image: Percentage of pregnancies achieved within 6 months and 12 months by age group and intercourse frequency. The numbers inside the colored squares represent the percentage of women that had a time to pregnancy within 6 months (left side) and 12 months (right side). The column on the right explains the color scale, ranging from the lowest percentage (red) to the highest percentage (dark green).
Credit: Dreiås et al., 2026, PLOS One, CC-BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)
Among women with planned natural pregnancies, those who had sex more than four times a week tended to conceive faster than those who had sex less often, according to a Norwegian survey of 64,193 women examining the month before conception
Article URL: https://plos.io/4yx8GSi
Article title: Sexual intercourse frequency and fecundability in the Norwegian mother, father and child cohort study
Author countries: Norway, Denmark.
Funding: The study was mainly funded by the Norwegian Institute of Public Health, Telemark Hospital Trust and South-Eastern Norway Regional Health Authority. The project was partly funded by the Research Council of Norway through its Centres of Excellence funding scheme (project No 262700), and Co-funded by the European Union (ERC, BIOSFER, 101071773). Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Research Council. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.
Journal
PLOS One
Article Title
Sexual intercourse frequency and fecundability in the Norwegian mother, father and child cohort study
Article Publication Date
23-Sep-2026
COI Statement
HIH has received grants to his institution from Ferring Pharmaceuticals, consulting fees to his institution from Merck A/S, honoraria for lectures to his institution from Merck A/S, support for attending meetings from Gedeon Richter, Ferring Pharmaceuticals and Merck A/S. These commercial sources had no role in the study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of this manuscript. This does not alter our adherence to PLOS ONE policies on sharing data and materials. The remaining authors report no conflict of interest.