History Main / LawOfInverseFertility

-->'''Homer:''' ''(while initiating the encounter that will lead to Maggie)'' [[TemptingFate Everything in our lives is finally perfectly balanced. I hope things stay exactly like this forever]].

** While none of the Simpson kids were planned, with Bart's conception before Homer and Marge were married actually leading to their ShotgunWedding, Maggie was the one who really proved this rule. Her conception occurred ''just'' when Homer had settled his debts, told Mr. Burns to TakeThisJobAndShoveIt, and started a [[HappinessInMinimumWage lower-paying job he loved]]

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Bluey}}: In "Onesies", Chili’s never seen sister Brandy visits the Heeler family. It’s later revealed through kid friendly metaphor that [[spoiler: Brandy wants children but can’t have them. She loves her nieces, but seeing them is also a painful reminder.]]

* In TabletopGame/WerewolfTheApocalypse and TabletopGame/WerewolfTheForsaken, if two werewolves engage in the forbidden act [[NoSexAllowed with one another]] despite the massive social taboos involved and punishment that will fall upon their heads if they are caught, then conception is a virtual certainty. Thanks to their dual physical/spiritual nature, this [[CantGetAwayWithNuthin frequently applies even if they]] [[ButWeUsedACondom used protection]]. The resulting offspring are (in Apocalypse) sterile, deformed and frequently insane freaks or (in Forsaken) horrifyingly hideous [[FetusTerrible vengeful spirits]].

[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
* ''Film/TwoThirtySeven'': [[spoiler:Neither Melody nor her brother Marcus wanted her to get pregnant when he raped her.]]
* In ''Film/{{Apocalypto}}'', Blunt and his wife want kids, especially because Blunt's mother-in-law [[IWantGrandkids keeps verbally abusing him in front of the village about giving her grandkids]], but just can't seem to have any. However, it's implied that the problem is not so much physical as it is Blunt preferring a sexual act that makes conception is impossible. [[spoiler: Not that it ends up mattering, as Blunt and his wife both end up being killed by slavers.]]
* ''Film/{{Apparitional}}'': Joel and Kate have been trying to have a baby for a long time, but haven't had any luck in doing so. Some person in a diner says it's because she has phantoms inside her body preventing it from happening.
* ''Film/BabyMama''. Though it should be noted that the main character is over 35 and the character with the unexpected pregnancy (well, unexpected ''maternity'') was hired as a surrogate and had just undergone a round of fertility drugs and attempted insemination.[[note]]The insemination didn't take, so she had sex with her husband and got pregnant the old-fashioned way.[[/note]]
* In ''Film/{{Beetlejuice}}'' the one cloud in Adam and Barbara's blissful marriage is their inability to have a child. When Jane comments on how their house should be for a family Barbara looks crushed, implying that she may be having trouble conceiving. By movie's end, they've become sort-of surrogate parents to Lydia.
* ''Film/{{Cthulhu}}'' (2007). The father of the protagonist wants his gay son to start a family; naturally, he refuses and snidely suggests pressuring his sister instead. She immediately storms off crying as she's been unable to have children. [[spoiler:It turns out the father has his own dark reasons for continuing their line and later arranges for the protagonist to be drugged and raped by a woman to ensure this happens.]]
* ''Film/TheCuriousCaseOfBenjaminButton'', Queenie wants a child but can't have one. The only child she raises is Benjamin, who loves her and later says that Queenie is born to be a mother.
* ''Film/Desperados2020'': Kaylie and her husband Tad are unable to have children, while Brooke got pregnant b her cheating husband despite not wanting kids.
* In ''Film/DiaryOfAMadBlackWoman'', Helen ''wanted'' to have children with Charles, but had two miscarriages. Meanwhile, he had two unplanned children with his mistress.
* Part of Bethany's backstory in ''Film/{{Dogma}}'' is that her husband left her when he found out that she couldn't have kids. ([[AllThereInTheManual Information in the script]] reveals that her sterility came from an earlier abortion that her husband didn't want her to have.) [[spoiler:The movie ends with her pregnant, apparently from a supernatural conception a la the Virgin Mary.]]
* In ''Film/EatDrinkManWoman'', [[spoiler:Jia-Ning]] gets pregnant after sleeping with her boyfriend once.
* ''Film/ElenaUndone'': Elena and Berry try unsuccessfully to have another child. [[spoiler:At the end she's managed to via IVF with another man's sperm after they divorced.]]
* The trope is played very straight with ''Film/TheFlintstones'', in the film as well as the cartoon. The difference is that in the film, the Rubbles decide to adopt, and Fred empties his savings account to lend them the money so they can afford to do so.
* ''Theatre/ForColoredGirls'': Kelly, with her husband, finds out that she can't have children since her fallopian tubes are scarred from an STD. Nyla meanwhile gets pregnant accidentally from having casual sex.
* In ''Film/ForKeeps'', it apparently only took one wild weekend for Stan and Darcy to conceive, and they were definitely not looking to have a child at that time.
* ''Film/FreshmanYear'': CJ gets Marcella pregnant when it was both unplanned and the first time both had sex.
* In ''Film/HannahAndHerSisters'', [[Creator/WoodyAllen Mickey]] is told he is infertile. He and his wife Hannah have twins via in-vitro fertilization and a sperm donation from a family friend. Years later, [[spoiler: Mickey marries Holly and she surprises him at Thanksgiving by telling him that [[BabiesEverAfter she's pregnant]].]]
* The introduction to ''Film/{{Idiocracy}}'' features a highly intelligent couple who want to have a baby but keep putting it off for various reasons (not ready; not settled; husband's infertile; husband's dead; husband's frozen sperm melted in an accident...) while dumb white trash Clevon has a continually growing family tree. Particularly funny when Clevon gets into a crotch-related accident, but ''still'' has a dozen more kids after that.
* In ''Film/TheInnerCircle'', Anastasya desperately wants to have a child with her husband Ivan, but continually fails to conceive. However, she then gets pregnant very easily when [[spoiler: Beria takes her as a mistress, with her consent being very [[QuestionableConsent dubious]] in the whole situation.]]
* In ''Film/InstantFamily'', Ellie's younger sister has been trying to get pregnant for years, with her husband making snarky comments about her desire to try fertility treatments. Ellie and Pete never tried conception, but eventually decide to take in three foster children, making them parents first. Ellie's sister then says that her example has inspired her and her husband to adopt as well (not only because it's cheaper, but that is a factor). The last scene of the movie is Ellie and Pete officially adopting Lizzie, Juan, and Lita, and the sister is in the audience holding hands with a young boy she's presumably fostering... while she's visibly pregnant.
* In ''Film/JohnnyBelinda'', Belinda gets pregnant after her first time, which was also rape.
* Handled with wonderful subtlety in the film ''Film/JulieAndJulia''. At one point near the beginning, Julia gives a woman passing by with a stroller a longing look; later in the film, she gets a letter informing her that her sister is pregnant, and while she tries to express joy she can't help bursting into tears instead. That's all we get on the matter.
* The whole point of the movies ''Film/{{Juno}}'', ''Film/KnockedUp'', ''Film/{{Waitress}}'', ''Film/{{Saved}}'', and going back a bit further, ''Film/MaybeBaby''.
* In the dark comedy ''Film/KingdomCome'', Luanne's angst comes from her inability to have children. She had multiple miscarriages, her latest one lost in an empty fried chicken bucket (she was ordered on bed rest and was using it as a makeshift bedpan while her husband Ray went to the drug store to buy a real one; a KFC bucket [[BrickJoke then]] a [[TraumaButton triggers bad memories]] for her). She and Ray stopped trying after that. [[spoiler: Towards the end of the movie, she discovers that she's pregnant again, and the WhereAreTheyNowEpilogue over the end credits show her and Ray with a baby girl.]]
* ''Film/LadyMacbeth'': A catalyst for Katherine's murder of Teddy. After discovering that she is unexpectedly pregnant with Sebastian's child, she tries to tell him, but he's angry at being forced to sleep in the stable because of Teddy's presence and sends her away. This begins a series of events which ends up with Katherine smothering Teddy with a [[VorpalPillow pillow]].
* In the second ''Film/LookWhosTalking'' film, Mollie gets pregnant with Jimmy's daughter and Mikey's half-sister, Julie, despite [[ButWeUsedACondom wearing her diaphragm]]. The diaphragm is also a ChekhovsGun from the first film. Justified as an example of TruthInTelevision because diaphragms are not as reliable as other methods of birth control.
* ''Film/LoveIsNotPerfect'': Shortly after expressing her lack of desire for motherhood (her boyfriend wants a child) Elena gets accidentally pregnant.
* ''Film/LoveRosie'': Rosie and Greg certainly weren't planning to conceive (they used a condom), but she became pregnant by accident due to a mishap with it.
* In ''Film/MatchPoint'', VillainProtagonist Chris Wilton has trouble conceiving with his wife, but knocks up his mistress pretty much immediately, the irony of which he notes ruefully. [[spoiler:After killing the mistress to keep things quiet, his wife finally gets pregnant.]]
* ''Film/MissMeadows'': Miss Meadows gets pregnant due to a single time having sex with Mike, without intending to. She decides to have the baby.
* ''Film/ANewYorkChristmasWedding'': Gabby got pregnant unintentionally the very first time she slept with a guy, her boyfriend.
* ''Film/ObviousChild''. The protagonist has a drunken one-night stand with a stranger after being dumped by her boyfriend and gets knocked up. The rest of the film is about her finding the father, starting a relationship with him, and getting an abortion.
* George knocks up Alice after one encounter in ''Film/APlaceInTheSun''. This is disastrous, as not only will it lose him his job (fraternization is forbidden at the factory), it will kill his budding romance with gorgeous, rich society girl Angela and eventually leads to the demise of both George and Alice.
