How Long Am I Fertile?

In order to increase your chances of getting pregnant, it is important to ensure that you have intercourse during your most fertile days each menstrual cycle. The duration of the fertile window usually varies from couple to couple and cycle to cycle. Numerous factors affect your fertility or your partner's fertility, such as lifestyle (nutrition, physical activities, smoking, etc.) or environment (pollution for instance). However, the length of your fertile window is mainly affected by the lifespan of the sperm and egg, and the vaginal environment.

The duration of your fertile window is usually 5 days at most: the 2 days before and after ovulation and the day of ovulation itself. You are at the peak of your fertility on the day of ovulation. On average, each egg has a lifespan of just 36-38 hours after it is released at ovulation compared to sperm which have a fertilizing ability of between 60 and 120 hours (3 to 5 days) on average.

Your vaginal environment also affects how long you are fertile - every menstrual cycle, the female body prepares itself to accept a pregnancy, with the vaginal environment becoming welcoming to sperm around the date of ovulation. The position of the cervix changes and cervical mucus becomes less viscous and acidic, so that sperm can survive and swim to the ovule for fertilisation. Your chances of conception therefore increase vastly during your most fertile days.

The ideal conditions for getting pregnant are only satisfied for a short period of time each menstrual cycle. This is why timing intercourse is extremely important when you are trying for a baby. DuoFertility will help you to identify this short window by identifying your most fertile days up to 6 days in advance. This will give you plenty of time to plan baby making intercourse at the ideal moment. You will also have the opportunity to enter additional fertility clues (such as the quality of cervical mucus or cervix position), thereby increasing the precision of identification to 99.7%.

Did you know...?

It is thought that your orgasm is also important to the baby-making process. When you have an orgasm, your cervix contracts, pulling more semen into the mouth of the cervix and thus increasing the likelihood of conceiving.