Women's Health Infographic: Conception (Text Alternative)

6 Things to Know About Conception

Graphic: A diagram indicating that peak fertility occurs between days 12 and 14 of an average 28-day menstrual cycle. Ovulation occurs at about day 14.

90% of women don’t know that 2 days before through the day of ovulation is the best time to try to get pregnant.

40% of women don’t know that a woman is born with all the eggs she will ever have.

The Science Behind Conception

Graphic: A series of six images illustrating the science behind conception. The first image shows three sperms traveling into a woman’s vagina from outside of the woman’s body. The second image shows an egg cell entering a fallopian tube from the ovary. The third image shows four sperm swimming in the uterus and fallopian tube. The fourth image shows two sperms side by side: One is still, the other is actively swimming to represent activity and change. The fifth image shows three mature sperms racing toward an egg; one is ahead of the others and entering the egg head first. The sixth image shows a fertilized egg attached to the thick lining of the uterus.

Normal ovulation leaves only a small window for conception.

Conception can occur only in the 6 days before ovulation through the day of ovulation. Here’s what it takes for conception to occur:

List of six items:

  1. Semen, which contains sperm, enters a woman’s vagina.
  2. A mature egg cell arrives in a woman’s fallopian tube. The egg is fertilizable for only a short time (usually between 8 and 12 hours).
  3. Sperm swim into the uterus and fallopian tubes, where they can stay functional for 5 days.
  4. Sperm go through changes to become fully mature, so that they are able to bind to an egg.
  5. In the fallopian tube, one sperm fertilizes the egg to form an embryo.
  6. After several days, the developing embryo moves to the uterus. There, it attaches to the uterine lining, where the pregnancy can progress.

Women’s and men’s health conditions and behaviors, genetics, and age all influence the chance of conception. To learn more, visit http://go.usa.gov/8rZ3.

Graphic: Logo of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Links to www.hhs.gov

Graphic: Logo of the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, National Institutes of Health. Links to https://www.nichd.nih.gov/Pages/index.aspx

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