Who Knew?

The longer it's been since medical school, the more I realize how little I actually learned in medical school. Particularly in terms of practical knowledge.

Take pregnancy, for example. Getting pregnant seems to be something that should be pretty straightforward. Insert Tab A into Slot B, so to speak. But since Mr. Couz and I started contemplating kidlets of our own (aside from our fur-kids, I mean), I've learned a lot of things about procreation that make me wonder what the hell I was DOING for four years.

Things that were complete news to me:

• It takes an AVERAGE of 8 months for a woman in her early 30's to get pregnant (in the absence of any fertility issues)
• If your (non-hormonal) cycles are longer than 36 days, they are likely to be anovulatory
  
• Pretty much all lubricants are spermicidal
  
• Saliva is also spermicidal
• Having sex daily will decrease your chances of conceiving when compared to doing it every second day or so-- apparently, doing it daily results in lesser quality sperm
  

I'm sure there are more, but these are the ones that come to mind immediately. But the most important message here is this-- when a type A personality and her husband decide to pull the goalie and let the fates decide from there, it is only a matter of days before she succumbs to the innate drive to read many books on the subject, starts charting her basal body temperature on fertility websites and obsessively analyzing charts and coverlines and prematurely puts down a deposit on a Bugaboo Frog.

Sigh. I can't be laid-back about anything anymore.