When should you start worrying and seek medical advice?
If you have been having sexual intercourse two or three times a week at about the time of ovulation, without any form of birth control for a year or more and are not pregnant, you meet the definition of being infertile. Pregnancy may still occur spontaneously, but from a statistical point of view, the chances are decreasing and you may now want to start thinking about seeking medical help. There is no “right” time to do so – and if it is causing you anxiety and worry, then you should consult a doctor. Even though you may be embarrassed and feel that you are the only ones in the world with the problem, you are not alone.
Many couples experience infertility and many can be helped. Unfortunately, while infertility is always an important problem, it is usually never an urgent one. This often means that couples keep on putting off going to the doctor. “We’ll take care of it next month”. Tragically, many find that time flies, and before they realize it, their chances of getting pregnant have started to decline, even before they have had a chance to take treatment properly.
Set your priorities, so that you have peace of mind that you tried your best. After all, if you don’t take care of your own infertility problem, who will ? Kicking yourself when you are 50 years old for failing to take treatment when you were younger will not help. Remember that everything in life comes back, except for time!
The Ogino-Knaus method
This method is based on the 1930s theories of Drs. Ogino and Knaus and it is also referred to as the “Ogino-Knaus” or the “rhythm” method.
With the Calendar method you attempt to calculate the start and the end of your fertile period, by tracking the length of your past menstrual cycles. The length of the past menstrual cycles is the indirect fertility indicator. This method is based on the 1930s theories of Drs. Ogino and Knaus and it is also referred to as the “Ogino-Knaus” or the “rhythm” method.
The Standard Days Method (SDM) is a new and simplified Calendar-based method. Instead of observing and tracking the length of your menstrual cycles, you assume that there’s a fixed period of fertility (“standard rule”) from Day 8 to Day 19 of your cycle (regardless of the length of your cycle). Thus, you abstain (or use a barrier method) during that interval.
What are the chances of a normal fertile couple conceiving in one month?
Before worrying, remember that in a single menstrual cycle, the chance of a perfectly normal couple achieving a successful pregnancy is only about 25%, even if they have sex every single day. This is called their fecundity which describes their fertility potential. Humans are not very efficient at producing babies!
There are many reasons for this, including the fact that some eggs don’t fertilize and that some of the fertilized eggs ( embryos) don’t grow well in the early developmental stage because of a random genetic error.Getting pregnant is a game of odds – it’s a bit like playing Russian Roulette and it’s impossible to predict when an individual couple will get pregnant! However, over a period of a year, the chance of a successful pregnancy is between 80 and 90%, so that 7 out of 8 couples will be pregnant within a year. These are the normal “fertile” couples – and the rest are “labeled” infertile – the medical text book definition of infertility being the inability to conceive even after trying for a year.