How Can I Improve My Odds of Conceiving?

If you’re trying to conceive, you know what it feels like to roll the dice. Every new cycle, every new appointment, and every new procedure can feel like you’re gambling or taking a shot in the dark.

Even for couples without diagnosed fertility issues, the chances of conceiving in a single cycle are less than ideal. In her 20s, the average woman has about a 25 percent chance of getting pregnant each menstrual cycle. After 30, the chance of conceiving is around 15 percent, and by the time a woman reaches her 40s, the chance drops to less than 5 percent.

While most of us wouldn’t walk into a casino to place a bet on a game we had little chance of winning, every couple that has had difficulty conceiving knows exactly what that feels like. In 2012, couples in the US rolled the dice on 140,000 IVF cycles. Even with the help of IVF—the world’s most effective treatment for infertility—the odds weren’t in their favor.

If a woman was less than 35, her chances of conceiving a baby with IVF were about 40 percent. For those over 35, the odds came out to about 30 percent. After 40, the chance of conceiving with IVF is only 10 percent or less.

The point of sharing this information isn’t to discourage you. I simply want to point out that there’s no surefire way to have a baby. No intervention—whether medical, lifestyle, herbal, dietary, energetic, spiritual, or whatever—can guarantee you a baby. In this sense, there’s no cure for infertility. All any system can do is help you stack the deck in your favor.

But that doesn't mean the journey is hopeless, or there's nothing that you can do.

Every action you take throughout the day—everything you eat or drink, how much you sleep, and the amount of daily stress you experience—affects your chance of conceiving one way or the other.

And that’s great news! That means that over time, a concerted effort to live well can absolutely, without a doubt, improve your chances of conceiving.

A few days or weeks of taking supplements and eating well isn’t going to cut it, however. You can’t game the system or trick your body into thinking it’s healthier than it is.

Improving your fertility prognosis through lifestyle changes requires an authentic approach to health and wellness sustained over time. You don’t need to be perfect tomorrow—or even three months from now, for that matter—but you do need to put in constant, steady effort if you want to see things change for the better.

So what can you do? Eat well. Play more. Laugh often. Drink water. Get enough sleep. Exercise right. Love better. Stress less. Imagine opportunity. For the majority of women, how you live your life will impact your ability to conceive.

Conceivable was designed to help you make informed decisions so that ultimately, you are empowered to make a difference in your own outcomes—to stack the deck in your favor, so to speak. We've helped lay out a plan to make sure that when you're ready to give conception your best shot, your best chance is waiting for you.

I encourage you to think of fertility wellness as an investment in yourself. Living well isn’t a sacrifice and it certainly isn’t a punishment. It’s an opportunity to live up to your potential. It’s an opportunity to be the fullest, most fertile you. Go ahead, take it.