Myth 2: A Woman Can Get Pregnant at Any Time During Her Cycle

Welcome back! Today’s myth…

The myth: A woman can get pregnant at any time during her cycle. 

The truth: There are only a limited number of days during a woman’s cycle when pregnancy is possible. 

In fact, most of the time, a woman is infertile. To become pregnant, a woman needs to ovulate. Ovulation is when the egg is released from the ovary and becomes available for fertilization.

Well now here’s the thing…

A human egg can only survive 12-24 hours after being released. The reason women are fertile longer than 24 hours is because sperm can live in a woman’s body for up to five days if cervical mucus is present.
 
That leaves us with a fertile window of 6 days per cycle. This takes into account the lifespan of sperm in a woman’s body (up to 5 days) and the lifespan of the egg (up to 24 hours).

And P.S. While women are only fertile for a short period each cycle, men are fertile everyday. Open for business from puberty and on – so tell me again why women are the ones taking the pill every single day?

I have few more cycle myths for you and then we’ll get into the birth control pill.

See you tomorrow!