Sexual Intercourse in Relation to Ovulation

In December 1995, many doctors and scientists have done researches and experiments on whether or not timing of sexual intercourse in relation to ovulation will influence the chances of conception. This experiment was solely done using the many steps of the scientific method. First, observations were done when people realized some woman can get pregnant more efficiently than other woman. Then questions were asked about timing of sexual intercourse effecting conception. The doctors then came up with testable answers to the question. Lastly, experiments were designed to test the Hypothesis.

To answer the question “if the timing of sexual intercourse in relation to ovulation will influence the chances of conception,” doctors and scientist used many methods to test it. One was that they designed an experiment, gathering 221 healthy woman who wanted to get pregnant, and recorded their daily sexual activities. They also had to keep a record of estrogen and progesterone metabolites to make an educated guess on their expected day of ovulation, this was done through early morning urine tests. The result was that 192 pregnancies occurred, and 129 ended in live births. Pregnancy only happened when the couples participated in sexual activities during the six days time span before ovulation. According to the article “Timing of the sexual intercourse…” they came up with the testable answer, “Contraception can occur only near the time of ovulation. However, the number of fertile days before or after ovulation is uncertain. Estimates range from 2 days per menstrual cycle to 10 days or more.” To put the result in probability form, 10% of the women were pregnant when they engage sexual intercourse five days before ovulations, and 33% of the women got pregnant when they engage sexual intercourse on the day of ovulation.