* Dr. Elizabeth Shaw from ''Film/{{Prometheus}}'' is unable to conceive a child, and late one night gets freaky with her husband [[spoiler:after he has been unknowingly infected with an alien mutagen. She ends up conceiving, but the child... well, cross StarfishAlien with EnfantTerrible and you've got a start.]]
* ''Film/RaisingArizona'' uses this as the crux of its plot, where a married couple can neither conceive (because the wife is infertile) nor adopt (because the husband has a shaky, criminal history), so instead they opt to kidnap one of the recently-born Arizona quintuplets, since the father was quoted in the media as saying they had more children than they could handle.
** This particularly fits the trope because the wife is absolutely ''desperate'' to have a child. When she finds out she can't, she's so depressed she quits the police force.
* ''Film/RevengeOfTheSith'' : Somehow, despite living on an incredibly high tech planet with presumably plenty of access to effective birth control, and considering that having children would be a dead giveaway to her secret marriage to a Jedi Knight, Padmé ''still'' manages to get pregnant without planning to.
%%* ''Film/TheRing''.
* ''Film/SchoolWaltz'': Zolya sneaks Gosha into her family's apartment for some post-graduation sex. Naturally, she turns up pregnant. A shocked Gosha dumps her.
* ''Film/SecretsAndLies'': [[spoiler:Cynthia had two unplanned pregnancies, while Maurice and Monica tried to have kids for 15 years with no success]].
* Claudia desperately wants a child in ''Film/SnowWhiteATaleOfTerror'', but she only carries to term/gets pregnant (the film doesn't specify which) one time in nine years. The baby doesn't live.
* ''Film/SomethingWicked'': Susan and Bill are trying to start a family, but she can't get pregnant, which causes a rift in their marriage.
* ''Film/TheTerrorist'': Malli gets pregnant by having sex with a fellow cadre just once without meaning to (for bonus points, it's right before he dies)
* A subplot in ''Film/ThisIsWhereILeaveYou'' is Paul and Annie's inscreasingly desperate but unsuccessful attempts to have a baby, while [[spoiler:Judd finds out that Quinn, who he's in the process of divorcing, is pregnant with his child]]. This makes Annie even more insecure and desperate about not being able to conceive, though she eventually gets over it.
* ''Film/WhatToExpectWhenYoureExpecting'':
** After deciding to take a break from years of trying to conceive, one of the couples conceives during a drunken romp in the bushes. Keep in mind that she was drinking ''because'' they had decided to take a break and therefore she no longer needed to abstain from alcohol. They are a little annoyed when his father and his younger wife managed to get pregnant with no trouble at all.
** Surprisingly averted with another couple who has struggled with infertility for years and finally decided to adopt. At no time does she finally conceive naturally.
** Two women get pregnant accidentally, one with her new boyfriend and one during a one night stand. The latter was [[spoiler:heartbroken when she lost her child due to miscarriage]].
* ''Film/WhereAreMyChildren'': Poor Lillian gets knocked up after having sex once, much to her horror. Mrs. Walton aborts three pregnancies, only to find when she changes her mind that those abortions robbed her of the chance to have any other children.
* In ''Film/WrittenOnTheWind'', Kyle really wants children, so naturally he has fertility problems. When Lucy eventually gets pregnant, he's unsure whether he's really the father, and [[spoiler:when he subsequently hits her in a jealous rage, she has a miscarriage.]]

[[folder:Literature]]
* Mostly averted in ''Literature/ABrothersPrice'', as women who don't want to get pregnant usually will just take a female lover or be celibate. Men have GenderRarityValue, and women who do have intercourse with men do so with the intent to get pregnant. However, [[spoiler: it seems that Eldest Whistler got pregnant before getting engaged, or at least this could be suspected. Not played for drama, as she marries the man anyway.]] Played straight (justified) for most families who desire a boy child, though, as sperm quality is low, and male babies are frequently stillborn.
* Creator/KhaledHosseini is very fond of his trope; he mainly does it to challenge the traditional, "childbearing" role of a woman in society.
** In ''Literature/TheKiteRunner'', Amir's wife is infertile, and Amir believes that his inability to have a biological son is Allah's way of punishing him for refusing to report his best friend Hassan's rape.
** In ''Literature/AThousandSplendidSuns'', Mariam is unable to have a child, leading to her abusive husband to favor his fertile second wife, Laila.
** In ''Literature/AndTheMountainsEchoed'', Nila is infertile as well and essentially allows the kidnap of Pari so that she and her husband would remain respected in Afghan society. Pari, on the other hand, has an unintended child with her husband; Nila's jealousy toward her adoptive daughter's fertility leads her to [[spoiler: commit suicide]].
* Aunt Sissy in ''Literature/ATreeGrowsInBrooklyn'' wants a child more than anything, but all her pregnancies result in stillbirth. She finally fakes a pregnancy and adopts the child of an unwed Italian girl, and about a year later becomes pregnant for real and has a healthy baby boy.
* ''Literature/ASoldierOfTheGreatWar'' references this trope. A young boy is talking to the protagonist about various fertility superstitions he's heard. Alessandro tells him that the real rule is "Once if you're not married; a thousand times if you are."
* In ''Literature/{{Babycakes}}'' by Armistead Maupin, Brian desperately wants to have a child with Mary Ann. Mary Ann has secretly stopped taking her birth control because she wants to surprise him with a pregnancy, but months go by with nothing happening. After (somehow) having Brian's sperm tested and finding that he's basically infertile, Mary Ann conspires to spend a night with a friend of theirs, a British naval officer who looks remarkably similar to Brian. However, even this fails because the friend has had a vasectomy. At the end of the book, Mary Ann's friend Connie dies in childbirth and entrusts the baby to Mary Ann and Brian's care.
* Sonea in ''Literature/TheBlackMagicianTrilogy'' falls under this trope from the virgin side of things. She manages to get pregnant while in the very stressful situation of [[spoiler: travelling into exile into a hostile land filled with ruthless stronger magicians, who are hunting them (her and the teacher) as a prelude to the invasion the country they've just been exiled from.]] High stress isn't usually conducive to fertility.
* Shelena and her partner in ''Literature/LoyalEnemies'' have sex exactly once, but when she's leaving immediately after, she seems confident that she's pregnant. Justified as Shelena is a werewolf and in heat on that day. The sequel novella reveals that they indeed have a child.
* The Literature/DoraWilkSeries implies that this is true for all angels: as a species, they are so absurdly fertile that many of them end up having a child after their first sex, and nothing helps them in that regard. Defied, though, with the main character: as a fertility witch, she can reduce her chances of getting pregnant to zero.
* A major part of Gordie's character in "The Body" (the Creator/StephenKing novella that later became the film ''Film/StandByMe''): his late brother Denny was born after a series of miscarriages and stillbirths and regarded as a gift from God, while he came along ten years later, when his parents didn't want another child.
* Played with in ''[[Webcomic/CiemWebcomicSeries Ciem: Vigilante Centipede]]'' in a few parts, but played totally straight most of the time. Candi seduces Donte ''twice'' in the hopes of them having a baby. And nothing happens either time. After Donte's [[spoiler: ([[NotQuiteDead fake]]) [[DeathFakedForYou death]]]], Candi meets Denny. They try to restrain themselves at first but eventually succumb. They have sex numerous times without incident. Then, after tricking Gunner in a fight to kill himself by falling on his own knife, Candi has sex with Denny again. And ''this time'', gets pregnant. By that point, she wanted a child, but was not amused with the ''timing''. After Denny is [[spoiler: KilledOffForReal]], she rescues Donte and reconciles with him. Several times they try to get pregnant, with no success. It's when Candi ''no longer cares'' that she actually ends up conceiving Frank.
** Apparently, she's at her most fertile [[InterplayOfSexAndViolence after witnessing a]] SelfDisposingVillain [[HoistByHisOwnPetard do his thing]].
** Miriam never aimed to get pregnant at all. But in a subversion, took a few ''hundred'' bouts of unprotected sex (she never once used protection with ''any'' of her seven partners in her lifetime) before conceiving Steve's child.
** Marina never really thought through the consequences either; just acted on a mad impulse. Still, it took her first time with guy ''[[ReallyGetsAround #17]]'' before she got pregnant.
* Happens to Detritus and Ruby as their relationship is developed through the Literature/{{Discworld}} series. Vimes notes that their marriage is happy but childless. They do, however, adopt Brick later in Thud.
* In ''Literature/CodexAlera'', Amara fears that she is infertile because she was 'blighted' (A potentially lethal disease that renders the majority of its female survivors infertile) in her youth. Bernard, her husband, points out that not ''every'' blighted woman is infertile, so they resolve to keep trying until they get the child they desperately want (Repeatedly, and with much enthusiasm). After years of (Very enjoyable) efforts, Amara finally resolves herself to never being a biological mother and instead focuses on caring for the orphaned children whose parents were killed in the recent fighting. [[spoiler: Almost as soon as she accepts this, she is cured of her infertility and gets pregnant]].
* In Katherine Kerr's ''Literature/{{Deverry}} Cycle'', the Maelwaedd clan has something of a succession crisis looming. Rhys is the ruler and needs an heir. He's been married for years and his wife hasn't given him any children at all. His brother Rhodry isn't so burdened, has a way with the ladies, and accidentally gets a servant girl pregnant. Rhys, meanwhile, is forced by politics to cast off his wife for one who isn't barren and his cast-off wife is given to a widower with so many children, he needs a wife to mother them but doesn't need any more heirs. Within a year, Rhys's cast-off wife is pregnant and giving birth, causing everyone to realise that the infertile one is actually Rhys (nobles start whiling away their time by placing bets as to whether his second wife will ever get pregnant). Rhys tries to solve this problem by adopting Rhodry's illegitimate child as his legal heir, but he dies before he can go beyond considering it as a hypothetical solution.
* In ''Literature/{{Gone}}'', Diana becomes pregnant quickly once she and Caine get down to it, even though not long before that she was very badly starved, which should have had some kind of effect of her fertility/menstrual cycles (it should have stopped them).
