in short the answer is often. a lot of couples trying to conceive spend a lot of energy timing sex with mathematical precision to the woman's ovulation. theoretically the approach makes sense. recent studies have shown the window of opportunity for a sperm to fertilize an egg is pretty small: essentially it's only the four to five days leading up to ovulation and the day of ovulation itself. your best chances are on the day before and the day of ovulation. so the key would seem to be to have sex frequently in that five- to six-day window. but while timing your lovemaking exclusively to those few days makes logical sense it has some drawbacks -- primarily because your body doesn't always behave with clockwork regularity. even if your cycle is regular ovulation can occur at any time during the cycle. if you're having sex on the day you think you're ovulating and you're off by a few days you may be out of luck. so the expert advice is to hedge your bets: have sex at least two to three times every week. and if you've got the stamina why stop there? studies have shown that as long as your partner has a normal sperm count having sex every day of the month further increases your chances.
how often should we have sex to get pregnant?