A study finds that one in every eight couples will likely have some difficulty conceiving. Infertility can be a result of a number of environmental and genetic factors, but there are a lot of moving parts – literally – involved in getting pregnant.
While some of the factors, like timing, are out of control of individuals, reproductive and sexual experts share a few tricks to help couple boost odds of getting pregnant.
Keep sex sexy
The problem with having sex to have a baby is that it's not very sexy, according to Dr Sheryl Kingsberg, a psychologist who specializes in sex and reproductive therapy at University Hospitals in Ohio. She says that sexual procreation is really bad for sex and could kill a couple’s romance. They need to focus on the pleasure not pressure to conceive.
While the direct relationship between stress and fertility has not been clearly defined by research, most experts suggest the being tense doesn't help matters, and it stands to reason.
Stress influences female hormones in ways that can impair ovulation, the period during which a woman's body deposits an egg in her uterus to be fertilized.
Sex twice in an hour could as much as triple the odds, not if you do it every day
A 2015 study found signs that if a man can go for round two within an hour, it might as much as triple the odds that he and his partner conceive a baby and the UK research also found that a woman's chances of getting pregnant went from six to 21 percent when a sample of her partner's second ejaculate in an hour was used for artificial insemination.
Studies also show that if a man has had sex in the last two days, his sperm count will be lower. But if he waits more than seven days, a lot of the sperm will be dead. From the research, it is clear that the second ejaculate is the one that carries the healthier sperm that have high motility.
Foreplay, sex for its own sake and cuddling could help make baby
Fertility can be a little challenging. Men feel like they have to perform, that causes stress, and that can cause problems with erections. So while it may be helpful to have sex twice in a row, most experts say to only make attempts every other day, during a woman's ovulation period, and though too just for the sheer romance of it.
Dr Kingsberg as well as her colleague Dr Brooke Rossi, an endocrinologist at her hospital, say they have noticed that when couples do IVF treatments, which don't require any sex, their patients' sex lives improve.
Some theories suggest that certain positions might tilt the uterus in a direction that makes it easier for sperm to swim to their target, but there isn't really any scientific evidence to prove that.