* In ''Literature/GoneWithTheWind'', the one time Scarlett is genuinely happy to be pregnant, she miscarries.
* Happens to two "friends" in ''[[http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20294878,00.html I'm So Happy For You.]]''
* [[JustifiedTrope Justified]] in ''[[Literature/HeraldsOfValdemar The Last Herald-Mage]]'' trilogy, during the HeirClubForMen B-plot. [[spoiler:Shavri gets pregnant by Vanyel on the first try, but as a Healer, she can make darn sure everything goes together right at an egg-and-sperm level on the first try.]]
* In ''Literature/TheMistsOfAvalon'', Gwenhwyfar desperately wants to bear Arthur's child, but instead has miscarriage after miscarriage [[spoiler: to the point where Arthur tells her to sleep with Lancelet in the hopes that he might be able to get her pregnant]]. Morgaine, on the other hand, gets pregnant with Gwydion (Mordred) the first time she ever has sex.
* Both averted and played straight in ''Literature/TheNeapolitanNovels'':
** Averted with [[spoiler: Lila]]. Early in her marriage to [[spoiler: Stefano]], who she despises with all her heart and is repulsed by the idea of getting pregnant with, she doesn't conceive for a long time and eventually has a miscarriage. This is actually discussed in-universe as his family seem to attribute to her a supernatural ability to kill embryos in her uterus. She only gets pregnant again a couple of years later when she's very much in love with [[spoiler: Nino, her lover]] and elated at the idea of having his child. [[spoiler: The child turns out to be her husband's, however.]]
** Played straight with [[spoiler: Elena]], who doesn't want to have a child with her soon-to-be husband until after she has written a second book, and even goes with Lila to a gynecologist to obtain birth control pills for both of them. She falls pregnant immediately after the wedding.
* The heroine of Francine Rivers’ ''Literature/RedeemingLove'' is revealed to have been surgically sterilized as a teenager right after her unwitting husband announces he is looking forward to having children almost more than anything else. [[spoiler:This trope then gets jerked around a lot, as Angel pulls an IWantMyBelovedToBeHappy and leaves Michael, hoping he’ll marry someone who can defy this trope, and then eventually comes back and in the WhereAreTheyNowEpilogue is revealed to have had four children with Michael despite having been barren.]]
* In ''Literature/TheSecretOfPlatform13,'' [[RichBitch Mrs. Trottle]] tries for a long time to have a child, and after finding out there's a waiting list for adoptions (don't these people know who she ''is!''), she winds up stealing a baby (the prince of a magic island, though she doesn't know that) to pass off as her own. [[spoiler:She finds out she's pregnant soon after the kidnapping and passes the baby off on her servant to raise, causing confusion when the prince's subjects come to rescue him.]]
* Creator/NaomiNovik's ''Literature/{{Temeraire}}'' series, particularly ''Victory of Eagles'', also references this trope.
** Despite every other male dragon being able to easily sire eggs with female dragons, even those of other breeds, the titular character, Temeraire, notices that despite mating with many dragonesses, and the British government's high hopes he will sire offspring with the "divine wind", he seems infertile.
** In ''Throne of Jade'', it is also noted that Celestials, like Temeraire, are so closely related that they do not mate with one another; instead, they mate with Imperial dragons to produce Celestial eggs. Occasionally, the mating of two Imperials also results in a Celestial. Because of this interbreeding, Celestials are very similar in appearance to Imperials and share many common traits. It is not known whether Celestial/Imperial matings may produce Imperials, or even if Celestial/other breed matings may produce hybrid breeds, or are even viable in terms of fertility.
** Captain Harcourt becomes pregnant from a casual affair with Captain Riley in ''Empire of Ivory'', to both their dismay. They eventually [[HonorableMarriageProposal decide to marry]] for purely pragmatic reasons, but the birth is extremely difficult, the child isn't suitable to inherit [[DragonRider Harcourt's dragon]], and [[spoiler:Riley dies at sea later]]. Harcourt's few comments about the child are [[MaternallyChallenged decidedly unenthusiastic]].
* In ''Literature/{{Twilight}}'', Rosalie and Esme can't ever have kids and yet they really, really want them. Bella, who isn't trying to have kids and in fact isn't even thinking about them, gets pregnant the very first time she and Edward have sex, despite being explicitly incapable of it. Justified if (as they imply) a female vampire can't get pregnant, but a male vampire can get someone ''else'' pregnant.
* Averted in Creator/LoisMcMasterBujold's novel ''Literature/{{Barrayar}}''. Cordelia, who's actually trying to have a baby with her husband, gets pregnant first go, while her friend Drou, in the midst of a pregnancy scare after an ill-judged encounter, is not. And then the ''real'' plot starts. Growing up, Miles is uncomfortably aware that his parents chose not to have more children, to protect their "mutie" son from being shunted aside.
--> Now, family ''size''; that was the real, secret, wicked fascination of Barrayar. There were no legal limits here, no certificates to be earned, no third-child variances to be scrimped for; no rules, in fact, at all. She'd seen a woman on the street with not three but four children in tow, and no one had even started. Cordelia had upped her own imagined brood from two to three, and felt deliciously sinful, till she'd met a woman with ten. Four, maybe? Six?
* In Creator/DanAbnett's TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}} novel ''Literature/BrothersOfTheSnake'' Antoni explains to a Space Marine that she has had two husbands and no children -- presumably because of her HeroicBystander actions earlier in the novel, when she went with him to where a Dark Eldar ship crashlanded and was exposed to heavy radiation.
* ''Literature/{{Worldwar}}: Upsetting the Balance'': Sam Yeager and his new bride, Barbara, have sex without protection exactly once; [[WeddingEnhancedFertility on their wedding night]]. The once was all it took.
* Creator/FedericoGarciaLorca's ''Yerma'' is mainly about this topic: a woman who wants a child but can't get pregnant no matter what.
* In ''Zel'', a TwiceToldTale of "Rapunzel", we get to learn about the witch's backstory and it turns out that she was a barren woman who desperately wanted a child of her own and turned her back on God to make a DealWithTheDevil after she came to the conclusion that a truly good God wouldn't have inflicted an infertile woman with such an unbearable desire to have children. This is also what eventually drives her to lock up Zel in a tower when she fears that Zel's budding love for a boy might cause her to leave her one day.
* In ''Literature/KingdomOfLittleWounds,'' Ava and Midi are both fertile women, and they really wish they weren't. Both women get pregnant when they have no desire to, and Midi ''stays'' pregnant no matter how hard she tries to abort.
* In ''Literature/DragonridersOfPern'', Lessa nearly dies after giving birth to her only son, F'lessan, and has no luck conceiving more children despite how badly she wants more kids. Kylara, on the other hand, has no trouble conceiving and bearing children, and hates it - so much so that after five babies, she starts using trips ''between'' as birth control. In a later volume, Mirrim has trouble not conceiving but carrying, and it's because she's been going ''between'' before she learns she's pregnant; the dolphins, however, are able to identify a pregnant woman and this enables her to protect her unborn child.
* ''Literature/DarkHeart'': [[spoiler: Kail and Shial]] have sex just once, and she gets pregnant despite her wishes to the contrary.
* Used in ''Literature/{{Impossible}}''. As a part of a family curse, the Scarborough women end up pregnant at seventeen whether they want to or not. And it's not a magical pregnancy, either, since both Miranda and Lucy conceive when Padraig manipulates them into having sex when it looks like they won't of their own free will (and in Lucy's case, it's hinted that he tampered with the morning-after pill she was given). Meanwhile, it's mentioned that Soledad and Leo wanted a child of their own but were unable to conceive, which is one of the reasons Miranda decides to have them take care of her daughter when she fails her tasks and goes insane. It's subverted in ''Unthinkable'' when Fenella tells the circumstances behind her own pregnancy. She slept with her fiancé, hoping that getting pregnant would dissuade Padraig from romantically pursuing her. She succeeds, but it doesn't protect her the way she thought it would.
* In ''Literature/NewesOfTheDead'', Anne is raped by the son of her employers six times, spaced over a larger period of time, and ends up pregnant. A later attempt at abortion fails.
* In ''[[Literature/AddictedSeries Addicted]]'', Rose and Lily, neither of whom were trying for a baby or even wanted one, get pregnant within two weeks of each other. In "Long Way Down", Daisy desperately wants a child, [[spoiler: and it takes months before she finally gets pregnant.]]
* ''Literature/CutlerSeries'': Dawn unintentionally conceives her first child Christie during her affair with her adult vocal coach in ''Secrets of the Morning''. In ''Twilight's Child'', her second pregnancy ends in a miscarriage (courtesy of Clara Sue), and she spends almost the rest of the book unable to conceive due to her mental state, despite both herself and Jimmy desperately wanting a child. It isn't until the end that she finally gets pregnant, and ''Midnight Whispers'' reveals that she successfully carries a son.
* ''Literature/WhatsBredInTheBone''. Marie Therese, as a teenager, has sex with a hotel footman after her debut (possibly in ignorance of the potential consequences). Since the family is Catholic, of course, they wouldn't ''dream'' of an abortion, which was illegal at the time anyway... but lots of scalding hot baths, many doses of castor oil, and large quantities of gin are attempted. None of them work, and Marie Therese marries Francis Cornish Sr. to cover up the scandal.
* In Colby Rodowsky's ''Lucy Peale,'' teenage Lucy becomes pregnant after one night of non-consensual sex with a boy who handed her a Coke mixed with beer.
* Being a kid's series, it's never explicitly discussed; however, a few characters in ''Literature/WarriorCats'' are implied to have had kits after only mating once or twice. This is especially troublesome as a few of these are cross-Clan couplings.
