There is no single test that definitively tells you whether you can get pregnant. Fertility exists on a spectrum, and most signs point toward reduced chances rather than absolute impossibility. Only a few circumstances make pregnancy truly impossible: surgical removal of the uterus or ovaries, confirmed menopause, or complete absence of sperm. For everything else, the answer is more nuanced, and understanding the key indicators can help you figure out where you stand.
Signs Your Body May Not Be Ovulating
Pregnancy requires ovulation, the monthly release of an egg from the ovaries. If you’re not ovulating, you can’t conceive naturally. The tricky part is that having a period doesn’t necessarily mean you’ve ovulated. Some cycles produce bleeding without ever releasing an egg, a condition called anovulation.
Several patterns suggest you may not be ovulating regularly:
- Irregular periods: The length between your cycles keeps changing unpredictably.
- Very heavy or very light periods: Losing more than about 16 teaspoons of blood per cycle, or fewer than 4 teaspoons, can signal ovulation problems.
- Missing periods entirely: Going months without a period (when you’re not pregnant) is one of the clearest signs.
- No change in cervical mucus: Around ovulation, discharge typically becomes clear, slippery, and stretchy, resembling raw egg whites. If you never notice this change, ovulation may not be happening.
These signs don’t confirm you’ll never get pregnant. Many causes of anovulation, like hormonal imbalances or polycystic ovary syndrome, are treatable. But if these patterns persist for months, they’re worth investigating with a doctor.
Blood Tests That Measure Fertility
Two hormone tests give the most useful information about your reproductive potential. The first measures anti-Müllerian hormone (AMH), which reflects how many eggs remain in your ovaries, your “ovarian reserve.” A high AMH level means more eggs are available. A low level means your supply is shrinking and your window for conceiving may be shorter. If AMH is undetectable in your blood, it typically means you’ve reached menopause.
The second common test measures follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH). Rising FSH levels can indicate that your ovaries are working harder to produce eggs, which happens as fertility declines. However, home FSH kits have a significant limitation: they can only detect higher-than-normal levels, and they cannot accurately tell whether your ovaries are still producing eggs. A normal result on a home test doesn’t guarantee fertility, and an abnormal result doesn’t guarantee infertility.
Neither test alone can predict whether you’ll get pregnant. AMH tells you how many eggs you have left but says nothing about their quality. Your doctor interprets these results alongside your age, health history, and other lab work to give you a realistic picture.
Age and Menopause
Age is the single strongest predictor of fertility. Most women experience menopause between 45 and 55 as a natural part of aging. Menopause is confirmed when menstrual periods have stopped for 12 consecutive months and the ovaries have stopped producing certain hormones. After menopause, natural conception is not possible. Pregnancy after this point requires specialized fertility treatments using donor eggs or previously frozen embryos.
Some women experience this process much earlier. Primary ovarian insufficiency (sometimes called premature ovarian failure) causes the ovaries to stop producing eggs before age 40. It can be triggered by autoimmune conditions, genetic factors, or chemotherapy. The ovaries stop releasing eggs and estrogen production drops significantly. If you’re under 40 and experiencing hot flashes, missed periods, or vaginal dryness, an AMH level lower than expected for your age may point to this condition.
Conditions That Make Pregnancy Impossible
A small number of medical situations make natural pregnancy categorically impossible. If your uterus has been surgically removed (hysterectomy), there is no place for a pregnancy to develop. If both ovaries have been removed, no eggs are available. These are permanent and irreversible.
Primary ovarian insufficiency in its most severe form, where the ovaries have completely stopped functioning, also results in permanent infertility. And for people born without a uterus or with certain structural differences in the reproductive tract, carrying a pregnancy naturally isn’t possible.
Male Factors That Prevent Pregnancy
If you’re trying to conceive with a male partner, his fertility matters equally. The clearest diagnosis of male infertility is azoospermia: a complete absence of sperm in the ejaculate. Beyond that, no single measurement from a semen analysis, not sperm count, motility, or shape, can reliably distinguish a fertile man from an infertile one. A diagnosis typically requires multiple tests evaluated together.
For men who’ve had a vasectomy, a post-procedure semen sample can be submitted as early as 8 weeks after surgery. Contraception can be stopped once the sample confirms either zero sperm or only a trace amount of non-moving sperm. Until that confirmation, pregnancy is still possible.
Sterilization Isn’t Always Permanent
If you or your partner had a sterilization procedure, you might assume pregnancy is off the table. That’s mostly true, but not always. Tubal ligation (having your “tubes tied”) has a failure rate significantly higher than many people realize. A study published in Fertility and Sterility found cumulative pregnancy rates of 5 to 6 percent at five years after the procedure, regardless of the technique used. That’s five to six times higher than the 1 percent failure rate doctors often cite during counseling.
Vasectomy is more reliable once confirmed by a follow-up semen analysis, but reversal is also possible. Success rates for sperm returning to the ejaculate range from 60 to 95 percent depending on how many years have passed. About half of couples achieve pregnancy after a vasectomy reversal. Effectiveness begins to decline around 15 years after the original vasectomy, though there’s no point at which reversal becomes impossible.
What “Infertile” Actually Means
Infertility is clinically defined as the inability to conceive after 12 months of regular, unprotected sex (or 6 months if you’re over 35). That definition is a threshold for when to seek medical help, not a permanent label. Many people diagnosed with infertility go on to conceive with treatment or even spontaneously.
The distinction that matters is between reduced fertility and absolute sterility. Reduced fertility means it’s harder or slower to get pregnant. Absolute sterility, where pregnancy is biologically impossible, applies only in specific situations: no uterus, no ovaries, confirmed menopause, or confirmed azoospermia with no treatable cause. Almost everything else falls somewhere in between, where the odds may be low but not zero.
If you’re concerned about your ability to conceive, the most useful starting point is tracking your cycles for irregularities, then requesting blood work for AMH and FSH levels. For male partners, a semen analysis provides the clearest initial picture. These tests won’t give you a yes-or-no answer, but they narrow down whether the issue is timing, treatable, or something more permanent.