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Can you get pregnant with irregular periods? I’m no longer on hormonal birth control, and my cycles are very inconsistent. We want to start trying for a baby in the next few months.
—Counting the Days
Yes, you can. If you’re ovulating, even if not on a regular cycle, that’s what you need to get pregnant (along with working sperm, etc.).
Irregular periods can be tricky, however, because to maximize the chance of pregnancy, you need to have sex at the right time of the month — namely, the day of ovulation or the day before. For people with a predictable cycle, it’s more straightforward to know when this is. It’s also more predictable; if you track your regular cycle for a few months, you can predict ovulation well in future months. With irregular periods, this predictability is lower, making it harder to time sex.
So, what to do now that you have a few months to prepare?
First, track your cycle to figure out how irregular it is. Daily temperature taking — either with a thermometer first thing in the morning or using a wearable like an Oura ring — can confirm that you are ovulating (because your temperature will increase post-ovulation) and give you a sense of timing.
Second, consider investing in some ovulation tracking strips for when you start trying to conceive. These are designed to detect hormone surges that precede ovulation, so they can be especially helpful for people who are not ovulating regularly.
Third, check in with your OB in advance to make sure there is not another condition that is causing the irregular cycles that you would want to address. One common cause of irregular cycles and infertility is PCOS; if this is the explanation, it may make sense to consider treating it to increase the chance of pregnancy.
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