* Discussed in the latter half of ''The Sapphire Rose,'' the third part of the ''Literature/{{Elenium}}'' trilogy. The Child-Goddess Aphrael has to explain a few things to Sparhawk, namely that [[spoiler:the poison which afflicted Queen Ehlana (Sparhawk's wife) for the first two books left her infertile[[note]]Though how anyone would know this is never explained, as nobody would have had the chance to study the impact of an virtually untreatable toxin that kills within days on fertility, as the fact that it usually kills within days renders the question moot[[/note]], so as much as she and Sparhawk want children, it would be impossible. Aphrael, who loves them, therefore took it upon herself to spend nine months in Ehlana's womb and become their daughter, Princess Danae]]. This isn't exactly the weirdest thing to happen in Sparhawk's life up to this point, although it comes close, and once he wraps his head around it he takes it pretty well for the most part.
* ''Literature/KrisLongknife'': Kris has a SurprisePregnancy in ''Unrelenting'' despite having recently replaced her contraceptive implant. [[spoiler:Or rather, because of: a disgruntled supply noncom had sabotaged a shipment of implants due to disagreeing with Kris having relaxed the regs on fraternization, leading to over seventy unplanned pregnancies and the petty officer getting a dishonorable discharge and sentenced to the manure works.]]
* In the ''Literature/{{Outlander}}'' series, [[spoiler:Brianna]] has sex exactly ''twice'' (once losing her virginity to her new husband and once by rape) and then finds out she's pregnant. This is maximum RuleOfDrama because she then cannot be sure [[WhosYourDaddy who fathered the child]], and having a baby may trap her in the past.
* In ''Literature/ShadowOfTheConqueror,'' this is the case for [[spoiler: Emperor Dayless]], who swore never to have any more children, and gave strict orders to his subordinates to make sure that none of the girls he paid, seduced, or [[SerialRapist raped]] ended up pregnant. His "contraceptive measures," however, failed spectacularly, resulting in dozens or hundreds of bastards.
* ''Literature/TheSilerianTrilogy'':
** Josarian and his wife very much wanted to have children. They had great difficulty though, and then [[spoiler:she died while giving birth along with their child]].
** Elelar, who thought she was barren, gets pregnant unexpectedly having sex just once with a man.
* ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'':
** Played straight with Lysa Arryn, who suffered six miscarriages and gave birth to two stillborn children before she finally had a living son, Robert, who is sickly, probably mentally disturbed, and not expected to live long ([[MyBelovedSmother she pampers him anyway]]). One of the things that made her envious of her sister, Catelyn, is how the latter managed to give birth to five children, all healthy and sound, with no miscarriages or stillbirths involved.
** Aerys II and Rhaella Targaryen had success with their firstborn, Rhaegar, who grew up to be TheAce. However, their subsequent attempts to have a child weren't as lucky; Rhaella miscarried thrice, gave birth to two stillborn children, as well three children who died less than a year old. The continuous failure to secure his legacy probably contributed to Aerys' descent to madness, as his marriage to Rhaella went from amiable to toxic. Rhaella eventually gave birth to Viserys and Daenerys, but by then Aerys had become the Mad King and brought the downfall of House Targaryen.
** Daenerys has great hopes for her son with Drogo, as he is prophesied to become the Stallion Who Mounts the World. However, he is born dead thanks to a BloodMagic ritual gone wrong, and Daenerys herself becomes infertile, as she notes that she never experiences a period since the incident. Hence why she considers the three dragons her children, because "they are the only children [she] will ever have".
* Under non-fictional examples, one of the arguments made in Robin Baker's ''Sperm Wars'' is that human bodies are primed to be more fertile in situations where people are not in stable relationships (one-night-stands, affairs, rape, etc.) to improve genetic diversity, so people are more likely to get pregnant in the exact situations where they don't intend to.
* ''Literature/WhaleTalk'': Multiple characters were born to unmarried characters, sometimes through one night stands, while TJ's adoptive parents had four miscarriages while trying for a kid.
* ''Literature/{{Clade}}'': Ellie and Adam badly want a child and have to go through a two-year ordeal of fertility treatments in order to have Summer. Tom and Maddie have little interest in being parents and have Declan entirely by accident.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Music]]
* Played with in Music/TheDecemberists' ''The Hazards Of Love'' concept album. The Rake, who [[OffingTheOffspring really]] doesn't want kids, got four, although one died in childbirth. Subverted with the StarCrossedLovers William and Margaret, who, also in accordance with the trope, seem to conceive very quickly. Although it's kind of a problem, they're extremely happy about it. [[spoiler:Too bad they die before the baby is born.]]
* In Music/HeatherDale's song "Changeling Child", a couple wants a child for twelve years, but the wife cannot have one. Driven to desperation, she bargains with the fairies to give her one -- which turns out badly.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Fan Works]]
* Micaiah and Sothe tried to have a baby in ''Fanfic/TheTaintedGrimoire''. However, [[spoiler: Vaticus]] arranged for Micaiah to be poisoned resulting in a miscarriage and Micaiah becoming infertile.
* ''Fanfic/ChildOfTheStorm'':
** Unintentional and incredibly poorly timed happened with Steve and Peggy Carter, who only slept together once, only shortly before the mission where Steve was presumed to have died. This resulted in a daughter [[FamilyRelationshipSwitcheroo (disguised as a sister)]], and in the fullness of time, two grandchildren and several great-grandchildren. While it was so early that only [[{{Seers}} Doctor Strange]] knew and there was nothing he could reasonably have done even if he ''had'' known, Steve feels guilty for having left Peggy in the lurch - and being physically and mentally in his late twenties, has a fair bit of mental adjusting to do after he finds out at the end of ''Child of the Storm''.
** Ironically, the exact same thing happened with [[spoiler: Minerva [=McGonagall=]]] and Bucky, resulting in a rather notable grandson - Clint Barton (who, after initially being perturbed, takes it rather stoically). The ironies and improbabilities are lampshaded.
** Unintentional and unwanted happened with Wanda having accidentally got pregnant by John Constantine when she definitely did not want a child - or at least, not one by Constantine, resulting in [[spoiler: Hermione]]. However, it's ambiguous how much she'd have been bothered if she hadn't found out that he'd spectacularly betrayed her trust over the matter of the Zataras. While [[ItsNotYouItsMyEnemies her enemies]] would have been a massive problem, having someone to turn to might have made her more open to the idea.
** Pepper being pregnant with Tony's baby during the latter half of ''Child of the Storm'' and the beginning of ''Ghosts of the Past'', was also unintentional, though both she and Tony seem very happy to be parents.
** Nicholas and Perenelle Flamel wanted a child but couldn't have one. [[ManipulativeBastard Fury]] dangled the possibility of one under their noses as an incentive to take the Infinity Formula (which is described as essentially healing and rebooting everything) and work for him after they destroyed the Philosopher's Stone, to Dumbledore's disapproval. It worked and in chapter 66 of ''Child of the Storm'', Perenelle is noted as being visibly pregnant.
** Jonathan and Martha Kent, as per canon, couldn't have children, thanks to Martha being infertile. Cue Clark. [[spoiler: In chapter 60 of the sequel, Strange gives them a cure he'd rather easily mixed up, allowing them to make Clark a big brother if and when they wish to. As he explains, Clark is now more independent, so he requires less constant attention (meaning that any other child wouldn't be neglected). Jonathan, cynically, asks why he didn't try and use it to buy them off in the first place. The answer? [[Literature/WyrdSisters "If you had needed paying, you would not have been worth the price."]]]]
* The ''Harry Potter'' fanfic ''[[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/3999345/1/Burning_Down_the_House Burning Down the House]]'' has this happen to Ron and Hermione. To add insult to injury, Harry and Ginny have sex without a condom once and Ginny gets pregnant.
* In ''[[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/9505957/1/Touhou-MAMA Touhou MAMA]]'', infertility (assuming she's attempted to have children) is suggested to be the possible source of the 'howling grief of something unresolved' that Ran described Yukari as having and that would explain why it is she gravitated towards Reimu in [[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/9413166/1/Mine-newer-version Mine]] and her unwillingness to let her go, though it is unknown if she is infertile or not.
** In a recent fanfic, Yukari's supposed in infertility is discussed in ''[[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/9511550/1/The-Child-She-Couldn-t-Have The Child She Couldn't Have]]'' but, however, it was a tad unclear and it seems only Yukari knew. We find this out in chapter 2, where we get a PerspectiveFlip, she states she is and her chances of having children are zero.
** On the other hand, in [[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/9758731/5/Gensokyo-20XXI-The-Outside-World chapter five]] of ''Gensokyo 20XXI'', Ran pursues a romance with a male kitsune and a few chapters later, in [[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/9758731/8/Gensokyo-20XXI-The-Outside-World chapter 8]], after having been thinking she was getting fat (despite her age and knowledge as a kitsune, she is quite inexperienced, likely due to being servile), she discovers she was indeed pregnant.
** In ''Foundling'', Yukari's infertility is extended to her also miscarrying, as, not only does she have very low chances of conceiving, she's never carried a pregnancy to term, while Ran is mentioned to have had a litter or two by the time of meeting Reimu.
* Used ''both ways'' in ''Fanfic/MythsAndBirthrights''. Fleur desperately wants to be a mother, only to discover she's infertile. Meanwhile, Rainbow Dash, who wants to pursue her racing career, gets magically pregnant against her wishes.
* A ''Manga/DeathNote'' fanfic, ''[[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/8809643/1/Mama Mama]]'', plays it totally straight both ways, to disastrous effects. Karol a maid tries over and over to have a baby but either doesn't conceive or ends up miscarrying soon after if she does. Her employer Adele is pregnant but it's implied that she doesn't really want the baby (it's also implied that the baby is the product of an extramarital affair). [[spoiler: Karol eventually snaps, breaks in and shoots Adele and her husband in their home and kidnaps the baby soon after he's born. The baby would grow up to be L.]]
* In the ''Webcomic/HetaliaAxisPowers'' fanfic ''Fanfic/{{Tizenot}}'', Hungary's shown to really want a baby with Austria. [[spoiler:A miscarriage, however, shatters both of them.]]
