Home Fertility Fertile window length affects chances of pregnancy

Fertile window length affects chances of pregnancy

Catherine McDiarmid-Watt | Friday, June 15, 2007 | 0 comments

Studying whether the length of the fertile window in a menstrual cycle relates to the chances of pregnancy in subfertile couples.

MedWire News: Dutch researchers report that the length of the fertile window varies considerably among subfertile couples, and that it is closely related to the chance of an ongoing pregnancy.

Little is known about variations in the fertile window of a menstrual cycle, say M Keulers (Jeroen Bosch Hospital, 's-Hertogenbosch) and colleagues.

They examined the length of this window using ultrasonographically timed testing of the sperm-mucus interaction in 410 couples. The opening of the fertile window was defined as the first day of normal sperm-mucus interaction and its closure as the first day of ovulation.

The complete fertile window, determined in 212 couples, ranged from less than a day to more than 5 days, the team reports.

The fecundability ratio, which represents the relationship between fertile window length and time to ongoing pregnancy, ranged from 0.11 to 0.24 for these fertility window lengths, respectively.

Multivariable Cox analysis revealed that fertile window length was a strong determinant of the chance for spontaneous conception of an ongoing pregnancy in the next 12 months.

Keulers et al conclude: “The concept of the fertile window length merits evaluation for its potential as a fertility marker in other populations.”

Source: Human Reproduction 2007; 22: 1652-6

Pat, The Fertility Coach says...

This study looked at the fertile window length to see if there was a correlation between length of time a woman was fertile and her potential for pregnancy. They examined sub-fertile couples who were NOT undergoing treatments.... so natural pregnancy attempts. The fertile window is when your cervical mucous is receptive to sperm. If you are doing IUI or IVF then cervical mucous is not a factor as both those procedures bypasses the cervix. They found that women with longer fertile windows had a greater chance of pregnancy.

From: http://fertilityover40.com/Forums/FertilityOver40Forum/tabid/60/forumid/4/postid/34757/view/topic/Default.aspx

Category: Fertility

About Catherine: I am mom to three grown sons, two grandchildren and two rescue dogs. After years of raising my boys as a single mom, I remarried a wonderful man who had never had a child of his own. Unexpectedly, I found myself pregnant at 49!
Sadly we lost that precious baby at 8 weeks, and decided to try again. Five more losses, turned down for donor egg, foster care and adoption due to my age and losses - we have accepted that there will be no more babies in our house.

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