With regular, unprotected sexual intercourse 80 per cent of women become pregnant within a year.
Even so, fertility varies from person to person and up to 15 per cent of couples experience some difficulties.
Women who have more success getting pregnant generally:
- are younger – human fertility is highest in women aged between 18 and 32. By the age of 40, a woman has a 50 per cent chance of being infertile
- have sex more often – women who have sex every night conceive four times as quickly as those who have sex once a week
- have regular ovulation cycles – 28 days is the average, but the fertile cycle length may be between 23 and 35 days
- have been pregnant before – as with most things, if you've done it before you're more likely to do it again. And that goes for the man, too.
Related information
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