* Used extensively by [[https://www.fanfiction.net/u/926223/beautifulpurpleflame Beautifulpurpleflame]] (''WesternAnimation/TeenTitans'' fics):
** In ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/2738354/1/Truth-Through-Mirrors Truth Through Mirrors]]'', Raven falls pregnant during her and Beast Boy's first time.
** ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/2786037/1/The-Little-Cherub The Little Cherub]]'' series. Raven falls pregnant after she and Beast Boy have sex while drunk. She runs away and only returns with their kid a few years later. Her and Beast Boy start a relationship, have three more kids (none exactly planned for, though all very much welcome), get married... come seven years later, and Raven is pregnant again [[ButWeUsedACondom despite strict birth control]].
** ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/3150847/1/Conceived Conceived]]'' has both Starfire and Raven falling pregnant due to a villain's weapon's side effects (Starfire from Robin, Raven from Beast Boy, and only the first two are in a relationship in the first place).
** ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/3507597/1/A-Late-Night-of-Reflection A Late Night of Reflection.]]'' The whole fic is Beast Boy thinking about how difficult it was for him and Raven to finally have their son.
** In ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/9862443/1/Timing-is-Everything Timing is Everything,]]'' played for both couples and causes quite a bit of tension. On the one hand, Robin and Starfire have trouble conceiving - turns out they ''are'' genetically compatible despite being from different planets, but human sperm is too weak for her reproductive system. First, there is an argument about using IVF, then an attempt fails. Raven, on the other hand, has a ButICantBePregnant moment - she's only supposed to be capable of having children with someone who has demon blood. However, she's dating Beast Boy, and apparently, his shapeshifting abilities extend to his sperm enough to fool Raven's reproductive system. Then Beast Boy recommends that Starfire [[AutoErotica sits in the T-Car]] next time she's implanted since that's where Raven got pregnant. Apparently, it works.
* Seen in ''Fanfic/OfLiliesAndChestnuts''. Fleur De Lis had to put her dreams of having an adorable little filly of her own on hold for years due to her modeling career, and once she's finally [[HappilyMarried settled down with Fancy Pants]] and secure in her upper-class social standing, she naturally finds out she can't conceive a child. After Fancy Pants comforts her through a few days of depression, they look to adopt a child, which results in an excitable teenage bat pony crashing into their lives.
* From ''[[Webcomic/KillLaKillAU A Broken Heart, an Untold Story, and a Sister's Regret]]'', we find out that Ragyo almost died in a childbirth as she gave birth to Satsuki due to complications and, due to said complications and the resulting surgeries, she initially didn't think she could carry another pregnancy to term, growing Nui in a UterineReplicator and not thinking she was pregnant with Ryuuko until someone pointed it out.
* Played both straight and averted in ''Fanfic/TheSecondTry''. [[spoiler:Asuka]] doesn't want to have a baby, even to the point where she's ''starving herself'' in a misguided attempt to induce a miscarriage (which, as [[spoiler:Shinji]] later notes, put her in more danger than the baby). However, once she sees the first ultrasound, that changes. The aversion comes with [[spoiler:Aki]] being born alive and healthy.
** [[MySecretPregnancy She also tries to keep her pregnancy a secret from her husband]]. He only finds out by chance when he picks up their trash, after a rat had ripped open a bag, and discovers the positive test. Needless to say, he's not happy. [[ButWeUsedACondom They're not really sure how it happened, as she had been on the pill when she got pregnant]]. [[spoiler:Asuka]] claims that the drugs were expired, while [[spoiler:Shinji]] suspects that she forgot to be constant in taking it. Of course, it's also possible they fall into that small percentile where it doesn't work, something he [[LampshadeHanging lampshades]] with a weary "We've beaten worse odds before."
* [[Manga/FullmetalAlchemist Izumi]]'s situation, as mentioned in the Anime folder, is touched on in the final installment of the ''Fanfic/ElementalChessTrilogy''. Alphonse's daughter asks about the whole thing, including why she and Sig never adopted a child since they couldn't have their own.
* In the ''Series/StargateSG1'' fic "[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/3070316/1/Bless-the-Children-Ship-Version Bless the Children- Ship Version]]", Daniel confesses that he’s concerned that he might be sterile, as he and Sha’re tried to have children for a year and never conceived and yet Sha’re was able to have a child with Apophis. However, after Daniel starts dating Sam Carter, Doctor Janet Frasier helps him arrange a fertility test and confirms there’s nothing wrong with him beyond what would be expected of a man in his mid-thirties, prompting Daniel to speculate that maybe the reason he and Sha're had trouble conceiving was that there was something wrong with Sha’re that was ‘fixed’ by Amaunet, allowing her to conceive Shifu.
* This is part of Lady Delphine's briefly-mentioned history in the [[Fanfic/{{Cinderjuice}} Contractually Obligated Chaos]] series. She had one daughter, who died as a baby, and was never able to have other children.
* At first this trope is played straight in the ''Franchise/MassEffect'' series ''[[http://archiveofourown.org/series/174092 Parable]]'', which covers the events of the game trilogy. Shepard's mother abused drugs during her pregnancy, so Jane was born biotic but also infertile, which is a sore point for her when she marries Garrus; she sees herself as unable to give him a family.
** Then the trope is averted during the events of [[=ME2=]], thanks to the Reaper techs used for her resurrection; Jane becomes pregnant with [[UntoUsASonAndDaughterAreBorn two hybrids]], and despite the approaching war and the knowledge that their children won't be able to live in peace for what they are, the couple decide to go through with it and carry the two fetuses to term.
** Played straight again for the storyline of [=ME3=], after Jane volunteers herself as Mordin's test subject to create a specialized cure for the Genophage. The experience succeeds, but its side effects - combined with the Reaper techs inside her being fried by the Crucible - render Jane infertile once more, completely destroying her and Garrus's wish of giving their twins more siblings.
* In ''[[http://archiveofourown.org/works/220088/chapters/341520 All or Nothing]],'' Harry becomes pregnant after a single non-consensual encounter with Charlie Weasley, who was under a glamour and got Harry drunk.
* One chapter of ''Fanfic/ConcerningADrifter'' implies that Satsuki is physically unable to have children due to [[ParentalIncest childhood]] [[RapeAsBackstory abuse]], while Ryuuko, as we know, [[spoiler:''can'' and did conceive them in unpleasant circumstances]].
* According to the backstory of ''Fanfic/SkyholdAcademyYearbook'', the eponymous school came into being in part because its founders were never able to have children of their own.
* In ''Fanfic/SoulChess'', Lelouch and Nemu have sex dozens of times without any pregnancies, yet a single instance of SexForSolace with Susanna leaves her pregnant.
* ''Fanfic/MrAndMrsGold'': Because of his curse, Rumpelstiltskin is sterile and therefore cannot give Belle a baby ''that'' way. When he finds out that Belle wants one, he tells her that the next child he bargains for will become hers. [[spoiler:This is why she tries to make sure that Cinderella honors her side of the deal.]] This applies in Storybrooke [[spoiler:until Rose finds out she is pregnant by the end of the story, averting the trope.]]
* In ''Fanfic/NeitherABirdNorAPlaneItsDeku'', Inko and Hisashi Midoriya try and fail numerous times to have a child. They're so distraught after discovering their infertility that they take a vacation to clear their heads. Luckily for them, a certain spaceship came streaking through the sky over their campsite that night.
* In ''[[https://archiveofourown.org/works/14878527/chapters/34453056 Second Chances]]'' by [[https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheNovelArtist TheNovelArtist]], Emma was conceived by Adrien and Chloe after one drunken night while they were actually in the process of a divorce. Nathanael and Marinette, on the other hand, were trying for several years to have a child, but without success. Averted when Adrien and Marinette get married; they are both expecting to require fertility treatments in order to give Emma siblings, but a few months later, they get definite proof the problem wasn't about Mari.
* In the ''Jem'' fic ''[[Fanfic/OurTimeIsNow The Ripple Effect]]'', Raya was reunited with Luis while on tour in Mexico. They went on a date, Raya lost her virginity, then Raya went back to America. Four months afterwards, Raya finds out she's pregnant.
* Zelda from ''Fanfic/BlindCourage'' meets Ganondorf for the first time right before her seventeenth birthday. They meet again a few days afterwards and end up having sex. The next month, [[TeenPregnancy Zelda realizes she's pregnant]]. She hasn't even seen Ganondorf four times yet, though the ReincarnationRomance element of their relationship draws them to one another.
* In some ''Manga/OnePiece fanfics'', ''Our Mrs. Monkey'' and ''Coby's Choice'' to use as examples, Luffy and Nami get married due to shenanigans and while they do start a sexual relationship, they do what they can to keep from getting pregnant, only for them to conceive just before the two year timeskip. Which leads into the scary revelation that [[FridgeHorror Nami had to give birth in a low pressure environment with nothing but an easy to panic old man to serve as her only sense of comfort and accoucheurs (a term given to male-midwives)]].
* In ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13093373/1/No-Time-to-Breathe No Time to Breathe]]'' Magnolia has sex with Charlie ''once'' and becomes pregnant, despite using three different kinds of contraception.
* Downplayed in ''Fanfic/GhostsHowToTrainYourDragon''. While they want kids someday, Hiccup and Astrid would rather enjoy their time as newlyweds first and take precautions. Astrid still winds up pregnant, since their contraception methods are not 100% effective and she had developed a habit of wrapping her legs around him during sex.
* Stacey's short in ''WebVideo/StoneybrookRevisitedABabySittersClubFanSeries'' revolves around her friend supporting her after she reveals she's pregnant. She didn't want kids, especially not an unplanned pregnancy in her 20s, but won't abort or give the baby up for adoption.
* ''Fanfic/IWillNeverBeHim'' establishes that demonic reproduction is rather slow and difficult, and Luo Binghe's HalfHumanHybrid morphology only makes it worse so he would have better luck with human wives. He nonetheless knocks his demon fox consort up on their wedding night.
