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Our last blog covered the basics of fertility and gave some insight into why it’s so natural for us to wonder if we are fertile before we’re even ready to start a family. This blog is the second of a four-part series where we explore everything you’ve always wondered about your fertility.
This series includes:
So we’ve established how normal it is to want a definitive answer regarding your fertility; now, you are wondering how to get that answer. Read on for your options.
Traditionally, fertility testing was performed only inside doctors’ offices. It was expensive, time-consuming, and ultimately up to your doctor to decide whether he wanted to run the tests for you at all. Many traditional doctor offices won’t even consider scheduling an appointment for fertility testing until you have tried to conceive for at least a year. That can be frustrating for proactive couples who are eager to find out if there will be any hiccups beforehand.
Suppose you find a doctor that agrees to see you. In that case, you must undergo invasive medical and sexual history evaluations, which help to determine if there are lifestyle changes that could improve fertility. Next, a host of intrusive tests may be run, which can include:
No reasonable person would put themselves through that painstaking process if they didn’t have to. Luckily, with new technological advances in fertility testing, there are new ways to circumvent the costly, time-consuming traditional testing methods. Today, we have the ability to test your fertility at home. That means you can get a definitive answer regarding your fertility in a matter of hours, rather than years.
The basic method of testing your fertility at home involves taking a good look at specific reproductive hormones. Certain hormones indicate signs of fertility. Even over-the-counter ovulation strips work by measuring the luteinizing hormone (LH) in your urine, a hormone that spikes with ovulation. Here are a few of those hormones and their roles in female fertility:
For men, fertility can be measured in multiple ways. A semen analysis can check the health and abundance of sperm. Otherwise, men’s hormones, such as testosterone, can also be tested. Blood or urine samples are commonly used in at-home fertility testing.
Women who are curious about their fertility have a range of testing options for at-home use. The first that we’ll talk about is by using at-home ovulation predictor kits (OPKs). It works similarly to pregnancy tests, requiring a woman to pee on a test strip. You can buy these over the counter at most drugstores.
With ovulation test kits, you’ll need to keep track of your menstrual cycle so that you’re only using up your strips during the week you’re most likely to ovulate. This method can take a few months to determine whether you are ovulating regularly and is not always definitive or accurate in determining your fertility.
Couples who are looking for a more immediate answer about whether they are fertile have another option. It’s called at-home fertility testing. This testing is widely available online, can be ordered by a doctor, and shipped directly to your home. Most at-home test kits include the items that you’ll need to collect a blood or urine sample. For men, there are also kits to collect semen at home for analysis which can indicate sperm count, volume, movement, and shape.
Once you’ve collected the sample with your at-home fertility test kit, you’ll ship it back to a lab for analysis. The results will be shared with you shortly thereafter. With so many options available on the market, it can be difficult to pick the right fertility test kit. My Virtual Physician has partnered with Orchid to provide professional-grade at-home fertility testing to our patients. Once you’ve completed your testing, our online OBGYNs will be available to review your results and make a game plan to enhance your fertility if you have any abnormalities.
Fertility testing has gotten an overhaul in recent years. Now, understanding your fertility and getting early fertility testing is a real possibility that is readily accessible for all. If you’re ready to order your at-home fertility test, reach out to us today and schedule your appointment.
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Once you’ve sent your test kit into the lab, you may be wondering what kind of results to expect. Our next article busts through any confusion by breaking down how to read your fertility test results.
Listen to your instincts; we all have them. Without them, we likely wouldn’t have made it this far as a species on this planet. Survival instincts protect you from pain and danger, while reproductive instincts encourage procreation–ensuring the long-term survival of humans. It’s the natural cycle of life; primitive instincts drive the survival of the human species. That’s why you’ve always been curious about your fertility. This blog is part of a four-part series where we explore everything you’ve always wondered about your fertility.
This series includes:
Fertility is your natural ability to reproduce; in other words, to conceive and give birth to new life. In its basic form, fertility is the ability to have sex that results in the uniting of sperm and egg, brought to fruition as a newborn child. It’s a natural instinct to have the desire to reproduce, just like it’s a natural instinct to eat food to survive. That’s why it can be so devastating when you are unable to get pregnant.
When you consider all of the factors required to produce new life, it’s a miracle that couples are able to become pregnant at all. Both parties play a role in fertility. You cannot conceive if one of the two is not fertile.
For a woman to be fertile, that means her body has to:
For a man to be fertile, his body has to:
To complicate matters even further, you may have heard that you’re only fertile during certain times of the month. That’s true for women, who comprise half (or arguably more than half) of the equation. A woman’s body is only fertile during ovulation, when the egg is released into the fallopian tube, awaiting fertilization. This period is called the fertile window.
To increase your chance of conceiving, it’s best to have sperm waiting in the fallopian tube before ovulation happens. There’s only a brief period of 12 to 24 hours from the time the egg is released for it to unite with sperm. Since sperm can live for up to five days inside a woman’s reproductive system, that leaves you a fertile window just short of a week.
There are about six days each month that a woman’s body is most fertile. Your body works in cycles, so your ovulation takes place on a cyclical basis. For most women, the entire menstrual cycle takes 28 days to complete–from the first day of each period to the next. Ovulation calculators can help you determine which days you’re most fertile each month and can be adjusted based on your average cycle length. It works like this:
Related: Natural Birth Control: Fertility Awareness
As you can see, fertility is complicated. There’s a multitude of factors that must align in order for conception to happen. So, if you’ve struggled to get pregnant as quickly as you had hoped, you’re not alone. Or maybe you haven’t tried, but are a little surprised that you haven’t had an unplanned pregnancy by this point in your life–leaving you wondering if you’re infertile after all. Should you be worried when the time comes to try? Are there things you can do to be proactive in your fertility? These are all valid questions.
Even if you have no signs or risk factors for infertility now, you might still be curious. Nearly 20 women out of 100 women without children continue to see negative pregnancy test results after a full year of unprotected sex. Sadly, infertility is a common problem for couples. Some factors can increase your risk of infertility, validating your need to find out now whether you are fertile. Some risk factors for infertility include:
Whether you have any of these risk factors or not, you still want to know more about your fertility. The good news is, there’s a way to find out. You can skip the one-year wait that most doctors will require with Orchid at-home fertility testing.
Your curiosity about your fertility is healthy; it’s instinctive. You can ease your mind today with at-home fertility testing, which can give you definitive answers about the mystery of your fertility. My Virtual Physician has partnered with Orchid to provide professional-grade at-home fertility testing to our patients. Our next article will cover how to test your fertility at home.
