Dr. Emmanuel L. Yanthan, MS (OB-GYN)
Obstetrician & Gynecologist · Updated August 2026
The hardest part of trying to conceive is rarely the medicine. It is not knowing whether the month that just passed was ordinary bad luck or a signal. So here is the line.
When to stop waiting and get checked
- Under 35, trying for a year without success — get assessed.
- 35 or over, trying for six months — get assessed. Age changes the arithmetic and six months of unnecessary waiting matters more.
- Come sooner, whatever your age, if your periods are irregular or absent, you have known PCOS or endometriosis, you have had pelvic surgery or infection, or you have had two or more miscarriages.
Getting checked is not the same as starting treatment. It is finding out what is actually going on, which is frequently reassuring and occasionally the difference between a year lost and a year saved.
Timing is where most of the easy gains are
An egg survives about a day after ovulation. Sperm survive several days inside the body. So the fertile window is roughly the five days leading up to ovulation and the day of it — not the days after. Couples often concentrate their efforts a few days too late and conclude something is wrong.
The practical version: have sex every two to three days across the middle of your cycle. That is it. You do not need to identify the exact day, and the pressure of trying to is itself a problem. If you want more precision, the signs are a change in cervical mucus to something clear and stretchy, and a small rise in your resting body temperature after ovulation has already happened.
What to sort out before you start
- Folic acid, started before conception, not after the test is positive — it protects the baby’s developing spine in the first weeks, often before you know you are pregnant.
- Haemoglobin and thyroid checked — both affect conception and pregnancy, both are easy to correct.
- Your medicines reviewed — some are not safe in pregnancy and should be changed beforehand.
- Smoking and alcohol stopped, by both partners.
Both partners, from the start
A significant share of difficulty conceiving involves the male partner, and a semen analysis is a far simpler test than most of what a woman goes through. Assessing only one half of a couple wastes months. Bring him.
Been trying a while?
Preconception checks and initial fertility assessment are done here, for both partners. Message us with how long you’ve been trying and we’ll tell you what to do next.
General information, not advice about your particular situation. No article can replace being examined. Evita GyneCare provides antenatal care, gynecological consultations and outpatient diagnostics; we do not provide childbirth or caesarean section services.