What Does it Take to Get Pregnant?

Here’s a very brief overview of what needs to happen for a couple to conceive #naturally.

A woman’s reproductive system must produce the hormones that will result in ovulation. Ovulation is when an egg is released from one of the ovaries. This occurs once per month during a woman’s childbearing years.

A man’s reproductive system must be producing sperm cells in the testes. After puberty, new sperm cells are generated daily.

A couple must have sexual intercourse (or at the very least, semen must come in contact with the vaginal area) during the five to six days prior to ovulation.

During ejaculation, sperm in the vas deferens gets mixed together with semen created in the prostate and seminal vesicles. This mixture of sperm and semen is forced out from the penis by a series of muscular contractions.

After sexual intercourse, semen collects in the cervical area. Next, sperm cells must swim out from the semen and into the woman’s cervical mucus.

The sperm then must swim up through the cervical opening into the uterus. From the uterus, the sperm now swim to the fallopian tubes.

The strongest and healthiest sperm (a very small percentage of the total) will linger in the fallopian tubes until an egg comes along.

After an egg is released from one of the ovaries (ovulation), the egg is gently guided into the fallopian tubes.

In the fallopian tubes, one of the waiting sperm cells eventually burrows itself into the egg. This is the moment of fertilization.

After ovulation, the woman’s reproductive system releases a new cocktail of hormones that builds up the endometrium, or uterine lining.

The fertilized egg (or embryo) goes through a series of cell divisions.

As this is happening, the embryo continues to travel down the fallopian tube into the uterus.

Once the embryo reaches the uterus, it eventually implants itself into the uterine lining, or endometrium. This occurs about four to 10 days after fertilization.

After implantation, the embryo creates both fetal cells and placental cells. The hormone human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG), also called “the pregnancy hormone,” will begin to be produced.

About one week later, or approximately 14 days after ovulation, there is enough circulating hCG for a pregnancy test to give a positive result.

~Culled from VeryWellFamily.
Photo credit: MedicalNewsToday

Published by DR Babajide Alalade, babajidealalade.com