Assuming both male and female are healthy (with regards to reproduction abilities) and of the right age, how easy is it for a woman to get pregnant?
Could you say 98% chance in first month of “trying” without birth control? Or does it vary greatly even for average healthy couples?
Just wondering as this subject is often a subplot in movies and television shows - some people having no luck after months/years, others getting pregnant with first time sex.
Anecdote: We were trying for about a year before we had our first. Trying as in purposely having sex at about the right time of the month, but not taking her temperature, and calculating the optimum window. From what I recall, that amount of time isn’t unusual.
They usually say that if a perfectly healthy and fertile man and woman are having regular intercourse with no form of birth control, the woman has a 95% chance of getting pregnant within one year.
I was pregnant 4 four times in the space between March '06 and July of '08. The last two “stuck”, my two beautiful boys. The first two were pretty traumatic miscarriages. I was a surprise, when they were married less than a year. For my brother, they tried for a year.
So the answer is “anytime between the first sexual encounter and one year is normal.” I get pregnant if I even let my husband sit down next to me without a condom, my mother had a bit more leeway than I do. It’s all just dependent on the couple’s biology and rhythm. I think you have to have been trying for a year before you can consult with an RE, or similar fertility specialist.
If you don’t qualify it with “perfectly healthy and fertile,” they usually say 80%. Which is somewhat relevant since we don’t test the general population for fertility.
It also varies quite a bit with age of the woman. From Wikipedia: “At age 30, 75% will get pregnant within one year, and 91% within four years. At age 35, 66% will get pregnant within one year, and 84% within four years. At age 40, 44% will get pregnant within one year, and 64% within four years. The above figures are for pregnancies ending in a live birth and take into account the increasing rates of miscarriage in the aging population.”
I think that this chart does a lot to sum things up. Basically the highest fertility rate is for the woman to be in her early 20s, but even there it’s not automatic. Also, that’s fertility over a year’s period of time, not simply one cycle.
Note, too, that this chart effectively ignores the risk factors associated with the male partner. While male infertility is real, the general assumption I’ve heard with respect to infertility is that it’s more likely to be something happening with the woman’s body. You begin by doing an idiot check: making sure the guy is shooting live, healthy sperm. If that has been shown to be the case, they begin on the more difficult diagnostic and treatment procedures.
There are many mitigating factors not just limited to a person’s individual fertility to consider as well. For example, ibuprofen can inhibit ovulation, and later if fertilization is successful, implantation.
I have no idea if this was the case or not with me, but with both of my pregnancies, the first few months of attempts didn’t take. When I read about the ibuprofen interfering with conception the first time around, I immediately stopped using it (I use it for my back problems and occasionally, headaches)…and got pregnant the next month. This second time around, I completely forgot about the ibuprofen thing, and had been using it nearly daily as my body healed from back surgery. I immediately quit using ibuprofen, and got pregnant the next month.
I really had no problems getting pregnant with either baby, my age notwithstanding. I got pregnant with my first at age 32 on the second month of trying, and got pregnant this second time around after 3 months of not-not trying (we weren’t as active as before–we weren’t out to Do It on every single fertile day) at age 36.
Since this OP was asking about plausibility of certain plots in TV shows, I suppose anecdotes are reasonable.
I’m 27, my wife is 28, and our oldest just turned 5, to give you an idea of our ages.
With our first, we got married, and we got pregnant within 5 months of actively trying not to get pregnant. (She wasn’t on the pill, because of hormonal issues)
With our second, we basically stopped trying not to not get pregnant, and my wife was pregnant within a couple months.
Our third is a bit of a complicated story, and I can’t remember exactly what happened there. I think it was a situation much like our first.
We’re currently expecting our fourth now, and got pregnant within a month of deciding we want to have another baby.
So, with some couples at least, it’s possible to get pregnant very very quickly. I can’t say how typical we are, but it would seem like the ability to get pregnant easily would be pretty common, if only from an evolutionary standpoint.
