Chances of pregnancy 3 days before ovulation

Right Time For Sex , When Do You Ovulate ?

When are you more likely to conceive?

We’re talking about the 'fertile window’ – the days in a woman’s menstrual cycle when pregnancy is possible. The ‘fertile window’ depends on the length of the menstrual cycle, which varies among women.

The ‘fertile window’ is the day an egg is released from the ovary (ovulation) and the five days beforehand. Having sex (intercourse) during this time gives you the best chance of getting pregnant.

Ovulation Calculator

What day did you your most recent period start?

Number of days in your cycle Please select20 Days21 Days22 Days23 Days24 Days25 Days26 Days27 Days28 Days29 Days30 Days31 Days32 Days33 Days34 Days35 Days36 Days37 Days38 Days39 Days40 Days41 Days42 Days43 Days44 Days45 Days

Your ovulation day

Most fertile time

• What is an ovulation calculator and how does it help you get pregnant?

  This ovulation calculator or ovulation calendar can help you work out your most fertile time. These are the days you are most likely to get pregnant.

  It can also estimate your due date if you do become pregnant during your next fertile days.

  Others ways to help you work out when you're ovulating:

• Notice changes in vaginal mucus

  A few days before ovulation, you may notice your vaginal mucus becomes clear, slick and slippery, and feels a bit like egg white.

  This is a sign that ovulation is about to happen. It’s the best time to have sex, as sperm travel more easily in this kind of mucus.

• Use an ovulation predictor kit

  You can use a predictor kit from a supermarket or pharmacy, to test your urine for signs of ovulation. If you start testing your urine a few days before the day you next expect to ovulate, a positive result means you are going to ovulate within the next 24 to 36 hours (one to two days).

• Facts about timing

  Ovulation is when a mature egg is released from the ovary. The egg then moves down the fallopian tube where it can be fertilised. If sperm are in the fallopian tube when the egg is released, there is a good chance that the egg will be fertilised, creating an embryo, which can grow into a baby.

  Pregnancy is technically only possible if you have sex during the five days before ovulation or on the day of ovulation. But the most fertile days are the three days leading up to and including ovulation. Having sex during this time gives you the best chance of getting pregnant.

  By 12-24 hours after ovulation, a woman is no longer able to get pregnant during that menstrual cycle because the egg is no longer in the fallopian tube.

  There’s almost no chance of getting pregnant if you have sex before or after the fertile window (but if you’re not trying to get pregnant, don’t rely on this – contraception is your best option!).

• How to know when you’re ovulating

  Knowing when you ovulate can help you plan for sex at the right time and improve your chance of getting pregnant.  You can keep track of your menstrual cycles on a chart, in a diary, or on a free period-tracker app on your smartphone.  

  To work out the length of your menstrual cycle, record the first day you start bleeding (first day of your period). This is day 1. The last day of your cycle is the day before your next period begins.

• What is a ‘menstrual cycle’ and a ‘period’?

  Some people think the ‘menstrual cycle’ and a ‘period’ are the same thing.

  A period is when you bleed (or menstruate).

  A menstrual cycle starts on the day when a period starts (day 1) and ends the day before the next period. A cycle’s length is considered normal if it’s between 21 and 35 days. They can vary between women and from one cycle to the next.

• Working out your ‘average’ menstrual cycle length

  If your menstrual cycles are different lengths (most women’s cycles are) you can work out your average cycle length.

  The number of days in a woman’s menstrual cycle can vary month to month. Periods are not always regular. It can be useful to work out an ‘average’ cycle length, based on the length of three menstrual cycles, to estimate when you’re most likely to be ovulating.

  If you add the number of days in three cycles and divide the total number by three, it gives you your average cycle length.

   

  Example

  Sarah tracked her last three menstrual cycles by counting the time from the first day of one period, to the day before the next period.  

  Cycle 1 was 28 days; Cycle 2 was 32 days; Cycle 3 was 27 days

  28 + 32 + 27 = 87

  87 divided by 3 = 29

  So the average length of Sarah’s menstrual cycles is 29 days.

