Odds of pregnancy

On behalf of a slightly worried friend of mine, who has already been berated sufficiently by me for being irresponsible, comes the following question:

What are the odds of getting pregnant from a single round of unprotected sex? She would like to know to reassure herself that it’s quite small. She’s already been told in on uncertain terms that she has to go see a doctor and get this confirmed, one way or another, incidentally.

I understand there are a lot of variables in this, but has there ever been a study done where the results are along the lines of “X pregnancies from 1000 acts of unprotected sex”?

It depends on the timing of the sex with regard to her monthly cycle. But if she had sex at a time that she was fertile (from several days prior to ovulation to a couple days after ovulation), the chances of getting pregnant are decent, in my experience.

According to this page a woman using no contraception has an 85% chance of falling pregnant during the course of a year. This Wiki site estimates the odds for a single encounter to be 3-5%, but without any citations, I have no idea how accurate that is.

Grim

There’s several issues here. One is the timing, which is discussed in the linked article above. However, the article calculates the odds simply on a random basis. They use the figure that 3 days out of a 28-day cycle in which sex can result in a pregnancy for 11%, and then say that pregnancy only happens 1/4 to 1/2 of the times when there are sperm and an egg, for a result of 3 to 6%.

However, if the friend is worried about pregnancy, we can assume that it was closer to her three-day window, and the odds are higher than simply random.

The second issue, though, provides another reason why the odds quoted above are meaningless. Unlike blackjack, where the odds don’t care who has bet their ranch that the dealer will bust, for pregnancy, the chances are highly dependant on the players involved. Is she young? Old? Does she have any fertility issues? Does he? Does he shoot blanks? Is there a high enough concentration of sperm?

Ask the couple who are undertaking fertility treatments, faithfully measuring temperatures and repeatedly failing for years, and balance that with the women who do get pregnant in one shot.

A lot if known about what problems cause infertility, but medical science can’t say why some people are super fertile.

My mother had five pregnancies (including the first which ended in a miscarriage) in a little over four and a half years, in spite of increased use of birth control and breast feeding.

My wife has gotten pregnant three Januaries in a row. One of her doctors, a top fertility specialist says that this isn’t unusual. Often women can only get pregnant a few times during the year (and obviously not the same year).

Other times it just doesn’t happen. (And here’s my wife’s pet peeve.) Despite the evidence that half of infertility issues are from the man, the blame often is more likely to be placed on the woman.)

So the short answer. No one knows for any particular person.

It would really help to know the ages of the people involved in this escapade.

Are they teenagers? That increases the odds fertility wise, in my opinion.

Middle aged? In their thirties?

More info please!

Well, since she has since (happily for all concerned) found out that she is not burdened with a uterine parasite and her period was just late, it’s something of a moot point but I’m still interested.

She is 21, he is 22, I believe. Day of escapade was just after her period ended. I presume that reduces the chances, although doesn’t quite eliminate them. Any further information I can give?

I would strongly recommend not using that phrasing. I’m sure you must be joking, but this isn’t a joke for many people who want to be pregnant and can’t. It’s insensitive.

I’d have said the chances were fairly low, but the baby on my knee begs to differ.

Immediately after her period is riskier than immediately before it. It depends on how long her periods last, how long her cycle is and how early she ovulates. Cycle Day 1 (CD1) is the first day of your period, most women ovulate around (roughly) CD14 - ovulation is around halfway through the cycle, so it could be later if she has a longer cycle, earlier if she has a shorter or either just because that’s what her body does. Sperm can live inside a woman’s body for 3-5 days, and sometimes as long as 7. If her period ended on CD7, and they had sex on CD8, it’s theoretically possible that there will still be live sperm on CD14 when one would expect ovulation to occur.

The safest time to have sex would be immediately before her period is due.

You’re right; I should at least have lightened it with a smiley. I apologise if anyone found it offensive. It was meant purely as a joke, and no more. I do think that hypersensitivity about things isn’t particularly healthy either, but that’s a discussion for another thread. In any case, I should not have used it here; it’s a phrase in common use around my (very sarcastic) circle of friends, but not quite appropriate to this discussion.

There’s no meaningful number for pregnancy risk per act of intercourse because the odds are constantly changing. It’d be like asking what your chances of winning the lottery are each time you play it if tickets were sold everyday but only 5 days of tickets’ numbers were entered into the drawing (and you didn’t know which 5 those are!) 23 days a month, the chances are 0.000000001%. 4-5 days a month, well, 4-5 days a month account for every person on this planet and everyone who’s not anymore!

The only piece of information that would be really useful is if she knows when she ovulated and the quality of her cervical mucus the day of intercourse. Chances are real good that she has no idea of either; most women don’t.

People who are slow menstruators with long bleeding cycles can indeed be fertile during the last few days of menses. It’s also possible to bleed but not really be menstruating - that is, it looks like a period, but you didn’t ovulate during that cycle. These are called “anovulatory periods” and they happen when enough estrogen builds up that it causes bleeding whether or not you ovulate. (It’s not a specific level, but the *ratio *of estrogen to progesterone that triggers the uterine lining to shed - you can reach the same ratio either by raising estrogen or lowering progesterone.) If you have an anovulatory period, it’s perfectly possible for your body to ovulate during your bleeding, which is what happens when women get pregnant “on their periods”.

The only responsible internet answer for “did I get pregnant”? Is: I dunno, go get a pregnancy test. Generally speaking, for women who don’t know their ovulation date, using EC after *any *unprotected sex is a good idea if you’re not looking to be pregnant. The better answer, considering that women are only fertile 4-5 days a month, is to learn when you ovulate so you don’t have to panic all the time. If you’re looking for a good gift for her anytime in the future, I recommend picking her up a copy of Taking Charge of Your Fertility