Does dtd every other day work?

[Ella31]

I'm asking because I tend to concentrate a lot on the fertile days - pinpointed by opks and egcm , but my gp said doing it every other day is just as effective and obviously more when you are ovulating and leading up to it.

Going into cycle 4 of ttc more than likely after a twin neonatal loss last year and just want to give it my best shot

I’m so sorry to hear about the loss of your twins.
I totally understand that feeling of wanting to give it the best shot every cycle.
The advice around dtd every other day is good in that it reduces the stress and pressure around focusing solely on predicting and confirming ovulation. Undoubtedly that can make it that much harder to conceive.
I mean scientifically and in ‘natural’ conception you can only get pregnant by sperm entering the reproductive tract in the 5 days leading up to and day of ovulation - see the fertility friend app for more info - but many of us miss signs of ovulation or assume it’s day 14 or whatever our app tells us. There is lots of variability so the every other day advice tries to account for that.

Thank you for the reply. Yeah like I have definitely pinpointed ovulation. But maybe doing every other day would alleviate the pressure a bit.

I got pregnant in my early 30s doing this on the second month (first child) and first month (second child). I had two girls. I hope you conceive soon OP.

@Ella31 so sorry for your loss. That sounds so utterly heartbreaking.

I am 5 weeks post loss and am planning on using the every other day approach to reduce stress and pressure. I think it is genuinely as successful as tracking. In fact, I conceived the pregnancy I just lost on cycle 5 of TTC doing this, after 4 cycles of tracking ovulation obsessively...

I have to agree with other posters and I know it’s easier said than done, but the best way to give it your best shot is to really backtrack abit. If you’ve been tracking ovulation then you know you ovulate each month, so next month just put the sticks away. Don’t test for ovulation, don’t check BBT, just relax, spend quality time with your partner and try to DTD every other day. You’ll know roughly when ovulation falls for you, plan a date night for around then and just enjoy it, have fun.

The way our bodies work does mean that the more stressed we are and the more pressure we put ourselves under, the less likely we are to conceive. The best thing you can do to improve your chances honestly is to just step back, relax and have fun with it, although it can be the hardest thing to do!

I'm so sorry for your loss. How are you doing?

When we went to the specialist he said every second day to ensure sperm is always there to meet the egg x

Sorry for your losses lovely.

When ttc, we have always generally dtd every other day for around a week/10 days or so around the predicted fertile period. So not all month long but for long enough that we were certain we'd covered the whole fertile period even if predictions were a bit out etc. It took us 5 months to conceive DC1, 4 months for DC2 and 6 months for DC3.

It's a bit shit isn't it?! How are you doing*? I think day to day I am doing ok, but this was my first ever pregnancy at age 37 and all I can think about is getting pregnant again because I am scared I have left it too late.

I will be trying every other day, so will let you know how I get on. Fingers crossed for you too.

I hope you are getting the support you need and are finding at least some moments of joy 😊

• I don't mean to equate the experiences...I know baby loss at any stage is horrible but I can't begin to compare my MMC with a later twins loss x

SMEP is often recommended on here which is a bit of a double up.

https://fertile.com/sperm-meets-egg-method/#:~:text=SMEP%20or%20sperm%20meets%20egg%20plan%20is%20a%20method%20of,intercourse%20and%20testing%20for%20ovulation.

I think every other day is great, but I’d get too exhausted if I did it all the way through my cycle 🤣 I have a regular cycle of 27 days and focused on DTD between day 8 and day 14 (sometimes 2 days in a row, sometimes there were 1-2 days in between, we didn’t want to ‘force’ ourselves) I’m currently pregnant, it was my first cycle of trying.

I have no doubt you will get pregnant again. I feel the same way. Still waiting to bring that healthy baby home. Not at all, I think it's really important that women talk about their losses and experiences. I'm just sorry you had to go through it. If it's any consolation. I had two mc before my twins and I got pregnant after those with my twin boys. And it was a perfect pregnancy- I just got an acute condition towards the end that only identical twins can get and you can't stop it. Just bad luck. So I've no doubt you will conceive. Its just so hard to not to be stressed and upset.

Plus you are early days post lost and recovering.

That sounds so hard, I'm sorry.

I have hope we will all bring our babies home. It's hard to hang onto that sometimes but there's no alternative really is there?

I am CD7 with no idea what my cycle length is going to be post loss so we're just giving every other day a go from today. Fingers crossed we catch relatively fast.

Hi @Ella31 I’ve spoken to you on another thread before, I’m sorry you’ve not had your positive yet. I have my fingers firmly crossed for you that you get it soon.

After my MC my cycles were haywire, and I started with OPKs but then gave up. Instead we dtd every 2-3 days for over a month. Don’t get me wrong it was tiring & not fun, but it worked and I got my BFP

We dtd every 2-3 days from around day 7 (I ovulate later in the cycle) until after ovulation.