Ovulation in 3 days chance to get pregnant

The 5 days before ovulation, together with the day you ovulate, are the days when you are most likely to conceive. Sperm can live up to 5 days inside your body, so if you have sex up to 5 days before your egg is released, you can get pregnant. After ovulation, though, your egg can only live for 12 to 24 hours. After this time is up, your time for getting pregnant has gone for now till the following month.

Your chances of getting pregnant are at their highest in the 3 days leading up to and including ovulation.

Predicting ovulation

Ovulation usually happens about halfway through your menstrual cycle, about 14 days before the first day of your next period, but the exact time can vary. Although signs that you are about to ovulate can be subtle, there are some things you can pay attention to and track over time to help you predict your fertile window.

Changes in mucus

Noticing how your vaginal secretions change during your menstrual cycle is the basis of the Billings ovulation method. Around the time of ovulation, you may notice your secretion is clear, stretchy and slippery — similar to egg whites. After ovulation, when the chances of becoming pregnant drop, the secretion tends to become cloudy and thick, or disappear entirely.

Changes in body temperature

When you’ve just ovulated, your body temperature may increase very slightly, by about half a degree Celsius. If you’re using temperature as a means of keeping track of when you are most fertile, you need to use a special thermometer to take your temperature every morning before you get out of bed. If you record the readings every day using a graph or a spreadsheet, it’s possible to learn your pattern over time. The time when you are most fertile is 2 to 3 days before the rise in temperature.

Other signs

There may be other signs that you are near the time of ovulation, such as mild abdominal cramps, breast tenderness or increased sex drive. However, using these signs to predict when you’re fertile is not the most reliable method.

Using ovulation calculators and kits

Ovulation calendars and kits can also help you predict ovulation.

Ovulation calendars are available on websites such as www.yourfertility.org.au, and use the date of your last period and the length of your cycle to predict when you are likely to be most fertile.

Home ovulation predictor kits are available from pharmacies. You use the kit a few days before your predicted ovulation day, to test for a rise in the level of a hormone called luteinising hormone (LH) in your urine. A positive result indicates you will ovulate within the next 24 to 36 hours.

A blood test, which your doctor can order, can also detect ovulation by measuring levels of the hormone progesterone.

If you are trying to get pregnant, there are also a number of other things you should consider, such as taking folate, maintaining a healthy diet and making sure your vaccinations are up to date.

Yes, you can get pregnant after ovulation, as long as you have sex within about 12 to 24 hours of when an egg was released. The fertile window can last 5 to 6 days, from the 5 days before ovulation to the day of ovulation. Your chance of getting pregnant after ovulation is small. One older study found that the odds of conception one day past ovulation are between 0% and 11% (and no other evidence has come along to contradict this).

But don’t let those odds stop you from having sex! There are a few reasons to have baby-making sex even if you think you already ovulated. First, you may be mistaken about your exact day of ovulation. And second, sex after fertilization may boost your odds of pregnancy.

The Fertile Window

Ideally, if you want to get pregnant, you need to have sex before you ovulate. If you thought sex needs to come after ovulation, you’re not alone. Many people don’t realize that the best time to have sex to get pregnant is before, not after, ovulation.

Sperm can live for a few days in your cervix and fallopian tubes, but an egg must be fertilized soon after it's released. So your odds are better if sperm are ready and waiting for an egg they can fertilize, rather than the other way around.

There have been several research studies on the odds of conception at various stages of the menstrual cycle. These agree that the best odds of conception are the day before and the day of ovulation. But it's not 100% clear how likely you are to conceive once ovulation has passed.

Based on older research, your odds of getting pregnant from having intercourse once may be anywhere in these ranges:

• One day before ovulation: 21% to 35%
• On ovulation day: 10% to 33%
• One day past ovulation (1DPO): 0% to 11%
• Two days past ovulation (2DPO): 0% to 9%

A more recent study that looked at the probability of pregnancy from intercourse throughout the menstrual cycle found the highest probability on day 13 (one day before ovulation) in people with regular cycles.

