Fertility and Infertility

Most healthy, fertile couples become pregnant within the first 12 months of trying. Every month that a couple is trying to become pregnant there is about a 20% chance of a pregnancy. Women over 35 can take up to twice as long to become pregnant. You can increase your chance of becoming pregnant by having unprotected vaginal sex about three times a week before and at ovulation (the time when you are most fertile and an egg is released from your ovaries). For more information on when to have sex, see our fact sheet on maximizing natural fertility. See your doctor for advice if you have not become pregnant after trying for 12 months (or 6 months if you are over 35 years of age).

Today people often leave plans for pregnancy until later in their adult lives. This is different to previous generations. Women are naturally more fertile in their 20s than their 30s but women are more often having children when they are aged 30-34 years old. Media reports of female celebritieswho get pregnant in their 40s or later can lead people to think that getting pregnant later in life is easy. In real life it can be difficult.

Fertility is your natural ability to have a child. Infertility is when a couple has had regular unprotected intercourse for a year but have not become pregnant. For a woman to become pregnant, a man's sperm needs to meet with a woman's egg. The fertilised egg then implants in the lining of the woman's uterus and starts to grow into a baby.