How long does it take to get pregnant after conceiving
How long does it usually take to get pregnant?
It's impossible to say how long it takes to get pregnant because it's different for each woman.
Many factors can affect a couple's chances of conceiving, such as:
- your age
- your general health
- your reproductive health
- how often you have sex
Some women become pregnant quickly, while others take longer. This may be upsetting, but it's normal.
Fertility
Most couples will get pregnant within a year if they have regular sex and don't use contraception.
But women become less fertile as they get older.
The effect of age on men's fertility is less clear.
What does 'regular sex' mean?
Having regular sex means having sex every 2 to 3 days throughout the month.
Some couples may try to time having sex with when the woman ovulates (releases an egg).
But do not worry about the timing of when you have sex if it makes you feel stressed.
Fertility problems
Lots of factors can cause fertility problems, including:
- hormonal (endocrine) disorders, such as polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) and problems with the thyroid or pituitary glands
- physical disorders, such as obesity, anorexia nervosa or excessive exercise
- disorders of the reproductive system, such as infections, blocked fallopian tubes, endometriosis or a low sperm count
- menopause
Some of these factors affect either women or men.
The most common causes are ovulation failure (which can be caused by lots of different things) and sperm disorders.
Read more detailed information about the causes of infertility.
Getting help
If you have been trying for a baby for 1 year without success, see your GP for advice.
Further information
- How can I tell when I'm ovulating?
- Trying to get pregnant?
- Doing a pregnancy test
- Can I get pregnant just after my period has finished?
- Pregnancy
- Infertility
- NICE guidelines: assessment and treatment for people with fertility problems
Page last reviewed: 8 September 2022
Next review due: 8 September 2025
How long does it take to get pregnant after sex?
When you’re actively trying to get pregnant, it’s easy to get caught up with wanting to understand all the details about how it works.
Sure, you might have attended sex ed classes at school like everyone else, but lots of us just learned how not to get pregnant — not so useful now!
Now, you could be facing the prospect of using your body in a whole new way, which is probably why you’re googling things like “How long does it take to get pregnant after sex?” Trying to conceive can bring a newfound curiosity about your reproductive system, and the more you know, the more power you have.
Here at Flo, we’ve got all the answers you need. This expert guide includes details on how you get pregnant, plus a timeline of how long it takes after sex so you can understand better what happens and when.
When can you get pregnant after sex?
Before we get to the ins and outs of how long it takes to get pregnant after sex, let’s go back to basics. There’s only a certain window in your cycle during which you even have a reasonable chance of getting pregnant if you have unprotected sex: on the day you ovulate, one day after ovulation, or the five days beforehand.
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Ovulation is when an egg is released from your ovaries into your uterine tubes (also known as fallopian tubes). The egg only stays there for up to 24 hours before it disintegrates into the uterine lining and sheds as part of your monthly period. But if it’s fertilized during its short lifespan by sperm, which need to swim competitively to get there, then pregnancy can occur. Sometimes, if you’ve had sex in the few days before ovulation, you can still get pregnant. This is because sperm can live inside a reproductive tract for up to five days; they’ll wait there, and if an egg is released, there’s a chance one could fertilize it.
But don’t be fooled into thinking sex during your fertile window will lead to a pregnancy every time. On average, it’s believed healthy couples of childbearing age have around a 20% chance of conceiving in any given month. According to OB-GYN (obstetrician and gynecologist) Robert W.
Rebar, MD, 50% of couples should get pregnant within 3 months of trying, 75% of couples tend to get pregnant within 6 months, and 90% within a year — so don’t lose hope if it doesn’t happen right away.
A timeline of how long it takes to get pregnant after sex
Now that we know roughly when it’s possible to conceive a baby, let’s get into the details of what exactly goes on after you have sex. We asked Jane van Dis, MD, assistant professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the University of Rochester, NY, to break it down for us.
Between 15 and 45 minutes after sex: The sperm travels
The first thing that needs to happen in order for a pregnancy to occur is for sperm to travel after ejaculation through the vagina, cervix, and then into the correct uterine tube where the egg is located on ovulation day. All in all, this is a distance of somewhere between 15 and 18 cm, and it’s believed to take around 15 to 45 minutes.
