“When a couple is having issues getting pregnant, the first step is to make sure they’re doing it right,” says Kara Manglani, a certified nurse midwife and fertility expert in New York. They need to learn about the woman’s menstrual cycle and ovulation — that time every month when one of her ovaries releases an egg.

When Is the Best Time to Get Pregnant?

“Most pregnancies result from sex that happened less than 2 days before ovulation,” Manglani says. But you can get pregnant earlier or later. “Sperm can live in fertile cervical mucus for up to 5 days,” she says. An egg can live up to 24 hours after ovulation.

Generally, your best chance of getting pregnant is 12-16 days before your period, says Edward Marut, MD, a reproductive endocrinologist with Fertility Centers of Illinois.

“The tricky part is identifying when ovulation occurs,” Manglani says. Every woman’s menstrual cycle is different. Many women think they ovulate on the 14th day of their cycle. But that’s a myth. Most don’t.

Try one or more of these methods to figure out when you ovulate.

Track Your Basal Body Temperature

This is your temperature when you first wake up in the morning. When you ovulate, it goes up slightly and stays up until your next period.

To track it, you’ll need a basal body thermometer, which measures small changes. You can get one at most drugstores and supermarkets.

Take your temperature before you get out of bed every morning. Note the first day it goes up.

“Once you identify the day you ovulated, you can predict that ovulation will happen on or close to that day in future cycles,” Manglani says.