• Working out your most fertile days

  When you know your average menstrual cycle length, you can work out when you ovulate.

  Ovulation happens about 14 days before your period starts. 

  • If your average menstrual cycle is 28 days, you ovulate around day 14, and your most fertile days are days 12, 13 and 14.
  • If your average menstrual cycle is 35 days ovulation happens around day 21 and your most fertile days are days 19,20 and 21.
  • If you have shorter cycles, say 21 days, ovulation happens around day 7 and your most fertile days are days 5, 6 and 7.

  Your most fertile days are the three days leading up to and including the day of ovulation.

  Some women have very irregular cycles or find it difficult to work out an average cycle length. This can make it hard to work out when ovulation happens. If it’s all too hard, having sex every 2-3 days covers all bases and improves your chance of getting pregnant.

Myth busting

MYTH

A woman can get pregnant any time of the month.

FACT

A woman can only get pregnant on a few days during her menstrual cycle.

Why?

Because eggs and sperm only live for a short time:

• Sperm live for around five days. 
• Eggs can only be fertilised for around 24 hours (one day) after being released from the ovary. 

Eggs and sperm need to come together at the right time for fertilisation to happen to create an embryo.

Getting the timing right

If you're trying to get pregnant, timing is everything. Dr Karin Hammarberg explains how to work out when you are ovulating and the right time to have sex to improve your chance of pregnancy.

• What are the chances?

  Having sex as close as possible to the time of ovulation increases the chance of pregnancy.

  If a woman has sex six or more days before she ovulates, the chance she will get pregnant is virtually zero.

  If she has sex five days before she ovulates, her probability of pregnancy is about 10 percent.

  If she has sex on the day of ovulation, or the two days before, the chance of getting pregnant is around 30 percent.  

  These are average figures and depend on a woman’s age.

When does preconception health begin?

Professor Sarah Robertson, Director of Robinson Research Institute, University of Adelaide, highlights the key time before pregnancy that your health is most important to ensure your child has the best start to life.

How to know you are ovulating

Kerry Hampton, a registered nurse and fertility specialist, discusses the importance of fertility awareness, and how to determine your fertile window to improve your chances of conceiving.

• References
  • American Society for Reproductive Medicine, Optimizing natural fertility, https://www.reproductivefacts.org/news-and-publications/patient-fact-sheets-and-booklets/documents/fact-sheets-and-info-booklets/optimizing-natural-fertility/
  • Berglund Scherwitzl, et al. (2015). Identification and prediction of the fertile window using Natural Cycles. The European Journal of Contraception and Reproductive Health Care, 20(5), 403-408. doi:10.3109/13625187.2014.988210
  • Ecochard, R., et al. (2015). Self-identification of the clinical fertile window and the ovulation period. Fertility and Sterility, 103(5), 1319-1325.e1313. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.fertnstert.2015.01.031
  • Pfeifer, S., et al. (2017). Optimizing natural fertility: a committee opinion. Fertility and Sterility, 107(1), 52-58. doi: 10.1016/j.fertnstert.2016.09.029
  • Stanford, J. B. (2015). Revisiting the fertile window. Fertility and Sterility, 103(5), 1152-1153. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.fertnstert.2015.02.015
  • Stanford, et al. (2002). Timing intercourse to achieve pregnancy: current evidence. Obstetrics and Gynecology, 100(6), 1333-1341.
  • Stephenson, J., et al. (2018). Before the beginning: nutrition and lifestyle in the preconception period and its importance for future health. The Lancet, 10.1016/S0140-6736(18)30311-8 doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(18)30311-8
  • Vélez, M. Pet al. (2015). Female exposure to phenols and phthalates and time to pregnancy: the Maternal-Infant Research on Environmental Chemicals (MIREC) Study. Fertility and Sterility. doi: 10.1016/j.fertnstert.2015.01.005
  • Verón, G. L., et al. (2018). Impact of age, clinical conditions, and lifestyle on routine semen parameters and sperm kinematics. Fertility and Sterility, 110(1), 68-75.e64. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fertnstert.2018.03.016
  • Waylen, A. Let al. (2009). Effects of cigarette smoking upon clinical outcomes of assisted reproduction: a meta-analysis. Hum Reprod Update, 15(1), 31-44.
  • Zenzes, M. T. (2000). Smoking and reproduction: gene damage to human gametes and embryos. Hum Reprod Update, 6(2), 122-131.