During this journey, hundreds of millions of sperm drop off and don’t make it. It’s estimated that around 300 million sperm are typically released during sex, but only about 200 sperm ever actually reach the egg.
Between 45 minutes and 5 days after sex: Fertilization
As we know, when sperm reach the uterine tubes, there isn’t always an egg there. In that case, sperm can wait inside the reproductive tract for up to five days until an egg is released, at which point one may fertilize the new egg. Dr. van Dis explains that fertilization is “the process by which sperm penetrates the egg wall.” This creates a fertilized egg, or what’s known scientifically as a zygote, which is what goes on to become the embryo.
Only one sperm can fertilize an egg, thanks to a clever mechanism; the egg’s external shell hardens immediately when the first sperm breaks through, ensuring no others can gain entry.
Between 6 and 10 days after sex: Implantation
Once sperm penetrates and fertilizes the egg, the fertilized egg starts rapidly dividing until it becomes a cluster of cells that will later become an embryo.
As the cluster grows, it begins to make a journey of its own, traveling from the uterine tubes to the uterus where implantation can take place. Implantation is when a fertilized egg attaches itself to the uterus lining, and it happens around 6 to 10 days after conception.
In around a quarter of pregnancies, there may be some light spotting between 10 and 14 days after conception. This is known as “implantation bleeding,” and, confusingly, it usually happens at the time you would expect your next period. That can make it tricky to detect, but it tends to be lighter than your usual menstrual period. If you experience bleeding that doesn’t seem like your period, and you think there’s a chance you could be pregnant, it’s worth taking a pregnancy test or speaking to a health care professional.
Between 2 and 4 weeks after sex: Early pregnancy symptoms
Everyone experiences pregnancy differently, which is why you might start noticing the early symptoms anywhere between 2 and 4 weeks after conception.
“The most common sign of pregnancy is a missed period,” explains Dr. van Dis. “Other common signs are fatigue, tender breasts, more frequent urination, and bloating.”
Some of the most typical signs of pregnancy are nausea and vomiting, with more than 94% of women experiencing them, according to a 2020 University of Warwick study. The severity of nausea varies from person to person, as does its duration. For most people, it goes away by 14 weeks of pregnancy, but for others, it can continue on for longer. If you feel like nausea during your pregnancy is affecting your life, it’s best to speak to a health care professional.
Emotions can also fluctuate in the early stages of pregnancy and beyond. The flood of hormones during the early stages of pregnancy can make you feel happy one minute and tearful the next. You may also have a sore back or experience headaches, food cravings, or food aversions. The area around your nipples (the areolas) may also become darker during the early stages of pregnancy — lots of changes!
How long after sex should you take a pregnancy test?
“The great news is that pregnancy tests have gotten better and better at detecting earlier pregnancies,” says Dr.
van Dis. The not-so-good news is that it still takes around 15 days after sex for a test to become positive.
So while you might feel anxious or excited for a couple of weeks after you think you ovulated, it’s worth holding out to make sure you get a clear result. Pregnancy tests are designed to trace the pregnancy hormone hCG, which your placenta starts producing around 10 days after fertilization and slowly increases as the fertilized egg becomes an embryo.
How long it takes to get pregnant after sex: The takeaway
Now that you have a better idea of how long pregnancy takes to come about, it’s important to remember that the specific timeline differs slightly for everyone. “None of this is a perfect science,” notes Dr. van Dis. While some people may find out that they are pregnant around 15 days after sex, others may need to wait longer — and that’s normal.
And don’t forget that it may take some people longer to conceive than others, which is also to be expected.
There are various factors that can influence if and when pregnancy might occur, including how regular your cycle is, partner sperm count, and when you ovulated. Tracking your period regularly with an app like Flo can be a really helpful way to understand your own menstrual cycle — an important tool whether you’re trying to conceive or prevent an unplanned pregnancy.
Written by Chloe Lovell
How many days does pregnancy occur after conception
Published:
Pregnancy may occur minutes, hours or days after intercourse.
However, you can find out about this not immediately, but after a few weeks. Rachel Gurevich, Paul Turek and Kathleen Davis tell how conception occurs, when pregnancy occurs and what symptoms will become noticeable first of all.
