We include products we think are useful for our readers. If you buy through links on this page, we may earn a small commission. Getting pregnant may seem like a rather mystical process. Once you learn the science and timing, it makes a bit more sense. Still, you may wonder how long it takes to actually conceive after having sex. The short answer is that the egg and sperm can meet within minutes to up to 12 hours after ejaculation.

When trying to conceive, timing sex correctly is critical -- your fertile window lends you the highest chance of conceiving. While infertility may be related to symptoms such as irregular periods, many causes of infertility are present without clear indicators. Below are some of the most common causes of infertility. If you are relying on apps or waiting to have intercourse when you get an LH-surge, you may actually be missing your fertile window. Apps can only estimate when you ovulate based on historical data, like start and end dates of prior periods, but this cannot account for what is actually happening inside your body on any given day. Even for those with cycles that are considered regular, some variation is expected from cycle to cycle 2 , and ovulation may occur sooner or later than an app or ovulation calculator predicts. Although LH- sticks to predict ovulation are found to be highly accurate, it is possible to miss the fertile window for a couple of reasons.

This ovulation calculator allows you to find out when you'll be most fertile, and what your due date would be if you got pregnant on these dates. Are you ready to conceive? Take our quick quiz to find out. For the best chance of getting pregnant, you need to maximise the chance of your fertile egg and your partner's sperm getting together. You can only get pregnant on the few days each cycle around ovulation, when an egg is released.

Get to know each phase of your cycle to get pregnant faster. To hit the baby-making bullseye, you've got to aim for certain sweet spots of fertility in your cycle. In essence, menstruation is the monthly shedding of the endometrium, the inner membrane of the uterus.