Boston: Can You Get Pregnant Before Or After Your Ovulation Period? You Can - Here"s Why

Boston,

I recently received correspondence from a couple who wanted to become pregnant within the next few months. In fact, they had tried having intercourse several times during previous month (when the felt that the woman might have been most fertile,) but they weren’t completely sure when she actually ovulated. They were wondering if they had any chance of being successful. I guess their real question was if it’s possible to become pregnant in the days before or after the actual egg’s release instead of on the actual day of ovulation. The answer to this question is yes and I’ll explain why in the following article.

Why You Actually Can Get Pregnant Before Or After Ovulation: A Look At The Life Spans Of The Sperm And The Egg: Most people know that once per month, your egg becomes mature and is released into your fallopian tubes. This is known as your ovulation day. If this egg is fertilized by a healthy and viable sperm chromosome, then pregnancy can occur.

But an important consideration in all of this is the life span of both players in this game. Here’s a closer look at what can happen. The egg begins to disintegrate about 12 hours after it’s release and can remain viable for 48 hours or about two days (and sometimes slightly more.) As far as the sperm chromosomes, it’s said that they can live and remain viable for as many as 72 hours (or about three days) after ejaculation.

So, let’s assume that you have a really good handle on when you ovulate by using either a saliva or urine predictor. And, let’s call your ovulation date “day 14.” (I’m calling it this because most women who have a 28 day cycle assume that this is the best day day. It’s honestly not always the ultimate day, since many things can affect ovulation and all women are different.) Since the sperm can live for up to 72 hours, you can obviously still have viable sperm to contribute to the mature egg for as many as three days before ovulation. (This would be as early as day 11.)

And, if you were in a situation where late intercourse was necessary, this could work too. Both egg and sperm can hang around for as many as 2 – 3 days. (Again, this can vary depending on stress, health, temperatures, acidity and other factors.) But, if you ovulate on day 14 as we said, but did not have intercourse until day 15 or 16, there’s a chance that both egg and sperm would still be viable and you could become pregnant. Of course, it makes sense to know the exact day that you ovulate so that you’re not miscalculating.

How Late And Early Intercourse Can Affect Whether You Have One Gender Over Another: Yet another consideration in all of this is the fact that the boy and girl producing sperm chromosomes (X and Y) also have different life spans, vulnerabilities, and experiences. Hopefully, I’ve been able to establish that the sperm can survive for up to three days, but this is more likely for X or girl producing sperm (which is the most long lived of the two.) The Y or boy sperm is typically the first to begin to deteriorate. It’s usually the X sperm that is the last to remain in the journey to the egg.

So how does this figure into everything? It really doesn’t if you don’t have a preference in whether you conceive a boy or a girl. In that case, your best bet is to have intercourse as close as you can to when you know for a fact that your egg has been released. But, if you know that you want a girl, then you might want to try to hit the early end of that window that we talked about. For a boy, you’d want to wait until the end of the window.

Another thing that comes into play is acidity. If the woman is more acidic, this gives the X or girl sperm a better chance as this scenario is even harsher to the already vulnerable Y’s. You can change your acidity through diet and douching, but first, you will need to know what it is. You can find this out with little litmus papers that test PH.

Recapping Your Best Strategies For Success: So, let’s quickly recap so that we can form your best strategy. You don’t have to think that you’ve failed if you’re a little bit early or a little bit late in your intercourse when trying to become pregnant. You have anywhere from a 12 – 72 hour window on both sides. It’s still very important to know the exact day of the egg’s release though.

If you want a girl baby, you’ll want to consider having intercourse before this actually happens. For a boy, you’ll want to wait a few days. If this doesn’t really matter to you, it’s generally fine to have intercourse in the days close to ovulation, and that’s true for both days before and for days after.

Source by Sandy Dean

Can You Get Pregnant Before Or After Your Ovulation Period? You Can - Here"s Why