Pregnancy Timing
Pregnancy occurs after intimacy occurs before or during ovulation, writes Paul Turek, MD. During this period, eggs are released from the ovaries, ready for fertilization. nine0005
How many days after the act does conception occur? Conception (an egg is fertilized by a sperm) can occur as soon as three minutes after intercourse, or it can take up to five days. Implantation (the fertilized egg attaches to the wall of the uterus) occurs 5-10 days after fertilization, that is, 5-15 days after sexual intercourse, explains Rachel Gurevich. Officially, a woman is considered pregnant after implantation.
How many days after intercourse does conception occur: Unsplash / Felipe Bustillo Sperm cells take on average 2 to 10 minutes to travel from the cervix to the fallopian tubes, where they can meet the egg.
Sperm movement occurs independently of gravity. Sperm can float up no matter what position the female body is in. When the egg is ready for fertilization, conception can occur as early as three minutes after intercourse.
Sperm can survive in the female reproductive system for up to five days. This means that the day you had sex is not necessarily the day you got pregnant. If you had sex on Monday and ovulated on Thursday, conception can occur a few days after intercourse, writes Very Well Family. Any unprotected sex that occurs within 5 days of ovulation can lead to pregnancy. nine0005
How many days after ovulation does pregnancy occur? It depends on when the sperm reaches the egg. An egg can be fertilized between 12 and 24 hours after it is released. After that, it begins to break down, hormones change, and menstruation begins the next cycle, explains Healthline. Spermatozoa that are in the female body can remain viable for up to 5 days. This means that pregnancy can occur 1-6 days after the onset of ovulation.
Ovulation occurs in the middle of the menstrual cycle. This must be taken into account when preparing for pregnancy. To find out when ovulation begins, you can keep a calendar, observe changes in the body, or buy special tests at the pharmacy. They work on the same principle as a pregnancy test, but they react to the level of luteinizing hormone and progesterone in the urine.
Lisa Fields writes that if the menstrual cycle lasts 28 days and menstruation begins on time, then most likely ovulation will occur on the 14th day. This is half the cycle. The fertile window (the period when the chances of getting pregnant are highest) opens on the 10th day. In this case, you are more likely to get pregnant if you have sex at least every other day between the 10th and 14th days of a 28-day cycle. nine0005
What are the first symptoms of pregnancy?
Early symptoms of pregnancy may appear several weeks after conception.
However, most women notice the first signs later, after about a month, when the symptoms become more pronounced. Pregnancy symptoms may appear only after the implantation of the embryo. It takes time for a fertilized egg to leave the fallopian tubes and find a place to attach in the uterus.
When the embryo attaches to the wall of the uterus, some women experience spotting or light bleeding. These spotting are usually closer to the time you would have your period. Therefore, many confuse discharge during implantation with menstruation and do not understand that they are pregnant. nine0005 How to find out about pregnancy in the first days after conception: Pexels / Jonathan Borba
How to find out about pregnancy in the first days after conception? In the first week after conception, the symptoms that Kathleen Davis lists may appear:
- nausea with or without vomiting;
- breast changes including tenderness, swelling, tingling sensation or prominent blue veins;
- frequent urination;
- headache;
- increased basal body temperature; nine0008
- bloating or gas;
- mild abdominal cramps and discomfort;
- fatigue;
- irritability, mood swings;
- craving or aversion to food;
- heightened sense of smell;
- metallic taste in the mouth.
If you notice several symptoms, take a pregnancy test. It measures the amount of the human chorionic gonadotropin hormone (hCG) in the urine. This hormone is produced only during pregnancy. When an egg becomes an embryo, the cells that surround it and eventually become the placenta produce hCG. nine0005
It is best to take a pregnancy test as soon as possible after a missed period. The test can give a positive result as early as 10 days after intercourse without contraception. However, it usually takes about 3 weeks before enough hCG appears in the urine to get a positive pregnancy test.
A woman may have a blood test to determine if she is pregnant. This test detects the presence of hCG in the blood. A blood test may show a positive result a few days before a urine test, but it may take up to 48 hours for results to come back from the lab. nine0005
Pregnancy can occur 5-15 days after intercourse, and pregnancy symptoms vary from woman to woman. For some women, the first weeks are asymptomatic.