* Played straight in the ''VideoGame/ToukenRanbu'' series ''[[https://archiveofourown.org/series/1031799 This Citadel is Truly Blessed]]'' for every couple except Mikazuki and Kogitsunemaru. Getting pregnant was [[SurprisePregnancy a shock]] for them [[MrSeahorse for obvious reasons]], but they are for all intents and purposes HappilyMarried and GoodParents to the resulting child[[spoiler:ren]]. Then, in the sequels, you have:
** The severely depressed Souza getting pregnant and [[MamasBabyPapasMaybe not knowing whether it's by the longterm partner he just broke up with or]] [[OneNightStandPregnancy the one-night stand he had as a rebound]][[labelnote:Spoiler]]It's the latter[[/labelnote]]...
** Kasen and Shokudaikiri desperately wanting a child after learning it's possible, but having difficulty conceiving [[spoiler:and suffering a miscarriage the first time they finally do]], and conversely...
** [[SlapSlapKiss Izuminokami and Mutsunokami]] not being the least bit prepared for a child, and the former being repulsed by pregnancy and having the maturity level of a teenager, but accidentally getting knocked up anyway.
* In ''[[http://www.potionsandsnitches.org/fanfiction/viewstory.php?sid=3707&chapter=1 A Bit of Confusion]]'' Harry's girlfriend becomes pregnant after they have sex for the first time.
[[/folder]]

* LawOfInverseFetility/LiveActionTV

!!Examples:

[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
* ''Series/TheTenthKingdom'': [[spoiler:Virginia]] gets pregnant by [[spoiler:Wolf]] with no intent to.
* On ''Series/ThirdRockFromTheSun'', Vicki and Harry go to a doctor when they can't seem to have a baby. [[SubvertedTrope Subverted]] in that they had only been trying for a month.
-->'''Vicki:''' Well, it's not like we've been doing anything else.
* ''Series/AllMyChildren'''s Edmund and Maria struggled to conceive via in vitro fertilization for roughly a year, then struggle to adopt; just as everything seems to be settled, the birth mother changes her mind. Within a few months, ''both'' situations do a complete 180. The birth mother gives them her baby after all, and Maria finally conceives naturally.
* In ''Series/AmericanHorrorStoryFreakShow'', Desiree (the intersex burlesque dancer with three breasts) suddenly experiences severe bleeding downstairs during sex. She's rushed to the hospital where the doctor informs her that she had a miscarriage, even though she thought it was impossible for her to ever become pregnant in the first place. The doctor informs her that her "penis" is actually an enlarged clitoris, which along with her third breast are the result of a hormonal imbalance, and a simple surgery could make her normal. However, her ArmoredClosetGay husband threatens to kill him if he tries it. The series ends with her marrying a new man and having two children with him.
* ''{{Series/Angel}}'' and ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'': It's established that vampires cannot have kids. When [[HunterOfHisOwnKind Angel]] and [[FullyEmbracedFiend Darla]]--both vampires--have sex, however, she winds up pregnant, with some kind of magic preventing her from aborting. Weirder still, the child turns out to be at least AmbiguouslyHuman. It's eventually revealed that [[spoiler:[[UtopiaJustifiesTheMeans Jasmine]], a [[PowersThatBe Power That Was]], arranged this to happen as part of her master plan]].
* Early in ''Series/AnotherLife2019'', the whole crew is said to be sterilized by exposure to radiation. But many episodes later, after several of them start hooking up, one woman discovers that she's pregnant. Cue much surprise and angsting about whether to keep the baby. [[spoiler: Which all becomes [[AbortedArc moot]] shortly afterward, when she is vaporized by a plasma leak.]]
* Both sides are featured in ''Series/BoardwalkEmpire''. On the one hand, Rose Van Alden, who wants a child more than anything in the world and practically considers sex a chore to get that, can't conceive. Her husband Nelson is not so thrilled about having children himself [[spoiler: but knocks up Lucy during his first and only one-night stand]]. Meanwhile, Lucy is advised to stop using birth control in order to secure Nucky for herself, but only gets pregnant after he has abandoned her.
* ''Series/TheBoldAndTheBeautiful'' Ridge and Taylor fail to conceive despite being InsatiableNewlyweds and their doctors assuring them that they are both fertile. She finally does get pregnant years later, after she's been presumed dead and he's married someone else.
* In ''Series/BrooklynNineNine'', [[spoiler:Jake and Amy begin trying for a baby in season 7.]] In the episode appropriately titled "Trying", which takes place over the course of several months, the two try and try again with absolutely no success whatsoever. This makes them feel even worse when Hitchcock and his new wife get pregnant on their first try and [[ItMakesSenseInContext a pair of guinea pigs hiding in one of the storage rooms have over 600 babies]].
* ''Series/BrothersAndSisters'': Given the fecundity of their parents, the Walker kids seem to have an unusual amount of fertility problems, Sarah being the sole exception.
** Tommy and his wife Julia try to have a baby, but it ultimately turns out that Tommy is sterile. Julia eventually conceives using sperm donated by Kevin and Justin. But when she gives birth to twins, one dies and the other nearly does as well.
** Kitty is likewise unable to conceive with Robert, even after undergoing fertility treatments. They end up adopting a baby boy. After Robert's death, and despite having undergone treatment for Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma, Kitty later becomes pregnant by her much younger boyfriend Seth. The ultimate fate of this pregnancy is unknown, as the series was CutShort.
** Kevin and Scotty hire a friend to be a surrogate. They start running into problems like having difficulty with conception and eventual miscarriage. They then give up on that idea and adopt a 9-year-old girl, with whom they are happy. Later, they learn that their surrogate was [[WithFriendsLikeThese lying about the miscarriage and took the baby for herself]]. So they get the baby back, but then their adopted daughter's homophobic brother who abandoned her wants to take her away from them. He fails.
** While never directly stated onscreen, evidence suggests that Justin may also be sterile or have defective sperm. Despite years of casual sex, often influenced by drugs and alcohol, with many women, he has seemingly never fathered any children. The fact that Tommy and Julia's daughter Elizabeth is [[DaddyDNATest confirmed to be]] Kevin's biological child seems to support this. Justin later fathers a child on Rebecca, but she miscarries.
* Played with in ''Series/{{Castle}}''. In season five's ChristmasEpisode, Kevin Ryan and wife Jenny decide to have a kid. Several episodes later Ryan shows up looking rather haggard from... [[UnusualEuphemism repeated attempts]], and in a late-season episode, they go to see a fertility doctor for tests [[spoiler:only to have it turn out they wasted their money because they already succeeded]].
* On ''Series/{{Charmed|1998}}'':
** After a year of marriage, Piper and Leo are trying to get pregnant, and Piper finds out that the physical toll of demon-fighting has made it "difficult if not impossible" for her to get pregnant. Meanwhile, Phoebe has been married for about a month and finds out that she's pregnant, despite not wanting children. (In this case, though, her husband -- secretly the BigBad -- ''was'' trying to have a kid without her realizing it.) Phoebe's fear of telling Piper turns into a MilhollandRelationshipMoment, and long story short, Phoebe's FetusTerrible explodes and Piper winds up pregnant. (In fact, she eventually has two more kids, and the second, at least, is known to be an "accident.")
** When the sisters traveled back in time to the 1970s, they discovered that their mother was told she wouldn't be able to conceive again after Piper. She reveals this while already pregnant with Phoebe. It became almost comical when [[McLeaned backstage shenanigans]] necessitated revealing that Patty had a ''fourth'' child.
** Phoebe somehow found herself on ''both'' sides of this simultaneously in later seasons. After having had a pair of premonitions of herself as a mother, her major motivation is ensuring that they come true. She's constantly consulting various auguring methods and charts to see whether she's passed the conception date, and she actually lost her active powers via abusing them so as to not waste time with a RomanticFalseLead and find the child's father faster. But when she discovers she's pregnant in season 8, it's just after she's broken up with a man she accidentally married while using a magical fake identity ([[ItMakesSenseInContext it's a long story]]), so it's still far from good news. ''Then'' it turns out that it was a false positive, so she goes right back to her star charts. The [[SequelInAnotherMedium sequel comic]] states that she finally got pregnant via WeddingEnhancedFertility.
* Provides the motivation for murder in the ''Series/ColdCase'' episode "[[Recap/ColdCaseS3E1Family Family]]", and a [[spoiler:kidnapping]] case in "[[Recap/ColdCaseS5E18GhostOfMyChild Ghost Of My Child]]".
* ''Series/{{Coupling}}'': in the season finale, Susan is desperate to conceive but is told the chances are low, while Sally has a pregnancy scare when she doesn't want a baby. Subverted as Susan finds out at the last minute that she's pregnant, and Sally isn't (Jane was also involved in the test mix-up and she was not pregnant).
* On ''Series/DesperateHousewives'', Gabrielle took a tumble down the stairs a few minutes after she accepted her pregnancy. When she later decided she wanted to try to have a baby, "complications" from the fall made her unable to do it the old-fashioned way. She and Carlos attempted to adopt a baby but were thwarted when an employee of the agency blabbed Gabrielle's history of statutory rape and Carlos' slave labor charges. They managed to adopt a child through the services of a private adoption lawyer but the biological mother had a change of heart and took the child back. Finally, they used a surrogate, and nine months later discovered there had been an embryo mix-up and the baby belonged to someone else.
** In Season 5 we find out Gabby had ''two'' miracle pregnancies... right after her husband went blind and they lost all their money.
** Lynette gets pregnant at the end of Season 5, despite having just undergone chemo and being, judging by the age of her older children, well in her forties. Well, at least it gave occasion to one of the best lines of the season: "Are you sure it's not cancer?"
* In an episode of ''Series/DharmaAndGreg'', Dharma became convinced that she and Greg were about to have a baby after seeing a vision. They tried to have a baby for a long time, using various methods, but, in the end, it was Dharma's middle-aged mother who became pregnant. Dharma explained that her vision was correct, but that she just misplaced its womb.
