Increase Odds of Success during the Two Week Wait
Fourteen days to dreams come true seem like a long time to wait
Two weeks can seem like an eternity when those 14 days are all that separate you from something you really want, like a vacation, a long weekend off work, or a visit from an old friend. The two-week wait is even more interminable when those 14 days are what separate you and your spouse from achieving your pregnancy dreams.
With more and more couples facing the challenges of infertility, the time period between ovulation, fertilization and the first day of a missed period have become known as “the two week wait” or “TWW” for short.
Couples not hampered by infertility and its attending processes called “cures” are usually blissfully unaware of the passage of the two week wait. Instead of waiting on pins and needles from the point of attempt at conception to the end result of a positive pregnancy test 14 days later, they become aware of baby’s impending arrival by the telltale sign of a missed or late menstruation cycle.
Running the Maze of Fertility Treatments
This same blissful ignorance is not afforded to couples running the maze of fertility treatments. The very situation of infertility makes these couples hypersensitive to the body rhythms that create fertile conditions. The modern understanding of how conception occurs and things that can be done to increase odds of getting pregnant helps couples boost their odds of success even when their individual fertility challenges make getting pregnant difficult.
Unfortunately, this increased level of awareness and hyper-vigilance to matters of fertility means that couples usually know the exact window in which their baby dreams are most likely to be fulfilled. The two weeks stem from the exact knowledge needed by couples striving to overcome infertility.
The process of getting pregnant is not instant. The window of fertility is open for just a few days each cycle, yet the results of what actually happened during those few days is not revealed for two weeks after the window has closed. This means couples tracking their window of fertility and doing all they can to capitalize on it will have to endure two weeks of waiting before they will know if their efforts have met with success.
Increase the Chances of Conception
After the fertility window has closed and the two week wait has begun, not much can be done to create fertile conditions. That does not mean that nothing can be done to increase the chances of conception.
One of the biggest deterrents to pregnancy is stress. Stress can make all the effort put into those few fertile hours in vain. Keeping stress at bay is one of the biggest challenges as well as one of the most beneficial pursuits that can occupy those two weeks.
For many, the idea of relaxing while waiting on pins and needles for two weeks may seem like an oxymoron. It is important however to put just as much effort into relaxing as much as possible during the two week wait. Feelings of pressure to get pregnant often have the exact opposite effect.
It is a well-documented fact that couples who put a lot of pressure on themselves, their partners, and their bodies to get pregnant just don’t. Yet these same couples often find themselves surprised by pregnancy only after they have truly given up on their baby dreams and abandoned the pursuit altogether. Why does this strange phenomenon seem to repeat itself again and again? It is because the stress factor has been eliminated.
In other words, it can matter very little what treatments, supplements, and other fertility measures a couple takes, when stress and pressure to get pregnant hang palpably in the air. Then these measures usually end up fruitless.
How to Relieve the Stress of Infertility
Stress relievers can come in many forms: focus on what makes the couple happy individually and as a couple. It is necessary to pay close attention to the body’s fertility cycle, but paying attention and allowing the cycle to become the over arching theme around which day-to-day life revolves is counterproductive.
Instead, view charting as a part of the daily hygiene routine. If the thought of having body odor caused such a degree of stress that even the sight of deodorant in the medicine cabinet caused the body to break out in sweat, how effective is the application of anti-perspirant likely to be? The same is true of charting and the post fertility wait.
Instead, view charting and the attending wait as a simple matter of routine. Routines and habits serve their masters very well without an undue amount of stress.
The two week wait does not have to be a helpless time of endurance. Keeping the mind occupied and body relaxed is much easier and productive way to pass the time. For more tips that will both increase chances of fertility during the two week wait and make the time less stressful, increasing your chances of fertility, click here.
