How to get pregnant with irregular periods

An irregular period is not uncommon among women. 14 to 25% of women experience irregular cycles at some point during their lives. Irregular periods can affect your chances of getting pregnant.

In fact, it is responsible for 30 to 40 per cent of cases of infertility in women. So for the aspiring mothers in that bracket, the idea is to know how to get pregnant fast with irregular periods.

Much of pregnancy is about timing, even for women with regular periods. Fertilization has to coincide with ovulation. When the egg is released from one of the ovaries, the process is called ovulation. It is during this time that the body prepares for a possible pregnancy. But if this time passes without fertilization, then the uterus will then shed and come out through the vagina. Hence the start of menstruation. Consequently, irregular periods reduces the occurrence of the above process, reducing the chances of getting pregnant.

Ovulation and irregular period: what are they? 

• Irregular periods: if your periods are always shorter than 21 days or always longer than 36 days, you’re having irregular periods. One way to know is that you can’t predict your next period with any degree of certainty.
• Ovulation: you are at your most fertile in the days leading up to your ovulation. Ovulation is when an egg is released from the ovary, awaiting fertilization.

Why is it difficult for women with irregular periods to get pregnant?

Every woman ovulates fourteen days before the next period comes around. For a woman with regular periods, she’ll ovulate on day 14 if she has a 28-day cycle. And if she has a 32-day cycle, she’ll ovulate on day 18. Unfortunately, for women who always have irregular periods, it not easy to pinpoint an ovulation day with any measure of certainty. This makes it harder to get pregnant because you don’t know when to count back 14 days from.

According to George Carson, a Regina-based OB/GYN, A woman ovulating with a 28-day cycle ovulates 13 times a year. So there are 13 times in which she can get pregnant and she can figure out when they are. But if she ovulates six times a year, right away it’s half as likely that she’ll get pregnant.”

Additionally, some women with irregular periods do not ovulate at all. They may bleed sometimes, but menstruation doesn’t follow after an egg is released. This is known as anovulatory.

How to get pregnant fast with irregular periods

Irregular periods disrupt your ability to become pregnant, but with the following tips you can get things back on track.

• Keep track of your ovulation

A menstrual calendar can help you keep track of your ovulation, which is your fertile window. The app is designed to let you put in sufficient information and symptoms that helps it calculate your cycle. Also, to predict your ovulation, you can look to your cervical mucus and temperature, using a basal body temperature thermometer. During ovulation, there’s an abundance of estrogen and progesterone, which brings about an increase in your body’s temperature. And the basal thermometer can detect small changes up to 1/100th of a degree.

• Have more sex

Sperm can stay in your body for up to six days. So typically, having more sex can help your chances of getting pregnant fast with irregular periods. The more sex you have, the more likely you are to catch your fertile days.

Additionally, to figure out when to have sex, you can use predictor kits to test your urine. This is possible because before ovulation women produce luteinizing hormones (LH). The hormones make the egg drop from the ovary.

• Eat well

If your periods are irregular, it is imperative to eat healthy and well balanced diet. Shun food with too much fat and carbohydrate. Also, stay away from processed and junk food, and instead eat more fruits, whole grains and vegetables.

• Keep an ideal weight

This concerns both overweight and underweight women. It is important to keep an ideal weight because weight problems can bring about an imbalance. And when there’s a hormonal imbalance it can cause irregular periods and disrupt ovulation. And as a woman with irregular periods who’d decided she wants to get pregnant, maintaining an ideal weight can help mend these imbalances. But if you’re having problems hitting the ideal weight, it could be a hormonal imbalance. So talk to your doctor.

• Reduce stress

Reducing stress can have a big impact if you’re trying to get pregnant fast with irregular periods. Anxiety and too much stress can delay your ovulation, affecting your chances of getting pregnant. Try to adopt some stress management techniques during your day, as trying to get pregnant actively can bring about its own stress.

Irregular periods are common and are sometimes caused by underlying problems. If your periods are irregular, visit your doctor for a diagnosis. You doctor will examine you, check your hormonal levels and also verify if there’s an overlooked problem.

This article was first published on AfricaParent.com