* Played for drama on the ''Series/DoctorWho'' episode [[Recap/DoctorWhoS33E1AsylumOfTheDaleks "Asylum of the Daleks"]]. Due to her ordeal at [[Recap/DoctorWhoS32E7AGoodManGoesToWar Demon's Run]], Amy learned that she couldn't have any more children. Knowing that Rory had always wanted children of his own, Amy decided to divorce him in the hopes that he could start over with someone who could give him the family she couldn't. [[IWantMyBelovedToBeHappy "I didn't kick you out, Rory, I gave you up!"]] Amy and Rory are a pretty good example of this trope since they (presumably) weren't trying to have kids when Amy got pregnant with Melody, but now, thanks to the events on Demon's Run, they wouldn't be able to have kids even if they wanted to (as Rory apparently does).
* Rampant on ''Series/DowntonAbbey''. The only woman on the show who actually gets pregnant without difficulty when she wants to is Sybil, and she ends up [[DeathByChildbirth dying as a result]].
** The second season presents with the housemaid Ethel, who has a few dalliances with an officer convalescing at Downton, resulting in her pregnancy.
** The third season gives us [[spoiler:Matthew and Mary]], married and trying, and failing. They both secretly go to a fertility specialist about it in London and run into each other there.
** In the fourth season, Edith spends one night with the man she's planning on marrying before he goes off to Germany to divorce his first wife and [[spoiler:gets killed in the Beer Hall Putsch]], and ends up with an illegitimate daughter.
** The fifth season reveals that Anna and Bates have been trying unsuccessfully to have children for some time, leading to a sustained misunderstanding when Bates discovers the birth control paraphernalia that Anna has been hiding for Mary. (A trip to the same fertility specialist [[spoiler:Matthew and Mary]] visit finally allows her to carry a child to term.)
** There are two notable subversions in Season 4, however. The first is in the case of [[spoiler:Anna's rape]]. Following it, [[spoiler:Mrs. Hughes and Anna worry about the possibility of Anna becoming pregnant, with a very upset Anna threatening to kill herself if it turns out to be the case.]] It isn't. The second is when [[spoiler:Edna gets Tom drunk and tries to get him to marry her by [[BabyTrap heavily implying that she's pregnant with his child and he must marry her to take responsibility]]. Tom very nearly gives in, until Mrs. Hughes investigates the matter and finds a book on birth control in Edna's room. Between that and the fact that Edna wouldn't want to be pregnant until knowing for ''certain'' if Tom was going to marry her, she concludes that Edna ensured she didn't get pregnant that night and was planning to find some other man to knock her up once Tom agreed. (After the whole thing was over, Mrs. Hughes then told Tom that even if Edna was pregnant, it would have been ''way'' too early even for her to know.)]]
* ''Series/DrQuinnMedicineWoman'':
** The titular character fears she's too old to conceive when she realizes that, despite she and Sully being InsatiableNewlyweds, she hasn't. Sure enough, upon going to another doctor for an evaluation, it turns out she's pregnant.
** Quinn's best friend Dorothy stops getting her period and assumes she's pregnant when it turns out that menopause is starting.
* May Wright, one of ''Series/EastEnders''' most popular villains, was a perfectly nice doctor who miscarried her child and was rendered infertile as a result. Not even repeated fertility treatments could work. This woman was as barren as a brick wall. This tipped her off the DespairEventHorizon and becoming an AxeCrazy ManipulativeBitch who conspired to steal her husband's lovers baby in order to replace her own. After kidnapping Dawn and trying to force a Cesarean on her, chasing after her while she escaped screaming "[[LargeHam I WANT MY BABY]]!", trying to steal the baby from the hospital after Dawn gave birth, getting arrested, being released, trying to steal the baby again, breaking Dawn's ankle and chopping down a door with a crowbar, [[Film/TheShining Jack Nicholson]]-style, she realised that she wasn't getting her hands on this baby. She just gave up and [[DrivenToSuicide committed suicide]]. The actress who played her must have been [[ChewingTheScenery picking scenery out of her teeth]] for months.
* ''Series/{{ER}}'': The reactions of most of the women on this show who found themselves pregnant indicates that this trope applies. Commenters on other boards frequently expressed amazement that a group of medical professionals seemed so incapable of properly using birth control, if they even used it all, given how frequently unplanned/unwanted pregnancies happened. And the one couple that ''did'' plan a pregnancy--Doug and Carol--still had this trope apply. When they were blissfully happy together, they struggled to conceive, only for her to discover that she was pregnant just after he resigned in disgrace and left town.
* In an episode of ''Series/{{Flashpoint}}'', one couple desperately wanted a baby but simply couldn't have one. Then the husband had a one-time affair with an ex-girlfriend, who of course became pregnant.
* Subverted in ''Series/{{Frasier}}'', when Niles and Daphne are trying to have a child. Niles finds out that he has lethargic sperm and goes through a whole rigmarole of ridiculous procedures to increase chances of impregnating Daphne. He then finds out that she is already pregnant.
-->'''Niles:''' But, my slow sperm...\\
'''Daphne:''' [[Funny/{{Frasier}} I must have fast eggs]].
** Played straight, however, with Roz, who gets pregnant even though she doesn't want to and has been using birth control.
--->'''Roz:''' The best birth control is only effective 99 out of 100 times. [[ReallyGetsAround I can't beat those odds.]]
* ''Series/AFrenchVillage'':
** Lucienne gets pregnant by Kurt, when he says they had been taking care to ''not'' have it happen.
** Rita later also gets pregnant unintentionally by Jean.
* Very much in effect in ''Series/{{Friends}}'': There are a lot of accidental and engineered pregnancies, but the two couples that desperately wanted children are the ones that are unable to conceive naturally.
** It's only after Ross has divorced his wife, who had found out she was gay, that they both learn she's pregnant from one last fling they'd had at the end of their marriage. This is after them having been together for seven years (four of which they were married) without any baby coming along.
** Frank Jr. and Alice desperately want children, but can't, so they blindside Phoebe by asking her to be their surrogate. Only after she agrees does she learn how low the success rate actually is and that her brother only has one shot at this because it's so expensive. She ends up pregnant far faster than medical science predicted and with three of the five embryos that were implanted.
** Rachel did have a plan that involved meeting the right guy, dating him, getting engaged and then being married for a healthy period of time before having children. It didn't work out that way, and she became pregnant after a one-night stand with Ross just before Chandler and Monica's wedding. They'd even [[ButWeUsedACondom taken precautions]], too.
** Monica was the one member of the gang who had wanted children from the earliest episodes and even lost one serious relationship because of her desire for children and her (older) partner's desire not to have any more. However, after she learns Chandler's more than ready to have children with her, they discover they each have fertility problems and that it'll be very unlikely that they could ever conceive naturally, making them the second couple that wants children but can't have them. They eventually adopt twins; the producers also revealed they view the couple as having a biological child post-show.
** Janice's first husband is not much of a family man at all but has no trouble having children with Janice. Janice's second husband, however, is a much better family man and desperately wants children, but has fertility issues, resulting in them needing medical help each time they want to have a child.
** Ross and Monica's parents were told they were incapable of having children - then Ross came along. It's cited as the reason for Monica being TheUnfavourite. Ross was the miracle baby, while Monica was just another birth.
* ''Series/{{Glee}}'':
** The show features Terri, who is desperate for a baby yet can't get pregnant. Meanwhile, the religious celibacy club president [[AlphaBitch Quinn]] cheats on her boyfriend and has sex with his best friend once and ends up pregnant. The two stories then overlap as not only do both women pull TheBabyTrap on their respective men but Terri is attempting to secretly adopt from Quinn.
** On the other end of the scale it is a miracle that [[TheDitz Brittany]] ''hasn't'' become pregnant. She has claimed to have had sex with almost every guy in the school and yet she thinks using protection means having a burglar alarm and additionally she still thinks babies come from the stork.
** There's also Shelby Corcoran, who after [[spoiler: giving Rachel up to her fathers after she was paid to be their surrogate]] is told she can no longer have children. [[spoiler: She finds her way around it by adopting Quinn's daughter.]]
* Flagrantly abused by Shonda Rimes on ''Series/GreysAnatomy''. To date:
** Addison cheats on her husband with Sloan, gets pregnant, aborts, and then when she tries to have a baby on her own finds out she's barren. [[spoiler: Addison later adopts a son.]]
** Cristina gets pregnant by accident; it turns out to be ectopic and she miscarries before she can abort.
** Bailey, after 7 years of trying, gets pregnant right when she's about to become an attending.
** Adele gets pregnant at ''age 50'' while separated from her husband, only to miscarry once they've reconciled.
** Callie and George briefly talk about trying to have a baby which doesn't happen. Callie gets pregnant after sleeping with her best friend Sloan after a breakup with her girlfriend. Callie gets back together with Arizona and the three raise the baby together.
** Sloan knocked up some chick when he was young and dumb and his teenage daughter shows up in season six, ''also'' knocked up.
** Meredith gets pregnant, and though she is happy about it, she ''was'' on birth control... but then miscarries. She then spends all of season 7 trying to get pregnant, but she doesn't so they adopt a baby in season 8. The next season her and Derek are happy with Zola, only for her to get pregnant ''again''. In season 11, Meredith finds herself pregnant [[spoiler: shortly after Derek is killed in a car accident.]]
** And then Cristina gets knocked up, AGAIN, despite only having one functional Fallopian tube, and desperately never wanting a child. She goes through with the abortion this time.
** [[LampshadeHanging Lampshaded]] by Meredith when April, who had until recently been a virgin, had a pregnancy scare:
--> "Plans never work out the way you think they're going to. Especially with babies. You try and try to get pregnant, you can't. And then a baby comes when you least expect it, probably because you didn't plan it."
** April herself ended up having a baby boy (with Jackson), who died at birth from brittle bone disease. Then, the day she finalized her divorce with Jackson, April found out she was pregnant again. This child, a girl, luckily survived.