I know plenty of people who have gotten pregnant within the month, or sometimes on the very first time. It’s not at all uncommon, but neither should you expect it to happen so quickly.
I got pregnant both times while using birth control (diaphragm first, condom second.) Granted, those are not the gold standard for birth control, but let’s just say both kids were “surprises.”
I can’t parse this sentence…
I think he meant that they stopped trying to prevent pregnancy, but weren’t actively pursuing pregnancy either…as in, if it happens it happens.
My mother got married at 17 and was on fertility drugs by age 19. I find this fairly mind-boggling, but she did have my brother a little over a year later. And then myself, 2 1/2 years after that.
I’ve never asked her if the 2 1/2 year gap between my brother and I was intentional, but she was no longer on fertility drugs…
You would think someone so eager to get pregnant so young would’ve had more than two kids, but she had her tubes tied when I was born; she says it’s because we were both C-section babies and back then it was more risky to have more than 2. (My brother and I were both born in the 70’s.)
Now she regrets not having one more.
I think the birth-control pill stats are the most impressive when it comes to how easy it is for a woman to get pregnant…even if you’re taking them with 100% accuracy, out of 100 women, three of them will get pregnant within a year anyway.
Sometimes it can be ridiculously easy. This Savage Love column has an unfortunate lesbian woman who was minimally bi-curious ( last part of column The Stranger: Seattle's Only Newspaper )
I think you might be misreading things. If you are referring to perfect use, it’s more like 3 in 1000. That’s how to interpret the 99.7% effectiveness rate of perfect use. Hormonal Birth Control Options
Maybe not the most definitive site, but similar numbers abound.
But if you are talking typical use, that is 8 out of 100 (92% effective)
I think that both of ours came pretty much within the first month of not using birth control. But we weren’t doing any time of the month or temperature stuff.
My best friend got pregnant the first month she was off the Pill. I had a copper IUD and got pregnant on my second cycle of trying to conceive.
Well, I guess I skew the numbers up a bit. With our first, we weren’t trying, but we weren’t especially active, either, and it was about ten months. The second time we were trying, and it took about ten months. That one didn’t stick. After that we were actively trying, and it took 2 1/2 years. Then the last one slipped in while we weren’t looking, when her older sister was just about 15 months old. (That would be conception, not birth, the girls are about two years apart.) And I was nursing at the time, but not exclusively.
So everybody is different, I guess literally, every body.
Its supposed to be a 25% chance each month you are trying to conceive. This is assuming things like you are timing intercourse.
And yes, plenty of people get pregnant the first time they ever have sex or within the first month of trying, and plenty try for years and never succeed. And then you have people like me who tried for three years, unsuccessfully did fertility treatments, and two years later had a “surprise” pregnancy. There are a lot of variations in fertility - from male variations in sperm motility and count to female variations in ovulation and hormone levels to support implantation. And those can change over time as well.
From the anectdotal stories I’ve seen, if you screw every day for a month, your chances are high. However, if you try to time it right, and then screw for one day out of the month, regardless of what you may think is or is not happening to your bodies at that time, your chances are low.
The reason for this is that most data we have about medical issues are usually based on averages. For example, it is well-known that 8 hours of sleep per night is recommended. However, what is not as well known is that humans vary from 6 hours to 10 hours. If you are on the 10 hour side and try to sleep for 8, you’ll be tired, while people who sleep for 6 wonder if they’re weird.
Therefore, if you are trying to get pregnant, don’t assume your best chance is 3 days after the full moon on months ending in “Y” between 12:00 and 12:00:30, regardless of how many books say so. Your body might be off by a day or more. Therefore, screw like a rabbit for a year, and then go see a doctor if nothing happens.
Fertility drugs by age 19??? That is just mind-boggling!!!
I spent 15 years trying NOT to get pregnant. I got married and was pregnant exactly one year later, at age 37. Imagine my surprise…