Westglen Medical Centre | 108 – 30 Springborough Blvd SW, Calgary, AB, T3H 0N9 | Hours |Call: 403-240-2221

Achieving Pregnancy Using Primary Care Interventions to Identify the Fertile Window

By Dr. Thomas Bouchard

For those interested in an article I wrote on optimizing fertility naturally, the link is here

 

Screen Capture Jul 23 2 02 PM

Objective: To determine the effectiveness of achieving pregnancy with focused intercourse in the fertile window identified using natural fertility indicators.

Methods: 24-cycle prospective effectiveness study.

Setting: A North American web-based fertility monitoring service.

Participants: 256 North American women aged 20–43 (mean age 29.2 years) seeking to achieve pregnancy.

Intervention: Participants identified their fertile window with either electronic hormonal fertility monitoring or cervical mucus monitoring, or both, and recorded their observations on an online fertility tracking system.

Main outcome measures: Pregnancies were validated by nurses with an online self-assessed pregnancy evaluation form. Survival analysis was used to determine pregnancy rates.

Results: There were 150 pregnancies among the 256 participants with an overall pregnancy rate of 78 per 100 women over 12 menstrual cycles. There were 54 pregnancies (68%) among the 80 women using the fertility monitor, 11 pregnancies (46%) among the 24 women using mucus monitoring, and 90 (63%) among the 143 women using both mucus and monitor. The 12-cycle pregnancy rates per 100 women were 83 (monitor group), 72 (mucus group), and 75 (mucus and monitor group). Pregnancy rates reached 100% at 24 cycles of use for those women using the hormonal fertility monitor.

Conclusion: Use of the hormonal fertility monitor alone seems to offer the best natural estimate of the fertile phase of the menstrual cycle for women wishing to achieve a pregnancy. Focusing intercourse through 24 menstrual cycles can be beneficial for achieving pregnancy.

 
Key Points
• Instead of having a waiting period, primary care providers can begin by addressing common primary care concerns to optimize fertility naturally (1) (see Table 1).

• One tool that primary care providers can recommend is the use of a hormonal fertility monitor for 12–24 months to assist couples to achieve pregnancy by focusing intercourse in the fertile window.

Ask Dr. Bouchard

Please feel free to send me a secure message, or book an in-person or video appointment anytime.

I'm always here to help.