Sex during the full moon – Common fallacies debunked 

I’m sure you’ve heard them all, ‘have sex during the full moon & you’ll definitely get pregnant’, ‘Put your legs in the air for 15 minutes after sex, that’s the key’, ‘Eat pineapple & Mcdonalds chips after transfer to help implantation’ & our collective favourite – ‘Just relax & it’ll happen’! 

During this series, I will be debunking a few of these ideas to see where they came from & if there is any modicum of truth in them.

 Today let’s focus on this one: ‘Sex during the full moon will get you pregnant’

 If only it were that easy! But once upon our ancestry, this was more true that you’d imagine.

 The full moon symbolises the most fertile time of the month, because back when our bodies were in tune with the rhythms of nature. Women’s cycles had evolved to sync with the moon. That is why the average (*Note that average does not mean the same for everybody!) length of a woman’s cycle is around 29 days – the same amount of time it takes for the moon to revolve around the earth. 

Historically, we bled with the dark moon & ovulated with the full moon. This is to do with the effect of the extra natural around the time of the full moon.

 According to https://www.mayway.com/articles/lunaception-how-the-moon-light-dark-affect-fertility 

“Moonlight helps the body shift from preparing the lining of the uterus and the egg follicles to gearing up for ovulation. Interestingly, it seems that red light, like the light of campfires our ancestors gathered around each night, does not have this same effect.”

 But it’s important to note that our acclimatisation to artificial light & our move away from the rhythms of nature means that we no longer sync with the moon in the same way, plus our cycles change over time.

 For those of you who know that you menstruate with the dark (new) moon (known as a Red moon cycle)  and have a 29 day cycle (give or take a few days), it would be a fair guess to say you probably ovulate around the time of the full moon & yes indeed, this would be the time to get your rocks on! 

 However for the rest of you menstruators, I’m afraid copulating by the light of the full moon may not work quite as effectively.

For those of you with a White Moon cycle – meaning you tend to menstruate around the time of the full moon – the opposite time of the month is your optimum time for conceiving naturally, & for you inbetweeners who menstruate during the waxing (pink cycle) or the waning (purple cycle) just look to the opposite time of the month for your most fertile time.

 Of course none of this is an exact science. This theory, while once probably true for most, is now less so for so many. The only real way to know when & if you are ovulating is to track & chart your cycles over a few months & / or to get checked medically (though we know that can be easier said than done!) because even those who have a regular cycle don’t necessarily ovulate every month.

 Check out this blog to get the basics on how to chart your cycles, so that you don’t have to keep relying on folklore to manage your fertility

 If you know you are ovulating & want to sync your cycle to ovulate with the full moon, you can try giving up artificial (especially blue) light after dark & sleep with your curtains open to let the light of the moon shine in.

Of course this may not be the best practice during the summer months if you value your sleep & don’t want to be woken by the early morning sunrise. But as an alternative you could get a blue night light to use around the time of the full moon.

Whatever you decide to try, knowing your body is a really essential pierce of the puzzle of your fertility, so learning to pay attention to your cycle & responding to any messages your body has for you, is way more important than syncing with the moon.

If you feel a bit out of touch with your body & are ready to reconnect, check out how Fertility Yoga can help.