When sperm are inside women's body, they can live for up to 5 days. If you're a man and you have sex even a few days before your partner ovulates, there's chance they may get pregnant.
Studies show that the average length of time that sperm live, once ejaculated or inserted into the female reproductive system, is around three days. This depends on where she is in her menstrual cycle, however—with just the right timing, stronger sperm could last up to five days.
For a boy, sperm with the Y chromosome should be deposited as close as possible to the egg because the Y chromosome has a short lifespan and it will not live longer than 24 hours, compared with the sperm with the Y chromosome which will live in a woman's body for up to 72 hours.
Usually, the sperm reaches the egg within 15 to 45 minutes of ejaculation. However, the process could be much longer than that if you haven't ovulated yet by the time you have sex, because sperm can live inside a reproductive tract and wait for an egg for up to five days.
The Y-chromosome-carrying sperm are said to:
die faster than the X-chromosome-carrying sperm.
The Whelan Method
So if they're hoping for a boy, the theory says, couples can try to have sex four to six days before ovulation. And to conceive a girl, they can hit the sheets either two to three days before ovulation or on the day the woman ovulates.
Sexual positions
Deep penetration, for example doggy style, means the male sperm that can swim faster start their race closer to the cervix and are more likely to reach the egg first, resulting in a boy. To try and conceive a girl, Shettles suggested avoiding deep penetration, favoring the missionary position.
Only 6 percent of the conceptions could be firmly attributed to fertilization by sperm three or more days old.
The short answer is that the egg and sperm can meet within minutes to up to 12 hours after ejaculation.
When you are most fertile. The 5 days before ovulation, together with the day you ovulate, are the days when you are most likely to conceive. Sperm can live up to 5 days inside your body, so if you have sex up to 5 days before your egg is released, you can get pregnant.
When sperm are inside women's body, they can live for up to 5 days. If you're a man and you have sex even a few days before your partner ovulates, there's chance they may get pregnant.
Y-chromosome-specific DNA was detected in all pregnancies with a male fetus (18/30). The earliest detection was at 4 weeks and 5 days, and the latest at 7 weeks and 1 day. Y-chromosome-specific sequences were no longer detected in any of the male pregnancies 8 weeks after delivery.
Once inside the body of a woman, a healthy sperm can live up to 2-5 days. Once the sperm reaches the released egg, it does not mean that it is capable of fertilizing it immediately. The sperm will then undergo a process called capacitation in the reproductive tract. This process will take about 10 hours.
Sperm that's been ejaculated into a woman can live inside the uterus for 5 days.
When am I most fertile? The most fertile time in your cycle are the days leading up to ovulation, before the egg is released from the ovary. After ovulation the egg survives for just 24 hours, while sperm retain fertilising capability for two to three days in the fallopian tubes.
Ovulation usually occurs about two weeks after your menstrual period and lasts for two or three days. This means you can sometimes determine when you conceived based on your ovulation cycles — simply determine when your last menstrual period was and add approximately two weeks.
After ovulation, an egg cell can only survive for about 12-24 hours.
Amount and concentration
When males ejaculate, they release on average around 100 million sperm. It only takes one sperm fertilizing an egg to conceive a child. Millions of sperm die on the journey to reach the egg.
There is no specific frequency with which a man should ejaculate. There is no solid evidence that failure to ejaculate causes health problems. However, ejaculating frequently can reduce the man's risk of getting prostate cancer. Ejacu-lation can be through having sex or masturbating a few times a day.
The key to conceiving a boy is to do “the deed” close to your ovulation. As Dr Shettles points out, male-producing sperm (Y-chromosome) move faster than female sperm. Male sperm also dies pretty fast, while female-producing sperm (X-chromosome) can stick it out and take their time hooking up with the egg.
Speed: since sperm containing the Y chromosome are faster than those containing the X chromosome, if the egg is in the fallopian tube at the time of intercourse, there is a greater probability of a Y sperm reaching and fertilising it, which means there is a greater probability of the baby being a boy.
The proportion of male babies was significantly higher (65.5 +/- 3.9 per cent, mean +/- S.D.) in the offspring of women who resumed intercourse two days after ovulation. This proportion tended to be lower on or near the day of ovulation than on the previous one or two days.