My Fertility

In healthy couples with both partners under the age of 30 and regularly having unprotected intercourse, the chances of getting pregnant are between 25% and 30% each menstrual cycle. A woman's peak fertility is usually in her early 20s, and as she ages beyond 35 (and particularly after age 40), her fertility and chances of achieving pregnancy decline to less than 10% each month.

Female fertility

At birth, a baby girl is born with around 2 million follicles containing her eggs. By the time she reaches adolescence and the age of menarche, the number of ovarian follicles drops to about 400,000, of which less than 500 will achieve ovulation during her reproductive lifetime. Some women will be able to conceive naturally until their late forties, but other will enter menopause in their thirties. A blood test measuring AMH can help your doctor estimate your ovarian reserve.

Male fertility

Unlike oocytes (eggs), sperm is produced in very large quantities. Each ejaculation can contain up to 300 million sperm, but during intercourse only about one million (less than 1%) will make it as far as the cervix, and only 200 to 300 will meet the egg in the Fallopian tubes (about one in a million). When your doctor performs a sperm test, it is not unusual to see many abnormal sperm, or sperm that do not swim very fast, this is perfectly normal and this should not worry you.

Increasing your chances or getting pregnant

Getting pregnant requires very specific conditions to be satisfied. These conditions are only satisfied a few days each menstrual cycle. This is why the chances of getting pregnant on any day of the month are not very high. Click here to read more…