When it comes to starting a family, timing is everything

This review aimed to assess the benefits and risks of timed intercourse on pregnancy, live birth, negative effects and quality of life in couples trying to conceive. The study found that timing intercourse around the fertile period using a urine ovulation test increased the chances of pregnancy and live birth to between 20% to 28%, compared to 18% without using urine ovulation tests. This was specifically in women under 40 trying to conceive for under 12 months. They also found that there was insufficient evidence to conclude the effect of the other methods in the study, including timed intercourse on clinical pregnancy (ultrasound-confirmed pregnancy), the use of FABM in timed intercourse compared to intercourse without ovulation prediction. The paper, ‘Timed intercourse for couples trying to conceive’ is published in Cochrane.