Page created on: 28/08/2018 | Last updated: 10/01/2023

The Best Days to Get Pregnant Ranked in Order

When you’re trying to get pregnant, what you really need is a fertility calendar: something that tells you the days when having sex is most likely to result in pregnancy.

Of course, you could just have sex and hope it results in a baby, but unless you’re having sex daily or every other day the entire month, that’s a bit like throwing darts with a blindfold on. The “bullseye” when it comes to getting pregnant fast is your six-day fertile window: the five days before ovulation, and the day of ovulation itself. This is the time in your cycle when the possibility of getting pregnant is highest.

Six days may seem like a lot, but not all six of those days carry the same chances for conception. Depending on which of those six days you’re having sex, the odds may be as high as 25 – 30 percent, or just barely higher than zero percent.

Your personalized fertility calendar

So, which days are best? Here they are, ranked in order (“O-2” means two days before ovulation):

Best chance of getting pregnant

O-1, O-2, O-3 (20 – 30 percent chance)

Medium chance of getting pregnant

O-4, O (10 – 12 percent chance)

Low chance of getting pregnant

O-6, O-5 (0 – 5 percent chance)

This data comes from three major studies, each with slightly different findings:

Timing of Sexual Intercourse in Relation to Ovulation — Effects on the Probability of Conception, Survival of the Pregnancy, and Sex of the Baby

The best days from this study are the day of ovulation (32. 5 percent chance of conception) and the day before ovulation (30 percent chance of pregnancy).

Post-ovulatory aging of the human oocyte and embryo failure

This study, by the same authors as the previous one, found that the pregnancy rate is higher with ovulation-day sex, but the chemical pregnancy rate is also higher*. The best days from this study are two days before ovulation (30 percent chance of conception) and the day before ovulation (27.5 percent chance of conception)

Daily Fecundability: First Results from a New Data Base

A larger multicenter European study that found the best days are three days before ovulation (27 percent chance of conception) and two days before ovulation (24 percent chance of conception).

How to use your fertility calendar

It’s great to know your odds of conceiving for each individual day within your fertile window. But the major limitation, of course, is that you can’t know for sure when ovulation will occur in advance. It’s much easier to confirm when ovulation occurred in the past than it is to predict precisely when it will occur in the future.

This means that a fertility calendar can be very useful after you’ve confirmed ovulation for assessing how good your timing was.

The studies mentioned above do not all use the same methods for determining when ovulation occurred, which makes it difficult to compare the fertile window between studies. For example, the day considered to be O-1 in the three studies might not actually be the same day, because each of the studies used a different method to identify ovulation (basal body temperature shift, ultrasound, LH test, etc.).

When should you have sex to get pregnant?

Your best bet is still to simply have sex at least every other day of your fertile window. As soon as you start seeing signs that your fertile window is beginning (like fertile cervical mucus or an fertile window indication on your fertility tracker), you should plan to have sex over the next several days. Don’t wait for a positive ovulation test to have sex, because by the time your test turns positive, you may have already missed some of your most fertile days.

And for any readers who want to really geek out about this stuff, this free journal article provides a detailed perspective on the optimization of natural fertility.

*Why might the chances of chemical pregnancy be higher from sex on the day of ovulation? The authors of the study hypothesize that the difference is because the egg has aged by the time it’s fertilized if sperm are not introduced until ovulation day (because sperm must mature in the cervix for several hours before fertilization, a process called “capacitation”).

