I have had unprotected intercourse, am I pregnant?

To calculate when your period will arrive, we usually use the usual length of your menstrual cycle. Unfortunately, however, it can always happen to have delayed or early ovulation : factors such as heat, stress and weight changes can in fact greatly affect the regularity of the cycle. 

What is certain is that menstruation arrives approximately 11-16 days after ovulation.

Consequently, if a woman is sure that she has ovulated for more than 3 days because she has monitored her  cervical mucus symptoms or used ovulation tests , she will know that intercourse she will have afterwards (and until her period arrives) will not be able to be fertile.

If, on the other hand, she does not know when she ovulated but relies only on the calculations, then she is at risk of becoming pregnant .

If the cycle is regular

What does regular cycle mean? This expression indicates that the same number of days always elapse between one menstrual period and the next and therefore the length of the menstrual cycle is the same every month.

If you have a regular cycle , you can check whether or not you had intercourse during the fertile period of your cycle by entering the start date of your last period and the days that usually elapse between two successive periods into our fertile days calculator  . This way, you will know if you are at risk of becoming pregnant.

Did intercourse take place in the fertile period , i.e. around ovulation? If yes, clearly the risk will be greater. Otherwise, the probability will be lower, although it can always happen that ovulation is brought forward or delayed.

In any case, it is always good to underline that  the calculations are NEVER reliable to avoid unwanted pregnancies!

If your cycle is irregular

When the length of the cycle is irregular, it is not possible to know if intercourse took place in the fertile days , unless, in the following days, one notices that one is ovulating . This is the case for women who use ovulation sticks (for example because they are trying to get pregnant) or who have learned to recognize the signals of ovulation.

If more than 5 days have passed since unprotected intercourse when ovulation occurs, conception cannot have occurred.  Spermatozoa, in fact, are able to survive up to a maximum of 3-5 after intercourse in the woman’s body.

However, it is important to point out that the presence of very irregular cycles (menstruation that does not arrive in some months or appears, for example, every 40-50 days) could be a sign of hormonal imbalances , which must be checked by your gynecologist or an endocrinologist.

In particular, a very irregular cycle is often a symptom of  PCOS (polycystic ovary syndrome), a condition that makes performing ovulation tests and observing cervical mucus unreliable methods of identifying the fertile period. In fact, in women with PCOS, positive ovulation sticks and fertile cervical mucus can also occur not close to ovulation.

In conclusion, even those with irregular cycles should never rely on calculations to avoid unwanted pregnancies  and use valid contraceptive methods , avoiding having unprotected intercourse.

If the unprotected intercourse took place in the fertile period, am I definitely pregnant?

Even  if the intercourse took place right near ovulation, there is no certainty that a pregnancy has occurred but only a probability , which on average is around 25% .

Despite this, it should be emphasized that a single intercourse at the right time is enough for conception to be successful. Therefore, it is important to always use effective contraception if you do not want to become pregnant .

To remove any doubts, after how many days after intercourse can I take the pregnancy test?

If intercourse took place the day before, there is no test that can verify whether or not you are pregnant.  Even if intercourse led to conception,  it takes several days for the pregnancy hormone to become detectable in the urine .

In general, in the case of a regular cycle , it is always advisable to wait at least for the first day of delay in menstruation. In the event of  an irregular cycle , however, it would be  better to wait a few more days  or  repeat the pregnancy test 4 to 10 days later , taking into account the average length of the menstrual cycle.