Whether you're trying to get pregnant or waiting a little longer, it’s good to know when you're fertile. Fortunately, there are several apps and tools available for this. You can also easily calculate your fertile period yourself.
Let’s first look at what is meant by fertility. In the dictionary, “fertile” is described as:
Fertile: capable of producing children.
The medical term for fertility is “fertility.”
Whether and on which days you are fertile depends on several factors and is different for everyone. For women, age plays a significant role. From the age of 30, fertility starts to decline, and so does the chance of getting pregnant.
To know when you are fertile, it’s important to understand how your cycle works. You can easily calculate this. Your cycle begins on the first day of your period and ends the day before your next period starts.
A regular cycle lasts 28 days. Ovulation (the release of an egg) occurs around the middle of your cycle. By subtracting fourteen days from the start day of your cycle, you can figure out when ovulation occurs. But be careful: with an irregular cycle, ovulation doesn’t always happen on the same day. This can make it tricky to calculate this with 100% accuracy.
With a regular cycle, you are usually fertile two to three days before ovulation. Sperm can survive in your body for several days. You are most fertile a few hours after ovulation. After that, fertility quickly decreases.
Some women can literally feel their ovulation. But that’s not the case for everyone. There are some symptoms that might help you recognize ovulation, including:
If you don’t have symptoms or can’t feel ovulation, that’s completely normal. If you still want to know when ovulation occurs, you can use an ovulation test.
An ovulation test is a urine test that measures the LH level in your urine. LH stands for “luteinizing hormone.” About two days before ovulation, your urine will contain high levels of this hormone, known as the LH surge.
To find out when ovulation actually occurs, you’ll need to do an ovulation test for several days in a row. Test twice a day and at the same times each day.
In addition to your fertility, your partner’s fertility also plays a role in getting pregnant. Age has less of an effect on male fertility compared to female fertility. However, the quality of sperm is important, including sperm count, motility (movement), and shape. Although sperm quality is mostly beyond control, there are factors that can help improve it:
You may wonder how soon you can become fertile and get pregnant after stopping contraception, after childbirth, or after a miscarriage.
Fertility after stopping contraception
It’s difficult to say when you’ll become fertile again after stopping contraception (pill, patch, ring, implant, injection, hormonal IUD). This varies greatly from person to person. Some women regain their normal cycle immediately, while for others, it can take up to a year. Your hormone balance can be disrupted by hormonal contraception like the pill, and it may take time for your natural menstrual cycle to return.
With a (copper) IUD, you are generally fertile again immediately after it is removed.
Fertility after childbirth
After childbirth, you can become fertile again quite quickly. If you are not breastfeeding, you may be fertile as soon as three weeks after birth. If you are breastfeeding, fertility is reduced, but pregnancy is still possible. If you don’t want to become pregnant again right away, use contraception.
Fertility after miscarriag
If you’ve had a miscarriage, that can be very emotional. It may take time for you to process this and decide to try to get pregnant again. Physically, this is usually possible quite quickly. Your body recovers rapidly after a miscarriage. Once the miscarriage bleeding has stopped, your normal cycle resumes, and you can become pregnant in the next fertile period.
How soon you become pregnant after a miscarriage is hard to predict, as it varies for every woman and depends on several factors. The most important thing is to only try again when you and your partner feel ready. Good mental health is important for a healthy pregnancy.
Are you trying to get pregnant? In addition to calculating your fertile period, we also have some additional tips for you.