The fertile window is a period of about 5-7 days where you're most likely to fall pregnant if you have intercourse with your partner. For conception to occur, the egg needs to be available in your fallopian tube for sperm to find and fertilise. Sperm can survive for around 5 days as they wait for the egg to be released, and an egg remains viable for fertilisation for about 24 hours after ovulation. This means the fertile window covers the 5 or so days leading up to ovulation, ovulation day itself, and the day just after.
We recommend that couples time their intercourse every second day during the fertile window.
Also known as timed intercourse, cycle monitoring is an approach to maximising your chances of natural conception through ultrasound scans and blood and urine tests to accurately identify when you can expect to ovulate. There are home ovulation tests available commercially to help give you an idea of when ovulation occurs in your cycle, but these are not as accurate as clinical monitoring, which can give you additional detail such as the state of your ovary follicle development.
If her period arrives at roughly the same time every month, it is highly likely that she is ovulating. Ovulation normally occurs 14 days before the next expected period. Increased clear vaginal discharge at the time of ovulation and period pains starting on the first day of bleeding are also associated with ovulatory cycles.
The most fertile time for a woman is 14 to 16 days before the next expected period. For example, between day 12 and day 14 of a 28-day cycle.
