Average Time to Conceive

For couples trying to have a baby, waiting for the average time to conceive can seem to take forever. In some cases, a couple may need help from a fertility clinic to expand their family.

It can seem to take forever when you are trying to conceive

When you are trying to conceive, it’s hard not to compare yourself to other women who conceived quickly. There really is no such thing as an average time to conceive. Some women conceive right away, some take up to a year, and others conceive when they are not even trying. If you are one of the women who take longer to to conceive, it probably seems like everyone else is getting pregnant before you, but there are a lot of things that can affect fertility and your ability to conceive.

When you consider that most women only have about a 24-hour window in which to get pregnant each month, it’s surprising that the world’s population is so big. There are a lot of things that have to line up just right-—including sperm mobility, timed intercourse, and the woman’s overall health-—to achieve a pregnancy.

The following are just a few of the things that can determine whether or not you will conceive quickly:

Understanding when you ovulate-—14 days after your period for most women-—is a crucial piece to achieving a pregnancy. Many women chart their monthly cycles and keep track of their basal body temperature so they know just when to plan intercourse.

Certain medication can affect your ability to conceive, even medications that you are no longer taking. Women who stop taking the birth control pill or shots often find that it takes a while for their cycles to return to normal. This can make it harder for you to conceive right away, but you should be back on track in a few months.

Although most women ovulate around day 14 of their cycle, this isn’t carved in stone. You may ovulate at day 12 or day 16, depending on your body. In fact, a woman could ovulate every month on day 14 but then unexpectedly ovulate off-schedule. There are many things that can affect ovulation, so if you think it’s taking more than the average time to conceive, you might consider using ovulation predictors.

The health of a potential mom-to-be can have a huge impact on her ability to conceive. Being overweight, stressed, chronically ill, or malnourished can all make it difficult to get pregnant. Drinking too much alcohol, smoking, and taking drugs also has harmful effects on an unborn child as well as the mom. Women who are planning to conceive should consider making an appointment with their OB/Gyn to go over any lifestyle changes they can make to increase their chances of conception.

Women under 35 who have been trying to conceive for more than a year without success should contact their gynecologist as there may be an infertility issue preventing conception. Your doctor may refer you to a fertility specialist or he may put you on a fertility medication like Clomid. If treatment with medication fails, you may need to consider using a form of assisted reproduction like IVF or intrauterine insemination. Women over 35 should contact their doctor if they have been unable to conceive after six months of trying.

Although many people consider infertility to be a female-based problem, recent studies show that men are just as likely as women to have issues with fertility. Low sperm count and motility are both common problems causing infertility. For this reason, it’s important that both the man and woman see a doctor and get tested for infertility.

If you are worried about the average time to conceive, the first thing you need to do is relax. Chances are, you will get pregnant in time. But comparing yourself to others and worrying about why you haven’t conceived yet puts too much pressure on yourself and your partner to fit unrealistic expectations. If there is a medical reason preventing you from conceiving, modern medicine makes it possible to still conceive the baby of your dreams, but no one can tell you how long that will take to achieve.

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