Sex at the Right Time

Q. How often should a couple have sex when they’re trying to conceive?

A. The usual recommendation is to have intercourse every other day beginning around four or five days before ovulation. By the day after ovulation, it’s already too late. The reason we don’t recommend having sex every day for conception is that it takes one or two days for a man’s sperm count to recover after ejaculation. So the average guy does fine with having sex every other day. Since sperm can survive in the cervical mucus of the female reproductive tract for several days (in fact, the longest documented survival is five days), having sex every other day starting a few days before ovulation should ensure that there is live sperm ready to fertilize the egg when it’s released.

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