Law of Inverse Fertility/Playing With

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


  • Basic Trope: 1) The harder a couple tries to conceive a child, the less likely they actually will conceive.
    • 2) If a couple is not trying to have a child, the woman will get pregnant easily.
  • Played Straight: Alice and Bob are trying to have a baby, but they notice that during this time, conception does not happen.
    • Alice and Bob are not trying to have a baby, but Alice gets pregnant anyway.
  • Exaggerated: Alice and Bob schedule the sex for the instant Alice ovulates, and have even tried seeing a fertility specialist and still nothing happens in their favor.
    • Alice is on the Pill, taking it at exactly the same time to the nearest nanosecond every day, and Bob always wears a condom coated with spermicide, and Alice still gets pregnant!
  • Justified: Alice and/or Bob may be infertile.
  • Inverted: Alice and Bob try to conceive, and they do conceive, though maybe not right away.
    • Alice and Bob try not to conceive, and they don't conceive.
  • Subverted: Alice and Bob don't get it on their first try, but they try again next month and it works.
    • Alice and Bob use a method of birth control (such as the Rhythm Method or coitus interruptus) not known for its reliability and still don't conceive.
  • Double Subverted: But Alice has a miscarriage early in the pregnancy, or the egg gets fertilized, but for some reason does not implant in her uterus in the first place.
    • Or so it seemed. Because Bob's sperm survive in Alice's reproductive tract, she gets pregnant while going about her mundane life 3 days later.
  • Parodied: Alice and Bob have sex every day, several times a day and still don't conceive.
    • Alice and Bob are using every known method of contraception (save for abstinence) and then some, all at the same time, and still conceive.
      • Alice and Bob have never had sex, but Alice gets pregnant with Bob's child anyway.
      • Alice and Bob only use methods that don't result in kids (oral, etc) but still conceive.
      • Either Bob or Alice is a Memetic Sex God (or Goddess). If you can see this picture of Bob/Alice, you have just lost your virginity to him/her.
  • Deconstructed: Alice and Bob put so much pressure on themselves to conceive a child, and the resulting stress messes up their fertility (and puts strain on their relationship.)
    • Alice and Bob are so lost in each other that they forget all about contraception or aren't using it correctly, resulting in a baby, which, being unwanted and all, will cause some serious issues.
  • Reconstructed: Alice and Bob stop trying so hard, resolving to just "let it happen". And it does. (And even if it doesn't, they still learn An Aesop about appreciating who and what they already have.)
    • Alice and Bob deal with Alice's unplanned pregnancy (whether by marrying and raising the child, Alice having an abortion, or putting the child up for adoption), and resolve to be more careful in the future. They learn An Aesop about not thinking that something can't happen to you.
  • Zig Zagged: Some couples conceive easily, others don't.
  • Averted Alice and Bob try to conceive, and they get it on their first try.
    • Alice and Bob try not to conceive, and they don't conceive.
      • Alice and Bob don't even have sex in the first place.
  • Lampshaded: "If you think about it too much, it won't happen."
    • "If you have sex, you WILL get pregnant and you WILL ruin your life. Even if you use a condom."
  • Invoked: Alice and Bob use this time to try role-playing and new positions, and focus on that rather than conception. They do this purposely, so that they won't be thinking about babies too much (or getting bored with sex.)
    • Alice and Bob's health teacher uses this to try and scare them out of having sex. (Whether or not it actually works is another matter entirely.)
  • Enforced: The writer is discussing the strain infertility or difficulty in conceiving places upon a marriage.
  • Defied: See "Averted"
  • Discussed: See "Lampshaded"
  • Conversed: ???
  • Played For Laughs: Alice and Bob decide to try to have kids as a form of birth control. Despite going at it like rabbits they never get pregnant.
  • Played For Drama: Alice and Bob put so much pressure and stress on themselves to conceive, and this puts a strain on their relationship and sex life.
    • Alice and Bob have to deal with Alice's unplanned and unwanted pregnancy, and the impact it will have on them both as individuals and as a couple.

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