Debunking fertility myths

The miracle of conceiving a child it’s mind blowing to me, not only because it took me so long to have one, but to think of how many different aspects are involved.
And how many must happen sequentially following pretty rigorous criteria.
Cycle, ovulation, hormones, fecundation, implantation… it’s like a complex machinery that must be perfectly tuned to function properly.
How many women take the pregnancy for granted? Probably most of them don’t even realize how traumatic could it be not to be able to conceive.

I was thinking about how many things I did not know and it cost me so many years of not having a baby in my arms.
If we are to put together the fertility myths, I guess it’s not an easy task.
Let’s try to browse the most popular ones:

1. A normal menstrual cycle is 28 days.
Not quite right; it can be normal and still be anywhere between 24 and 36 days. Probably the myth generated from the birth control pills, that are designed to modify the hormones as to make the cycle a ‘perfect’ 28 days.

2. Women can get pregnant only one day per cycle
Actually the reality is that the egg lives for 12-24 hours, that may be the misconception. But a women may get pregnant from intercourse occurring five days prior to ovulation or even 2 days past the ovulation.

3. Orgasms may cause the spontaneous release of the egg
It’s a progressive increase of estrogen over a few days period of time the cause for egg release.

4. Sperm can only live up to three days
Sperm can survive five days (some studies even suggest seven days) inside women’s reproductive tract.

5. Infertility is a female problem
The truth? Is equal to male problem, standing at 40 per cent each. The rest of 20 per cent is a common problem. That would be the worst case.

6. Fertility is related to sexuality
It’s not. There are two different characteristics, not related to each other.

7. Ovulation occurs on day 14 of the cycle
That is in relation to the normal menstrual cycle being 28 days probably. This is a dangerous myth because it can cause unwanted pregnancies or induce extra stress while trying to conceive. Not only that, but there is another tool used by doctors to estimate the due date: the pregnancy wheel. Based on the pregnancy wheel, some other tests are scheduled, tests like amniocentesis, where it’s rather important to have an accurate estimate of how far the pregnancy is.