The most reliable way to make sure that conception and implantation were successful is a pregnancy test.
Attention! The material is for informational purposes only. You should not resort to the methods of treatment described in it without first consulting a doctor.
Sources:
- How Long Does It Take to Get Pregnant After Having Sex? // Healthline. - 2020. - 22 January. - Mode of access: https://www.healthline.com/health/pregnancy/how-long-does-it-take-to-get-pregnant-after-sex
- Kathleen Davis. Week 1 of pregnancy: Symptoms and testing // Medical News Today. - 2020. - 25 May. — Mode of access: https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/pregnancy-symptoms-week-1
- Lisa Fields. Ovulation Symptoms // WebMD. - 2020. - July 15. - Access mode: https://www.webmd.com/baby/am-i-ovulating
- Rachel Gurevich. How Soon After Sex Do You Get Pregnant? // Very Well Family. - 2022. - July 25. — Access mode: https://www.verywellfamily.
com/does-lying-on-your-back-after-sex-help-with-conception-1960291
Reviewer — doctor of the highest category Mikhailenko Lyudmila Anatolyevna.
Original article: https://www.nur.kz/health/motherhood/1764392-cerez-skolko-dnej-nastupaet-beremennost-posle-zacatia/ nine0005
〚 How long does it take to get pregnant after sex? 〛Babystart official distributor
January 26, 2020
How early can you check?
Can you improve your chances?
Pregnancy may seem like a rather mystical process. Once you study the question, it will become clearer. However, you may wonder how long it takes to conceive a child after sex.
Short answer: egg and sperm can meet for a few minutes to 12 hours after ejaculation. But to see that second line on a pregnancy test, you still need to overcome some hurdles. nine0005
Here's more about how reproduction works (in super simple terms) and how to time it and possibly improve your chances of getting pregnant.
Fertilization occurs when the egg and sperm meet in the fallopian tube. For this to happen, the woman must be in her fertile window. This means that she is approaching or has reached ovulation, the point in each menstrual cycle when an egg is released from the ovary.
The egg can only be fertilized between 12 and 24 hours from its release. After that, it begins to break down, hormones shift, and eventually, the period begins the next cycle. nine0005
Although it seems that the chances of catching an Egg are rather small, consider the numbers. Ejaculate is estimated to contain up to 280 million trusted source sperm. And under ideal conditions, sperm cells actually live for several days in the reproductive tract.
Any unprotected sex within 5 days of ovulation can cause sperm to wait and be ready for fertilization. In other words, you can get pregnant after intercourse almost a week before ovulation if healthy sperm is already dangling at its final destination.
nine0005
On the other hand, conception can occur very soon after sex. Experts say that sperm can travel through the uterus and fallopian tubes to reach the egg as early as 30 minutes after ejaculation.
When does implantation take place?
After fertilization, the new zygote moves through the fallopian tube and undergoes tremendous changes. It develops into a morula and then a blastocyst. Once it reaches the blastocyst stage, it is ready to implant in the uterine lining and continue to grow into the fetus. nine0005
Implantation is necessary to achieve pregnancy. Without this, the blastocyst will break and be removed with the rest of the uterine lining during menstruation.
In terms of timing, implantation usually occurs between 6 and 10 days after fertilization. The symptoms you may experience are mild and include things like spasms and light patches. However, some women may not notice any symptoms at all.
When do symptoms start?
As soon as the implanted embryo begins to produce hormones (which is immediate), pregnancy symptoms may begin.
nine0005
The earliest symptoms include:
- Missed period. If you have a late period, you may be pregnant. Hormones produced by the growing fetus signal to the brain that the lining of the uterus is preserved.
- Changes in your breasts. Your breasts may feel tender or swollen to the touch due to hormonal changes.
- Morning sickness. Although this symptom usually starts about a month after implantation, it may start earlier in some women. You may experience nausea with or without vomiting. nine0008
- Frequent trips to the toilet. Your kidneys overgrow during pregnancy because they are tasked with processing extra fluids due to increased blood volume. This means increased urination.
- Fatigue. You may feel tired in early pregnancy. Hormones, again, play here. In particular, the hormone progesterone can make you especially malnourished.
If you are experiencing these symptoms or otherwise think you are pregnant, a home pregnancy test is recommended.
