We wanted to wait as we wantes to travel but COVID kept cancelling our plans so we said why not try and see and bam 2 weeks later.
2nd time took us 8 cycles.

It really is a game of chance.

My parents however, it took them 13 years of trying.

First month here too

Dc1 took a year. Started trying when he was 1, thinking we would end up with a 3 year age gap. Dc2 was conceived that month.

Pregnant first month all three times. One planned, one failure of contraception (stomach bug) and one first and last time trying withdrawal method.

I think it’s more common than people realise as it seems glib to talk about it when so many struggle.

I'm surrounded by women who have struggled/are struggling to get pregnant and I got pregnant first time both times, came as such a shock. I'm very grateful and feel extremely lucky but I wasn't expecting it at all, either time.

I have never had unprotected sex without getting pregnant, regardless of when in the mo th it seemed. I had a lot of planned pregnancies but sadly only two full(ish) term babies.

I am very grateful that until I was married and we planned babies, I was very rigorous about contraception.

It isn't something to discuss in rl.

We always used the withdrawal method. Once we didn't and I conceived.

DH and I have conceived every time 1st cycle.

First time was unwanted pregnancy when we just started dating.
Second produced my dear DC (18 months).
3rd has produced my current pregnancy (4w6d).

After DC1 we used withdrawal method which many say doesn't work, but I never fell pregnant- so I half expected this try to take some time.

My mum warned me growing up, to be careful of sex cause she got pregnant first try with all her kids (she had 6). Though reading Conception (and infertility) forum has made me appreciate that this is a blessing.

I fell pregnant using a condom and the pill (taken perfectly)
Now have a coil!

My children were both conceived on the the first month of trying. I’ve rarely told anyone because most people that discuss ttc are discussing it because they’re having problems, and I wouldn’t want to be insensitive.

The first time we were very shocked and had expected it to take longer. The second time we felt very fortunate that it had happened again so easily for us. I was 24 and 29.

Then in my 30s I was diagnosed with endometriosis and adenomyosis and told I would be unlikely to become pregnant again or be able to carry a child to term if I did. We didn’t want any more children, but again just felt fortunate we’d had children so easily at an earlier age.

Yeah i think it's more common than people make out. Both my pregnancies happened in the first month of trying