Timing of sex for TTC / do sperm REALLY live for five days?! 🍆 🥚

[markking]

I’ve read that sperm can live for five days in the cervix but really, how likely is this? And surely some at least die off?

It seems to me to be logical to have sex on ovulation day, surely? This would ensure plenty of live sperm are ready and waiting for the egg.

I guess I just wondered if it’s urban legend that you can have sex five days before you ovulate and still be in with a chance of a BFP!

Loads die off in the meantime but it only takes one. It definitely does happen

Yeah it can happen but don't base anything on five days prior to ovulation day. Statistically you do best in the 1-3 days before ovulation as it takes them a while to get to their destination and the egg only lives for 12 ish hours so best for them to already be there to greet the egg by the time you ovulate.

Yes! My daughter is a result of those long life sperm. we were trying to avoid a pregnancy but I wasn’t on contraception. We had sex once but it was 6 days prior to my ovulation date end wasn’t even a “fertile” day according to the app I used (and I’m very regular) so was pretty confident I wouldn’t be pregnant….now she’s 3.

5 days is a maximum time for some very strong sperm, I think more average time is about 2-3 days. The lifespan also depends on quality of the mucus- they won’t live long without it.

What I’ve found out recently is that some sperm can even take couple of days to get to the fallopian tube, so if you have sex on the day of ovulation they might not get there in time to fertilise the egg. Hence it’s recommended to ensure the sperm is already waiting for egg, not the other way around.

Obviously it’s hard to tell how fast your partner’s sperm is. I know of at least couple of ladies on this forum who got pregnant by having sex few days before ovulation so it definitely can happen :)