By Lindsay Meisel | Jan 14, 2018

Tags: chemical pregnancy, fertile window, follicular phase, ovulation, tracking your cycle, trying to conceive

View sources

Timing of Sexual Intercourse in Relation to Ovulation — Effects on the Probability of Conception, Survival of the Pregnancy, and Sex of the Baby

Daily Fecundability: First Results from a New Data Base

Post-ovulatory ageing of the human oocyte and embryo failure

Optimizing natural fertility: a committee opinion

When is a woman most fertile?

If you are a woman taking precautions to prevent pregnancy, or if you are thinking about pregnancy in some way in the future, the issue of fertility usually remains in the background.

The question of when a woman is most fertile has two aspects.

First, is the menstrual monthly cycle and the period when a woman is most fertile.

To figure out the arithmetic, a fertility calendar or an ovulation calculator will help. The second aspect of the question concerns biological age and the stage of life at which women are most fertile. In our article, we will look at the monthly cycle, the days that are the most fertile during this cycle, and various means of monitoring and predicting ovulation. This makes it possible to predict the time of maximum fertility with some accuracy.

Second , we look at the stages of fertility at various times in a woman's life and their impact on her ability to conceive.

It is well known that fertility peaks at age 20 and begins to decline after age 30; after 35 years, natural conception rates begin to drop sharply. However, in today's society, many women, for understandable financial and social reasons, choose to delay childbearing until the age of thirty. Thus, we are faced with the paradoxical situation where many women, who have long sought to prevent pregnancy in their younger years, find themselves in a situation where they begin to look for ways to increase their chances of conceiving. nine0003

In a woman, the ability to conceive is maximum a day or two before and after ovulation. This is when the egg is released from the ovaries. You can calculate with a reasonable degree of accuracy when ovulation will occur, especially if your cycle is regular, anywhere between 24 and 35 days. Consider the start of your period (bright spotting) as the first day of your cycle, and the day before the next as the end of your cycle. Ovulation usually occurs 12-16 days before the start of the next cycle. Thus, if you have a regular 28-day cycle, then the indicator remains the same: ovulation occurs on the 12th-16th day. However, fertile time is not limited to these few days. Remember that you can get pregnant if you have unprotected sex at any time during the week before ovulation, as sperm can live in a woman's genital tract for up to seven days. nine0003

Fertility specialists generally advise that if you are hoping to get pregnant, it is advisable to specifically schedule contacts around this time, as it can be difficult to calculate the exact day of ovulation, and trying to have sex on a schedule can cause unnecessary stress and anxiety. For the best chance of getting pregnant as long as there are no underlying fertility problems, it is recommended to have intercourse every 2-3 days during your cycle. In addition, fertility calendars, an ovulation test, and self-monitoring for signs of ovulation can help predict the ideal time to conceive. nine0003

Menstrual calendar

It could be an old-fashioned pen and paper, a spreadsheet, or one of the many online calendars available. They are also known as ovulation calendars or ovulation calculators. They all do the same thing: keep track of your menstrual cycle dates and use the 12-16 day calculation outlined above to determine the days on which you are most likely to conceive.

Ovulation Tests

These are test kits that measure the level of luteinizing hormone (LH) in your urine. The essence of the measurement is to capture the surge in LH levels that occurs during your cycle a couple of days before ovulation. There are also tests that measure the same hormone pulsation but use a saliva sample. In these tests, saliva takes on the appearance of a fern-like pattern when it dries on glass. However, the most accurate analysis that allows you to track the LH peak is a urinalysis (rarely used in routine practice). nine0003

Self-monitoring for signs of impending ovulation

Self-monitoring includes taking temperature every morning after waking up, as well as monitoring the quality and consistency of vaginal mucus secretions. This must continue for several months so that ovulation can be tracked. This is the least reliable of the methods, because there can be many different causes of body temperature fluctuations (night rises, colds, blood sugar fluctuations), and in fact, many girls rightly find this procedure tedious and difficult to perform. nine0003

