Women trying to conceive do not benefit from lying on their back after sex
Doctors say the findings suggest there is no reproductive advantage to the missionary position
WOMEN who hold their legs up in the air after sex hoping to boost their chances of conceiving may actually be doing the opposite, a study shows.
Those who got up and walked around were more likely to get pregnant than those who stayed in bed.
It means women can stop putting pillows under their bottoms during intercourse to get an “advantageous” tilt.
And they can end bizarre mating rituals, such as performing “cycling motions” with their feet in the air after the act, in the false hope it will help sperm to their destination.
Researchers from the VU University Medical Centre, Amsterdam, studied 479 patients having artificial insemination.
They were split in to two groups - one that rested on their back with their knees raised for 15 minutes after the procedure and one that was told to get up immediately.
After several courses of treatment, 32.2 per cent of the immobile group fell pregnant, compared with 40.3 per cent in the active group.
Lead researcher Dr Joukje van Rijswijk said: “There is no biological explanation for a positive effect of immobilisation.
“We believe our results in such a large randomised trial are solid, and sufficiently strong to render the recommendation for bed rest obsolete.
“There is no reason why patients should stay immobilised.”
Professor Allan Pacey, a fertility expert from the University of Sheffield, said: “People get a specific idea in their heads, or a perceived threat, or a way of having sex, and it’s very hard to shift it.
“I’ve heard all sorts of things like women holding their legs in the air and doing the cycling motion with their legs in the air.
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“I’ve heard stories of people thinking that if the woman is kneeling and the man is behind then it deposits the sperm slightly differently.
“To be frank, I don’t think there is any evidence to suggest one thing is better.
“Sperm that are going to do the job will get there really quickly - whatever the position.”
Professor Adam Balen, Chair of the British Fertility Society and Professor of Reproductive Medicine and Surgery at Leeds Teaching Hospitals said: “If you want to get pregnant, have lots sex – as much as you want, however you want – and enjoy it.
“After you have had sex, do whatever you want but don’t smoke.”
He added: “What’s very unhelpful in all biology textbooks is the pictorial representation of the female anatomy.
“It shows that the womb and the vagina are in a straight, vertical line. In reality that is not the case.
“The vagina is tilted and the womb is then tilted relative to the vagina and fallopian tubes and the ovaries, so it is not just one passage.
“So when you get up, many women think that everything is just going to fall out – but anatomically that is not going to happen.”
Mr Stuart Lavery, Consultant Gynaecologist and Director of IVF at Hammersmith Hospital, said: “People come into the clinic and ask about sexual positions and the best way to conceive.
“They tell me that they have sat with their legs up against a wall, or that their husband puts a pillow underneath their bottom. Loads and loads of people do it.
“The honest answer is that there are no decent randomised clinical trials looking at which position is best for conceiving naturally.”
Prof Nick Macklon, Professor of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at the University of Southampton, said:
“This study doesn’t tell us whether this applies to spontaneous conception - but it certainly doesn’t create any argument that women who are trying to conceive spontaneously need to lie down for 15 minutes afterwards.”
The findings were presented at the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology conference in Helsinki, Finland.
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