Which Lubricants are Safe When Trying to Get Pregnant
Traditional water-based lubricants, olive oil, and even saliva all hurt sperm motility. Fertility-friendly lubricants (like Pre-Seed, hydroxyethylcellulose-based rather than water-based) don't interfere with sperm, and canola or baby oil are reasonable natural alternatives.
Olive oil is a bad idea
Did you know olive oil is one of the worst lubricants to use while trying to conceive? It does a perfectly good job lubricating, but it's genuinely bad news for getting sperm where they need to go -- olive oil negatively affects sperm motility, meaning sperm can't move as freely toward the fallopian tubes. Saliva has the same problem and should be avoided for the same reason.
Traditional lubricants aren't much better
Standard drugstore lubricants (like K-Y Jelly) are water-based, and water-based lubricants make it noticeably harder for sperm to get where they're going -- to the point that they can actively lower your odds of conception. Fertility-friendly lubricants are built differently: they use a "hydroxyethylcellulose" base instead of a water base. Brands like Pre-Seed are well-researched and considered safe (not a sponsored mention -- just what the evidence supports). Worth being precise about what that means: there's no evidence fertility-friendly lubricants actually speed up conception. What studies do show is that, unlike traditional lubricants, they don't interfere with sperm motility -- which is still meaningfully useful if you need a lubricant at all during your fertile window.
Prefer something more natural?
Canola oil and baby oil are both reasonable choices -- neither appears to affect sperm concentration or motility.
References
Anderson, Lewis & McClure (1998). Human Reproduction, 13(12), 3351–3356. Kutteh, Chao, Ritter & Byrd (1996). International Journal of Fertility and Menopausal Studies, 41(4), 400–404. Sandhu, Wong, Kling & Chohan (2014). Fertility and Sterility, 101(4), 941–944.
Common questions
Is olive oil a good natural lubricant when trying to conceive?
No -- despite working fine as a lubricant generally, olive oil negatively affects sperm motility, making it a poor choice specifically when trying to conceive.
Do fertility-friendly lubricants actually help you get pregnant faster?
There's no evidence they speed up conception -- what the research shows is that, unlike traditional lubricants, they don't interfere with sperm motility. That's a meaningfully different (and more modest) claim.
What if I'd rather use something more natural than a specialty lubricant?
Canola oil and baby oil are both reasonable options -- neither appears to affect sperm concentration or motility.