Signs of ovulation | Clinic MEdel

OVULATION (from lat. ovum - egg) - release of a mature egg capable of fertilization from the ovarian follicle into the abdominal cavity; stage of the menstrual cycle (ovarian cycle). Ovulation in women of childbearing age occurs periodically (every 21-35 days). The frequency of ovulation is regulated by neurohumoral mechanisms, mainly gonadotropic hormones of the anterior pituitary gland and ovarian follicular hormone. nine0051 Ovulation contributes to the accumulation of follicular fluid and thinning of the ovarian tissue located above the protruding pole of the follicle. The rhythm of ovulation , which is constant for every woman, undergoes changes within 3 months after an abortion, within a year after childbirth, and also after 40 years, when the body is preparing for the premenopausal period. Stops ovulation with the onset of pregnancy and after the extinction of menstrual function. Setting a deadline ovulation is important when choosing the most effective time for fertilization, artificial insemination and in vitro fertilization.

Signs of ovulation

Subjective signs of ovulation may be short-term pain in the lower abdomen. Objective signs of ovulation are an increase in mucous discharge from the vagina and a decrease in rectal (basal) temperature on the day of ovulation with an increase in it the next day, an increase in the content of progesterone in the blood plasma, etc. Violation of ovulation is due to dysfunction of the hypothalamic-pituitary-ovarian system and can be caused by inflammation of the genitals, dysfunction of the adrenal cortex or thyroid gland, systemic diseases, tumors of the pituitary and hypothalamus , stressful situations. Lack of ovulation at childbearing age (anovulation) is manifested by a violation of the rhythm of menstruation by the type of oligomenorrhea (menstruation lasting 1-2 days), amenorrhea, dysfunctional uterine bleeding. Absence ovulation (anovulation) is always the cause of a woman's infertility. Methods for restoring ovulation are determined by the cause that caused anovulation, and require an appointment with a gynecologist and special treatment.

Some women experience a peak of sexual excitability on days of ovulation . However, the use of a physiological method of contraception against pregnancy, based on sexual abstinence during ovulation , is especially difficult for young spouses, whose frequency of sexual intercourse reaches a fairly high level. In addition, with strong love excitement and nervous stress, additional ovulation can occur (especially with episodic, irregular intercourse), and then not one, but two eggs mature in one menstrual cycle. This should be remembered when choosing one or another method of contraception. nine0003

As soon as every healthy girl at the age of 11-15 begins to menstruate, which is an indicator of her body's readiness for childbearing, then there are problems associated with counting the days of the menstrual cycle and the legitimate question why menstruation does not occur, or vice versa, why the long-awaited pregnancy does not occur. . This makes a woman think and wait all the time, be in the dark about what happens to her every month. And so every month for decades. nine0003

Length of menstruation and cycle

Ideal menstruation lasts 3-5 days and repeats every 28 days. However, for some women, this cycle takes 19 days or even less, while for others it lasts from 35 to 45 days, which is a feature of their body, and not a violation of menstrual function. The duration of menstruation also, depending on the organism, can vary within a week. All this should not cause alarm in a woman, but a delay of more than two months, called opsometry or more than six months - amenorrhea, should alert the woman and make sure to find out the cause with a gynecologist. nine0003

Length of menstrual cycle

The menstrual cycle is a complex physiological process that continues in women up to 45-55 years. It is regulated by the so-called sex centers located in the middle part of the diencephalon - the hypothalamus. The changes that occur during the menstrual cycle are most pronounced in the uterus and ovaries. In the ovary, under the influence of hormones produced by the ovarian follicles, partly by the adrenal cortex and testes, the main follicle, which contains the egg, grows and matures. The mature follicle ruptures and the egg, together with the follicular fluid, enters the abdominal cavity, and then into the fallopian tube. The process of rupture of the follicle and the release of a mature (suitable for fertilization) egg from its cavity is called ovulation , which, with a 28-day cycle, occurs most often between the 13th and 15th days.

