[contact-form-7 404 "Not Found"]

Getting Pregnant

How to Get Pregnant

Regular Periods
Timing Intercourse
Ovulation
Difficulty Conceiving
Pregnancy After Miscarriage
Pregnancy After Medication

First of all – getting pregnant is not the same as  having trouble getting pregnant. If you have been trying and are having difficulty getting pregnant please click here.

Did You Know – All women should take 400 mcg (0.4 mg) of folic acid daily for three months before getting pregnant, and for the first three months of pregnancy. All prenatal vitamins, regular vitamins and children’s vitamins have 400 mcg of folic acid…[read more]

Periods MUST be regular:

Keep a calendar of every day you have bleeding AND every day you have intercourse. If you are NOT getting regular monthly periods, come see me SOON. If you get regular monthly periods and your do not get pregnant in 6-12 months, come see me.

Timing intercourse:

  • Day ONE is the first day of the period.
  • Have intercourse every day, or every other day on days 10-16 of days 7-21.
  • Do not have intercourse more than once per day.
  • Keep a calendar of every day you have bleeding AND every day you have intercourse.

How do you know if you are ovulating?

Basal body temperature (BBT) charting is less accurate than a good menstrual calendar. Ovulation predictor kits are accurate, but expensive. Additionally, if a couple tries to time intercourse too much, they can miss a month, so we do not recommend timing intercourse based on LH (luteinizing hormone) kits.

To determine if you are ovulating, you should ‘ask yourself’ the following questions.  If you are “mostly yes” then it is very likely that you ARE ovulating, and you should have frequent intercourse and expect to become pregnant.  If your answers are “mostly no” or “not every month,” then we would like to evaluate you for any ovulation problems.  Keep track, on paper, of the following information.  It will help determine what tests we may, or may not need to perform.

  • Are your periods regular, meaning are there the same number of days in every cycle?
  • Are there 25 to 31 days per cycle, counting from the start of one period to the start of the next?
  • Is the amount of bleeding predictable every month?
  • Do you have 3-6 days of bleeding?
  • Do you get some physical warning, like breast tenderness, that your period is about to start?
  • Do you get some menstrual cramps with the bleeding?
  • Does your vaginal discharge change midway through the cycle, from wet to mucousy?

How can we make sure you are ovulating?

If you say “yes” to all of the above questions then you are most likely ovulating. However, there is a blood test that can prove ovulation.  This test is a mid luteal progesterone level and it measures your blood level of progesterone in the middle of the luteal phase which is the latter phase of your menstrual cycle. For women with 28 day cycles, the test is done on DAY 21. Remember, day ONE is the first day of a period.

Progesterone is only made by the body after ovulation. A high progesterone level confirms ovulation. A low progesterone means there was either no ovulation OR a that the test could have been mis-timed.

Still having trouble conceiving

Women who are having difficulty getting pregnant may wonder whether something is ‘wrong’ with them. A typical starting point for a fertility evaluation is when a woman has not gotten pregnant after one year of trying. For women over 35 we typically consider evaluation after six months of trying. And for women with very irregular periods, evaluation can be done at Any Time…[read more]


Additional Topics

Getting pregnant after a miscarriage

Women should wait for One Normal period after miscarriage before getting pregnant again. The normal period will clean out and reset the lining of the uterus, preparing for a healthy pregnancy…[read more]

Getting pregnant after stopping medication

Medications typically used to manage endometriosis type pain and painful periods are contraceptive: like birth control pills and Depo Provera. Some women take leuprolide acetate to manage their pain…[read more]

Getting pregnant after consecutive miscarriages

If you are suffering from consecutive miscarriages there may be alternative treatment options for you. There are a number of interventions we use to make it more likely you will have a become and stay pregnant…[read more]