I have a friend who is trying to get pregnant. She was telling me all the rigamarole she’s gone through–ovulation kits, certain positions, lying in bed for an hour afterwards with her legs propped up with pillows, etc. And then she mentioned something rather odd. She said that she’d read in many places that people got pregnant after drinking Robitussin, because it loosens and reduces the amount of cervical mucus. I thought that was too strange to be true, so I figured I’d ask you guys. Is this one real, or is it just another urban legend?
This site says it’s true:
http://www4.parentsplace.com/expert/midwife/infertility/qa/0%2C3459%2C927%2C00.html
If you see my post in the “Sperm sample (blush)” thread, you’ll see that my wife and I had an ordeal trying to become pregnant. She was trying to be scientific about it, measuring temperature, testing the viscosity of her vaginal mucus, etc. Way too obsessive.
I told her we should just have sex more often. No, no, maybe something was wrong with me, so I went and had my sperm tested (that’s a story in itself). Mr. Spermy was just fine. We had more sex, and suprise, we got pregnant.
I’d try sex every other day. More often than that, and you run the risk of lowering sperm count. Sperm live about 24 hours in the vagina, I forget how long the egg is viable, but it ain’t long. The trick is to try to bracket ovulation, so if you’re doing it every other day, you run a pretty good chance of success. Another factor is that trying to predict ovulation is a tricky business - it’s may not be smack-dab in the middle of a woman’s cycle, and every woman is different - even month to month. So don’t sweat the science stuff, and DO sweat the bedroom stuff.
I agree with JoltSucker suggestion, although that’s pretty much my solution to everything.
Mr. Spermy???
Carpe hoc!
I was hoping someone would appreciate my euphemism. If penises (why isn’t it “penii”?) can be “Mr. Happy”, why can’t sperm be “Mr. Spermy”?
It’s not “penii” because ‘penis’ isn’t in the Nominative. According to an old girlfriend whose chosen career was teacher of Latin, the correct plural is “penes”.
Cave Diem! Carpe Canem!
And I always thought they were singing “Pennies from Heaven”. “Penes from Heaven” makes a lot more sense.
“Penis” IS nominative, but it’s a third declension noun, so the plural is “penes.” Only second declension masculines have plurals ending in -i.
Believe it or not, this is the second dispute about Latin and male body parts I’ve jumped into in the past month. You wouldn’t believe how hard it was to convince those guys that “scrotum” was neuter …
Drain, how long has she been trying? Sometimes women get so uptight about the whole thing that it makes it worse.
I agree it’s the more correct plural, but just about the only place you will see “penes” rather than “penises” is in snotty medical textbooks and the first chapter of The Grapes of Wrath.
scrotus, scrota, scrotum… yep, neuter! 
Only a few months. She already has one four-year-old son, so I know she’ll get pregnant eventually. She just stopped the pill right before she started trying, so it’ll probably take her a while.
I wouldn’t even cut down to the “every other day” thing unless I were really desperate (trying more than a year, say). Might as well use the freshest sperm possible. You can always make more.