How much sex to conceive?

My husband and I decided to leave children up to God, so I went off the pill two months ago. I was a little sad when it didn't instantly read "pregnant." I figure part of it is my body is all screwy now that I'm off the pill. Now, I'm averaging a 2.5 week cycle (I'm hoping this one is longer). But I also wonder if we're not having enough sex. I used to teach biology so I rely heavily on my knowledge of the cycle and when you're ovulating...and we have sex maybe 3-4 times that week (well before and well after when I should ovulate). Now we're trying to have sex at least every other day. Is this enough? Too little?

When you conceive, how much sex are you having?

Are we not really "trying hard enough?"

For me my pregnancy was unplanned.  It only took one little mistake and here I am, now pregnant.  It seems to me that the people who don't want to get pregnant are the people who get pregnant the easiest.  The people who want to get pregnant always seem to have a difficult time with it.  I don't get it, it is just so unfair!

What type of pill were you on? If it was the type that makes you not ovulate (blanking on the name), it might be that your body hasn't gotten back to normal yet.  A 2.5 week cycle seems really short to ovulate considering ovulation occurs 2 weeks before the onset of menses. 

I do research about the menstrual cycle and we can only include women with 'normal menstrual cycles' who are not on hormones.  Under this definition we only enroll women if they have been off hormones for three months because that's usually how long it takes for things to get back to normal.  

So maybe next month is the month! 

The longer u were on the pill the longer it takes for cycle to have some sort of regularity.  Can take up to and longer then 6 months.  Dont stress too much right now as still too early to worry about it.  As for the sex stuff 3 days before ovulation and 3 days after is what I always read.  so the 7 days around ovulation everyday for whoopie.

I have been pregnant 4 times and my husband and I had the easiest time when we went for every other day during ovulation rather than every day.  You defintely need to figure out when you are ovulating, you can use a predictor kit for this if you are irregular.  Then have sex every other day starting three days before until three days after.  The reason every day is not as effective is it takes his body 24 hours to make a fresh supply of little guys.  Good Luck, I would expect to wait about 6 months for a positive.

Heaven knows why i'm in this forum lol!

Back to the point. I too have a short cycle and as another poster mentioned, conception happens around 15 before the period. You have to try around day 7 of the cycle.

This happened to me and was picked up during fertillity tests. I had treatment to improve ovulation and gave up because of the way it made me feel.

Two months later a pregnancy after four years. I lost that one at 12 weeks and conceived just a few weeks later. Elisha is now 10!

Give it a go and around the time your period finishes. Worked for me!

elttiks

When we concieved DD We were having sex everyother day!

I highly recommand http://www.fertilityfriend.com/ Great website!!

Thanks everyone...its great to hear that there sometimes is some adjustment from going off the pill. Unlike my sister who just missed the half of one month's cycle of pillls and she was preggo.

So sex every other day?

 My husband should be happy. I had this image that people were having sex like two times a day. I see that in the tv shows where people are rushing home during lunchtime to get one in.

When we conceived our son, I looked at every online ovulation calculator to figure out a week-long timeframe of when I'd be ovulating.  Some sites narrow it down to the three days you're most likely ovulating.  Anyway, the plan was to do it once a day for that week.  On the day I was allegedly most fertile, we ended up not having sex, and I was so upset that I'd missed the perfect day.  Well, apparently one of the early days worked. ;) 

This time, we weren't even trying, so I have no idea how it happened.  Well....you know what I mean. ;)

Hello. Well i didn't plan my pregnancy. I was 24. Newly married, we had sex like 5 times a day sometimes and almost everyday and 3 months later i was pregnant. I didn't even let him ejaculate in me, i even told the dr. that and he said i got pregnant by pre-****. So maybe you just have to have sex more and not only once every other day. But maybe it takes longer after u go on the pill to get pregnant again. I know my friend she just took her IUD off and a month later she was pregnant.

 

So good luck. I hope you get pregnant soon.

 

Lucy 

Two months ago I spoke with my doctor about family planning.  I was told that it can take 6-8 weeks for a woman's cycle to regulate itself after going off the pill.  During that time, monitor how often you have your cycle, and if it is not regular, then thyroid tests should be performed to even see if you are ovulating.  Your doctor should be able to give you suggestions as to how often you should be having sex, what time of day, which weeks are better for conception, etc. 

use a basal thermometer. i'm sure there there are site that can explain all the details. i don't know much about it except that it'll let you know when you're ovulating.

once ;-)

I will absolutely recommend the book called Taking Charge of Your Fertility.  It opened my eyes to ways to predict ovulation (especially if you are not having the typical 28 day cycle..which I wasn't).  Helps you chart your basal tempature and cervical fluid.  I have been off BC for about 4 months and will hopefully be a little more successful this month after reading the book!  They say give it at least 2 months to let your body adjust and to have sex just once a day or every other day to let the little guys recharge.

 Check out the book, i think it will help put your mind at ease.

 And most importantly (and hardest to follow)...relax and don't stress.  :)

So this is my experience, not sure if it will help.  I got off the pill back in November and I had the worst PMS of my entire life the next month....i mean horrible. ( I think your body needs to get back to normal and get all the Pill changes out!) 

Then I started charting temperatures for the next 3 months.  I could not make any sense out of the numbers despite being meticulous. The temperatures were all over the map. So I bought the ClearBlue Easy ovulation predictor...and even though I have a 28 day cycle, which typically means ovulation from day 12-14, I ovulated on day 18-19 this month!!! So the previous months, I have been mis-calculation my ovulation.  

I'm not pregnant yet (or maybe? need to wait a bit longer) but I hope this helps give you some guidance.