The January Non-News

Super-Secret Post
Originally composed end-of-January

Well, no April Fools psych for us this year. (Back at school I used to pull big whoppers every year, so I was thinking if we could announce it could be late on the 31st, which would show up as early on the 1st for my friends who are three time zones ahead. They wouldn’t be sure if I were kidding and I wouldn’t even be posting on April 1. But, it wasn’t meant to be.)

After January, I’m just wondering about numbers. What are the actual chances in each month for couples our ages? (Let’s say we’re both late-twenties.)

And the overall numbers that get thrown around as pregnancy rates for couples using no birth control – 15% chance every month, 85% chance over the course of a year – are they the same as for a couple that are trying 3 times a week? Every day?

I was fascinated to learn that no studies have confirmed the assumption that timing intercourse for ovulation increases chances, but they have seen that couples who try 3 times a week do have higher results. I don’t know if this comes from a misunderstanding of when to time it in relation to ovulation, a misunderstanding of when ovulation really occurs for individuals, or some other factor. (Not sure I still have a source for that; sorry.)

Thank goodness…  I was terrible at taking the pee OPK tests at the same time each day since you’re not supposed to do those ones in the morning.  (Charting temperatures is out until I figure out my bed linens and stop alternating freezing and sweating every morning.) I tried some really inexpensive ones in month 2 and 3 because they sounded like a fun chemistry experiment and so I would know if a day was non-optional… December’s was *not* at day 14 and I messed up January’s testing before reading about that study and giving up. And we’re just not an every-day kind of couple.

This was especially depressing because I was 4 days late after a false start. I’ve never been even 3 days late before. And we didn’t have the excuse of a business trip or illness like the first two months which makes me really nervous.