Timing is everything. Sperm can live for two to three days, but the egg survives for only about 12 to 24 hours. To increase your chances of conception, it is important to have sexual intercourse more than once around the time of ovulation. A good approach is to have sex one to two days before ovulation and again on the day you ovulate. This way, healthy sperm are more likely to be waiting in the fallopian tube when an egg is released.
Of course, determining the exact moment a woman ovulates is not always straightforward. It depends on the length of your menstrual cycle. A woman typically ovulates about 14 days before her next period—not necessarily in the middle of the cycle, as is widely believed. If you have a 28-day cycle, which is the average, you will ovulate roughly halfway through the cycle. But if you have a 35-day cycle, you will ovulate around day 21, not day 17.