These numbers assume that you have sex just once during your fertile window. If you have sex before you ovulate and the day after, your odds will be significantly different (better!) than if you have sex only after you ovulated.

How Often Do You Need to Have Sex to Conceive?

How Long After Ovulation Can You Conceive?

For you to get pregnant, you egg needs to be fertilized while its still viable. This window of time is 12 to 24 hours after ovulation.

Remember that ovulation test sticks turn positive when you are about to ovulate. A positive result means you're likely to ovulate within 24 to 36 hours. You can't confirm exactly when ovulation occurs with these tests, so don't count you egg out after you see a positive. Assume you're fertile 72 hours after your positive.

To pinpoint ovulation, you would need to chart your basal body temperature daily and check for a spike in temperature. The spike indicates that ovulation has already happened. Once you see the spike, you can consider yourself fertile for 24 hours.

Fertilization is only the first step in what could be a successful pregnancy. As anyone who has gone through in vitro fertilization (IVF) can tell you, having an embryo (which is a fertilized egg) doesn't guarantee a pregnancy. You're not considered pregnant until the embryo implants itself into the uterine lining.

Embryo implantation takes place between 5 and 10 days after ovulation. It usually takes another several days before you will get a positive result on a pregnancy test.

Ovulation Day Errors

Keep in mind that ovulation day errors can occur. You may be wrong about when you ovulated. Most methods of ovulation prediction aren’t perfect. So even if you think you've already ovulated, and missed your fertile window, you may still be in that window. It doesn't hurt to try!

There are many ways to detect your most fertile time, including:

• Body basal temperature charting
• Tracking cervical mucus changes
• Using an ovulation predictor test
• Using a wearable fertility monitor

It may be a good idea to use a combination of methods so that you can better pinpoint your fertile window. For example, if you see fertile cervical mucus and you're ovulation predictor test is positive, you can be more confident that now's the time.

You can also cover your bases by starting to have sex every day or two from the last day of your period to a day or two after your basal body temperature rises. There's no harm in having frequent sex all month either, and it might even help with sperm quality.

Body basal temperature (BBT) charting is often considered to be the most accurate, but it can be prone to errors in recording and interpretation. According to one study, BBT charting predicted the day of ovulation correctly only 22% of the time.

If you are trying to pinpoint ovulation day by measuring urinary levels of the hormone LH (like you do with an ovulation predictor test), the results can be quite accurate (over 90%). But you do have to keep purchasing kits and/or test strips.

8 Signs of Ovulation That Help Detect Your Most Fertile Time

Sex After Ovulation May Help With Implantation

There’s another reason to have sex even if you’ve already ovulated: It may improve your odds of implantation. An older study looked at the effect sexual intercourse has on pregnancy success and IVF. In this study, one group of couples had sexual intercourse around the time of embryo transfer. The other group abstained from sex.

The initial pregnancy rates between the groups were not that different. However, the number of people who were still pregnant at 6 to 8 weeks was significant.

Of the group that had sex around the time of embryo transfer, 11.01% were still pregnant at 6 to 8 weeks. As for those who did not have sex around embryo transfer, only 7.69% were still pregnant at 6 to 8 weeks. The theory is that semen may play a role in embryo health and development.

While more recent research has failed to find evidence of this effect, a 2020 study reported that having sex around the time of implantation (in people not undergoing fertility treatments) doesn't increase or decrease the likelihood of implantation and successful pregnancy. This suggests that having sex post-ovulation is unlikely to harm the chances of implantation.

A Word From Verywell

When you're trying to get pregnant, it can be tempting to worry about whether you're having sex "at the right time." While there are particular days when you're more likely to conceive, sex shouldn't only be about baby-making.

That said, if your only chance to have sex happens to fall after ovulation, it's natural to wonder if it counts. Whether you think you’ve already ovulated or not, have sex. You may have miscalculated and think you ovulated already when you haven't... or, even if you already ovulated, it's possible sex after ovulation could help along an embryo. 

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