Corpus luteum, estrogen, progesterone

A corpus luteum forms at the site of the ruptured follicle. These morphological changes in the ovary are accompanied by the release of sex steroid hormones - estrogens and progesterone. Estrogens are secreted by the maturing follicle, and progesterone by the corpus luteum.

The release of estrogen has two maxima - during ovulation and during the period of maximum activity of the corpus luteum. So, for example, if the normal estrogen content is about 10 µg/l, then during ovulation it is about 50 µg/l, and during pregnancy, especially towards the end of it, the estrogen content in the blood increases to 70-80 µg/l per due to a sharp increase in the biosynthesis of estrogens in the placenta.

Together with progesterone, estrogens promote the implantation (introduction) of a fertilized egg, maintain pregnancy and promote childbirth. Estrogens play an important role in the regulation of many biochemical processes, are involved in carbohydrate metabolism, lipid distribution, stimulate the synthesis of amino acids, nucleic acids and proteins. Estrogens contribute to the deposition of calcium in bone tissue, delay the release of sodium, potassium, phosphorus and water from the body, that is, increase their concentration both in the blood and in electrolytes (urine, saliva, nasal secretions, tears) of the body. nine0003

The secretion of estrogens is controlled by the anterior pituitary gland and its genadotropic hormones: follicle-stimulating (FSH) and luteinizing (LH).

Under the influence of estrogens in the first phase of the menstrual cycle, called folliculin, regeneration occurs in the uterus, that is, the restoration and growth of its mucous membrane - the endometrium, the growth of glands that stretch in length and become convoluted. The mucous membrane of the uterus thickens 4-5 times. In the glands of the cervix, the secretion of mucous secretion increases, the cervical canal expands, and becomes easily passable for spermatozoa. In the mammary glands, the epithelium grows inside the milk ducts. nine0003

In the second phase, called luteal (from the Latin word luteus - yellow), under the influence of progesterone, the intensity of metabolic processes in the body decreases. The growth of the mucous membrane of the body of the uterus stops, it becomes loose, edematous, a secret appears in the glands, which creates favorable conditions for attaching a fertilized egg to the mucous membrane and developing the embryo. The glands stop secreting mucus, the cervical canal closes. In the mammary glands, from the overgrown epithelium of the end sections of the milk ducts, alveoli arise, capable of producing and secreting milk. nine0003

If pregnancy does not occur, the corpus luteum dies, the functional layer of the endometrium is rejected, and menstruation occurs. Monthly bleeding varies from three to seven days, the amount of blood lost is from 40 to 150 g.

It should be noted that different women have a noticeable difference in the timing of ovulation . And even for the same woman, the exact timing of the onset fluctuates in different months. In some women, cycles are characterized by exceptional irregularity. In other cases, cycles may be longer or shorter than the average - 14 days. In rare cases, it happens that in women with a very short cycle Ovulation occurs around the end of the period of menstrual bleeding, but still, in most cases, ovulation occurs quite regularly.

If, for one reason or another, ovulation does not occur, the endometrial layer in the uterus is thrown out during menstruation. If the fusion of the egg and sperm has occurred, then the cytoplasm of the egg begins to vibrate very strongly, as if the egg is experiencing an orgasm. Sperm penetration is the final stages of egg maturation. All that remains of a spermatozoon is its nucleus, where 23 chromosomes are densely packed (half the set of a normal cell). The sperm nucleus is now rapidly approaching the egg nucleus, which also contains 23 chromosomes. The two cores are slowly touching. Their shells dissolve and they merge, as a result of which they are divided into pairs and form 46 chromosomes. Of the 23 chromosomes of the sperm, 22 are completely analogous to the chromosomes of the egg. They determine all the physical characteristics of a person except gender. In the remaining pair from the egg there is always an X chromosome, and from the sperm there can be an X or Y chromosome. Thus, if there are 2 XX chromosomes in this set, then a girl will be born, if XY, then a boy. nine0003

Studies conducted at the "National Institute of Medical Environmental Problems" (North Carolina) showed that not only the actual conception of a child, but also its gender depends on the time of conception in relation to the time of ovulation .