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Conception

When's the best time to get pregnant? Use our interactive ovulation calculator to work out when you're most fertile and most likely to conceive.

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Original poster

Might be a dim question

9 replies

AngeChica · 29/03/2011 23:33

OK have been trying for DC2 without success for some time now & feel like sands of time ar running out. Have had a couple of day 21 blood tests - not conclusive. Supposed to have had another last month but AF arrived on CD16 :(. Cycle has gone haywire!

Anyway what I wanted to know is there any point in BD after ovulation? I don't always see signs & am convinced I am not OV every month, but have today, thing is DH is really not at all well, come down with some kind of fluey thing and genuinely in no fit state to go near! so tomorrow is the last opportunity to hit the window if I'm getting the biology right, and after that on the 2 wk wait, it's kind of pointless? Sorry for being dim. DS arrived without any conscious TTC at all so this is all a voyage into the unknown for me.

OP posts:

ShowOfHands · 29/03/2011 23:36

If you KNOW you've ovulated and it was a day or more ago and the only reason you'd have sex it to conceive ie you don't fancy it otherwise, no I wouldn't bother.

Sounds bloody miserable for you. If your cycle is all over the shop then I think concerns over not ovulating regularly might be right. Are you booked in for more bloods?

Original poster

AngeChica · 29/03/2011 23:50

yes I can book whenever I think is the right time with nurse at our GP prac. I would bet this month progesterone levels would be acceptable, because I think I have ovulated though. I'm just getting old and knackered;that is my gut feeling! :)

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kat2504 · 30/03/2011 06:14

If you know for sure that you have already ovulated, for example if you are charting temps, there is no point at all, the egg lasts less than a day. It is c
sex before ovulation that gets you pregnant so actually if you did it yesterday, that is ideal. Or even the day before.
However, unless you are charting you don't know if you have ovulated.
If he's that poorly I'd give it a miss especially as you think the time has passsed this month.

thumbwitch · 30/03/2011 06:32

AngeChica - don't know if you are aware of it but there is a whole thread for people having troubles ttc #2.

might be worth popping in there as well.

I would also like to share the Ovulation Method book - a friend gave it to me, another friend got pg within a couple of months of using it after a year of trying; it took me 6m to get used to the system but when I did, I got the day right and bang! Am pg.

So - another factor to add in.

But I would say if your DH isn't feeling up to par, then perhaps leave it - how old are you, if you don't mind me asking? I am 43, btw.

wrighty2010 · 30/03/2011 07:59

Hi, sorry to hear you are having trouble. You sound a little down, hope you are ok. When I was TTC I didn't chart my temp but I did use the ovulation predictors, it didn't seem quite so clinical at the time. I must admit though that I got pregnant and had sex 2 days after the predictor showed my surge which meant for me I had my cycle wrong. I bought the predictors of a website called Pride Angel they were quite reasonable in price. Understanding your cycle is hard but I felt the predictors gave me a better picture, I used them for 3 months and got pregnant on the 3rd month, I was also 40 at the time. if you get chance take a look at Pride Angel they also have hints and tips on boosting fertiluty, you are probably already doing it but sometimes helps to refresh. Good luck anyway xx

juneau · 30/03/2011 08:06

What's important is to have sex in the five days BEFORE you ovulate (sperm can live for 5 days in a woman's body - an egg for only about 12 hours once ovulation has taken place, so it's important that the sperm are already there waiting when the egg comes along).

The other thing to remember is that you ovulate 14 days BEFORE your next period. If you have a text book 28-day cycle it's easy to work out when you're going to ovulate, but if you have an irregular cycle it's more complicated. My fail-safe conception trick was one I got from a midwife in the US, which is as soon as your period ends have sex every other day for 10 days (or until you're sure you've ovulated). With that method it took me two months to conceive my #2. Good luck!

ShowOfHands · 30/03/2011 09:02

Generally the sex every other day from the end of your period until after you're sure you've ovulated is enough for most women with normal fertility.

But ovulation doesn't necessarily happen 14 days before your next period, that's the average. But your luteal phase (time between ov and period) is pretty fixed from cycle to cycle. So if you ovulate late, you bleed late.

If you assumed 14 days before you period, for some women that could miss the window altogether. Before I had dd for example I had a textbook 28 day cycle, utterly regular. By day 14 I wasn't fertile at all. I ovulated on day 11.

So it's good to work out what is happening to you.

thumbwitch · 30/03/2011 09:38

Just to add to that - I was running on a 26d cycle, so thought I would be ovulating around D11 or D12; turns out the month I got pg I ovulated on D9. So yes, I would have missed it too if I hadn't been using the mucus-checking method.

Original poster

AngeChica · 30/03/2011 22:35

thank you for all the advice! I have lurked on the #2 thread and posted a couple of times. Cylces are varying between 16 and 42 days. I'm pretty sure if I do ov it's 13 days before next period. I temp and check CM it's evidence for when and if I get referred, GP is dragging her heels til DH gets checked out. I'm 38 and she says there will be not much help considering age and already having a DS. If that be the case I would perhaps feel resigned to my lot but the not knowing what's wrong is more stressful!

OP posts:

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