Ovulation facts 6: How long do the sperm & egg live?

sperm meeting egg
Average rating: 4 out of 5 star rating
An egg lives for about 12-24 hours after you ovulate, and sperm can live for five to seven days. Ideally, you need a lot of sperm on stand-by to pounce on that egg when it's released, so have sex in the days leading up to when you ovulate and a day after. You only release the one egg, but a single ejaculation from your partner will supply millions of sperm, so keep the supply up by having lots of sex.

Your rating

Average rating:

4 out of 5 star rating

Your comments

  • faith mudenda, posted 6 months ago

    a lot of times we give ourselves unneccessary headaches, the best way of knowing is to get a pregnancy test or a blood test. knowing when you ovulate can be aided by checking the discharge that you produce, tenderness and painful breasts are other signs, or using ovulation kits.make sure you plan well before having a baby

    Report comment

  • cheryl, posted 7 months ago

    hi im getting a discharge thats like the discharge that u get when you ovulate, i had sex a week b4 ovulation and a eek after ive been trying to get prego 4 9 months now im streesed out

    Report comment

  • Leigha, posted 9 months ago

    i had unprotective sex 2 weeks ago and the second week i started gettin pregnancy symptoms but the thing that confuses me is 2 weeks ago it was may and now where in june,, and also the second week i have started to get ovarie pains n middle lower pains and white clear or cloudy mucus,, i looked on the internet and it says you onli ovaluate 2 weeks before yur cycle buh i had sex last month does this mean i havent released an egg yet, does this mean i am not pregnant or can i be ?? please can someone help me :(

    Report comment

  • jenna, posted 9 months ago

    yeah u prob are, i had the same symptoms when i was pregnant the only way to find out is take a test

    Report comment

  • kathy, posted 1 year ago

    Hi me and my husband been trying to have a baby for a year and half now and still have not gotten pregnant ,should he go and get checked bye a docotor or is there any suggestions someone could give me.. because I have 3 children bye my ex ..I don't know what to do its so fustrating and we want a baby together so bad! thanks

    Report comment

  • danielle, posted 1 year ago

    i think you may be stacey. it looks that way to me you have all the signs i would take a teat to make sure.

    Report comment

  • aniqua, posted 1 year ago

    hello,my viginal discharge has increased but is still whitish in color. it comes alot cmpared to the normal amout is this normal and a sign of getting closer to ovulation? just wondering if it is normal. It has happened once but need to know if this is normal..thank you

    Report comment

  • stacey, posted 2 years ago

    hello, i had my last period on the 13.2.08 i have irregular periods but this month i havnt had a period yet and its been over 4 weeks i am never this late. i have been getting really bad period craps though but no period, also my nipples have been really tender. My boyfriend and i have had unprotected sex for the past three weeks. please help me, am i pregnant? thank you.

    Report comment

Add a comment

Please enter the characters in the image:

IPC Media Limited, owner of goodtoknow.co.uk, will collect your personal information solely to process your request


Search

Latest family videos

Video index

Free pregnancy newsletter

We'll help you through your pregnancy week by week. Sign up now!

Today's poll

How hands-on is your partner or husband when it comes to looking after the kids?


  • Very, he helps me out all the time 43%
  • Not very. I do most of the cleaning up after them, cooking and homework nagging! 25%
  • He helps out a bit when I've asked him to, and then it's playing football or computer games with them 18%
  • I do everything single-handedly 14%

Thanks, your vote has been counted!