** Gender-flipped with Owen, who always wanted children but several circumstances prevented this. Eventually, by the time he was in the process of adopting a boy, Owen discovered that his ex Teddy was pregnant with his child.
* In the ''Series/{{Haven}}'' episode "Lost and Found," a man's BabyBeMine [[DifferentlyPoweredIndividual Trouble]] is triggered after his sister-in-law announces her unplanned pregnancy. He is distraught that she is able to get pregnant by accident while he and his wife have struggled for years with infertility. It leads him to manifest Douen, who enchant his wife and local children into gathering in the woods to dance until they die from hypothermia.
* Played with in ''Series/{{Hex}}'': Cassie falls pregnant to Azazeal while under his influence. Upon discovering that she's pregnant, she decides to abort it. [[spoiler:The baby survives and grows to adulthood, thanks to the efforts of the father.]]
* Cuddy from ''Series/{{House}}'' went to great lengths to get pregnant. When that doesn't work out, she tries to adopt which doesn't work out either, at least at first.
* ''Series/HowIMetYourMother'':
** Averted in Season 4. Marshall and Lily decide that the time just isn't right for the two of them to have a baby, and they actually make it stick; Lily doesn't get pregnant. What makes it notable is that Creator/AlysonHannigan, the actress who plays Lily, ''was'' pregnant throughout the season, but the writers still passed on the chance to write it into the story.
** In an unbelievable coincidence, Cobie Smulders (who plays Robin) was ''also'' pregnant at the same time, and her character also had no desire for kids. Which makes this a '''Double''' Aversion for the writers who actually pulled it off.
** Played straight in season six, where Lily and Marshall have decided that they want a baby and are having trouble conceiving. The trope is parodied initially, though; the first time they go to a fertility specialist, it's revealed that they've only been trying for ''six days.'' Subverted as of "Bad News." Marshall and Lily ''both'' learn that they are fertile. They've just had bad luck so far. (Lily becomes pregnant shortly afterwards.)
** Subverted in season 7 when Robin, who absolutely despises kids, gets a pregnancy scare only to find out that not only is it a false positive, she's ''infertile''. She has no idea how to react to it, because she's never wanted kids, ever, but the knowledge that she ''can't'' have them, period, makes her realize that she might've wanted them someday, but now that choice has been taken from her and she'll never, ever be able to change her mind. It's made even worse when she's trying to convince herself that infertility is a good thing, now she'll never have to worry, she has no right to be sad because she never wanted kids in the first place, [[TearJerker she's glad her and Barney's beautiful future kids that she's been imagining telling the story of how she met their father to aren't real...]]
** Barney's stance on children wavers throughout the series, but overall he is against fatherhood. During the entire run of the series, he seduces countless women and none of them get pregnant... until the series finale, set over multiple years, where he accidentally gets a woman pregnant and is horrified. However, soon after his daughter Ellie is born, he completely falls in love with the baby upon holding her in his arms for the first time.
* The Creator/{{TLC}} reality show ''Series/IDidntKnowIWasPregnant'' showed women talking about suddenly going into labor and having a baby without ever knowing they were carrying in the first place. If you're wondering how such a thing is possible, many women don't gain a noticeable amount of weight during pregnancy, especially if they're already overweight, and they might normally have irregular periods or experience minor bleeding during the pregnancy and mistake that for their period. It becomes FridgeHorror since the women may have been drinkers, recreational drug users, and/or took legit medication that could have interfered with a pregnancy. But in most cases, the babies were born perfectly healthy, though at least one was born in a toilet because the mom thought she had to use the bathroom...
* Carrie and Doug's difficulties in having a baby were used occasionally on ''Series/TheKingOfQueens''. One two-part episode had Carrie get pregnant, only to [[ConvenientMiscarriage suffer a miscarriage]]. In the GrandFinale they end up adopting, only to find out that they are having one of their own as well.
* This appears to be law #1 on ''Series/{{Lost}}'''s island. Pregnancy is a death sentence for mother and baby, but normal sperm count is magnified by five.
** Also seen in flashbacks. Sun and Jin desperately want a baby, and can't conceive. Claire is on the pill and gets pregnant.
* ''Series/MadMen'' uses this both ways with the same character: [[spoiler: Pete unknowingly knocks up Peggy, who in turn is in very deep psychological denial about her pregnancy (and was on birth control), but takes years to do the same to his wife. Not only does she want a baby, but her father also [[IWantGrandkids demands a grandchild]] in return for helping Pete's business. They finally have a daughter, Tammy, in season four.]]
** Again played two ways with [[spoiler: Joan]], who tries for months to get pregnant with her husband's child, worrying that past abortions have possibly made her infertile, then becomes pregnant with [[spoiler: Roger]]'s on their one-night stand (and her only episode of infidelity).
** Betty discovers she's pregnant while estranged from Don and considers aborting. They reconcile, but not much later they split up for good, and she's holding the baby on the plane as she and her second-husband-to-be fly to Reno to obtain the divorce.
** Through flashbacks, we find out that SonOfAWhore Don was only taken in by his father's wife because all of her pregnancies had ended in stillbirths and she desperately wanted a child. She had a son of her own about ten years later.
* Subverted in ''Series/MamasFamily'', where Vinton and Naomi had reached the end of their rope (turned down for adoption, Vinton's low sperm count) and were about to move away from Thelma's house after a nasty row, only to find out Naomi was pregnant after all.
* Happens on ''Series/{{Martin}}''. His girlfriend Gina misses her period and HilarityEnsues as they and their friends scramble about getting her tested for pregnancy and if they're ready for a baby. Just when Martin and Gina warm up to the idea of having a child, it turns out she wasn't pregnant after all.
* Played straight on ''Series/{{Merlin|2008}}''. Ygraine is desperate to give Uther an heir but is unable to do so. She gets so desperate that she turns to magic -- or Uther gets so desperate that they do, we don't know for sure -- and though she gets pregnant, she [[BalancingDeathsBooks dies giving birth]].
* ''Series/MikeAndMolly'': After years of trying to get pregnant, Mike and Molly pursue adoption. In the series finale, their adopted baby is born. Molly, holding the baby and surrounded by family and friends, mentions those other stories about couples who get finally conceive when the pressure is off. And she'd just taken a pregnancy test, and now she's expecting. Awww.....
* ''Series/ModernFamily'' presents an interesting variation: in Season 3 Mitchell and Cameron, a gay couple who already have one adopted daughter, have decided to try for a son through various means (several variations on adoption, surrogacy, etc.) only to see every attempt fall through in increasingly heartbreaking ways. Meanwhile, [[spoiler:Mitchell's step-mother Gloria, in her late thirties/early forties, becomes pregnant by her sixty-something husband: a pregnancy they were definitely not planning, and which comes as a bit of shock to the whole family.]]
* Implied to have been the case with Jessica and her late husband Frank on ''Series/MurderSheWrote''. In the pilot, Jessica explains her childlessness to a new suitor by saying "We were never blessed in that way."
* ''Series/NoughtsAndCrosses'': [[spoiler:Sephy]] gets pregnant by [[spoiler:Callum]] without intending to. For bonus points, it's possibly her first time and the sole instance (that we know of) where they had sex.
* This is ''really'' played up in the KoreanDrama ''Series/OjakgyoBrothers''. Cha Soo Young had surgery that removed one ovary completely and partially removed the other, yet became pregnant by a one-night-stand with her coworker.
* On ''Series/OneLifeToLive'', HappilyMarried couple Andrew and Cassie are elated to be having a baby boy; unfortunately, a tumble down some stairs causes Cassie to miscarry, and she's unable to get pregnant again. They're later able to adopt the son of an unwed teenager, although their marriage eventually crumbles nevertheless.
* On ''Series/OneTreeHill'', Brooke Davis wants to be a mother, but her foster daughter leaves her, and she ultimately discovers she is infertile. [[spoiler: She ends up having twins anyway.]]
* Averted on ''Series/OrphanBlack''. [[spoiler:Gracie]] is subjected to MedicalRapeAndImpregnate, but she ends up having a miscarriage. Later it's revealed that she contracted a pathogen from her husband which renders infected women infertile. When she learns this, she admits that it doesn't bother her because she never wanted kids anyway.
* Zig-zagged in the Season 5 finale of ''Series/ParksAndRecreation''. Andy is trying to figure out which of the women in the office is pregnant. The first one he rules out is Ann, who ends up helping him "investigate" the other women. Ann is, of course, the one who's pregnant.
** PlayedWith in Season 6, as well. Leslie and Ben back-and-forth a lot on the issue of having kids after getting married, in part because they're both very career-minded and a little on the older side (already in their late thirties). Leslie then discovers she's gotten pregnant accidentally and struggles with how to break it to Ben - who, fortunately, had ''that very day'' decided once and for all that he wanted to be a father. They're both thrilled until it turns out she's pregnant with triplets, making their prospects for an easy "later-in-life" pregnancy and juggling their careers with parenting literally three times harder.
* ''Series/{{Reign}}'':
** Francis and Mary try for a baby multiple times with no luck. Olivia desperately tries to conceive with Francis in the hopes of him marrying her or keeping her around as his mistress. [[spoiler: Lola and Francis have sex once and end up pregnant with a baby neither wants.]]
** Catherine tried desperately for years to have a baby with Henry, up to using several crazy medicinal treatments. They ended up having several children, but at the cost of their once loving marriage. Meanwhile, [[spoiler: Catherine has an affair and ends up pregnant with the other man's child (long before she has one of Henry's) and has to secretly give the baby up]].
* Played straight on ''Series/RulesOfEngagement'' with Jeff and Audrey not only unable to have children but having major trouble with surrogates.
* Very much in force in ''Series/SavingHope''. Both Maggie and Alex get pregnant even though they definitely do not want kids (at least, not yet). Maggie's leads to a ConvenientMiscarriage; Alex decides to carry the baby to term and keep it (with plenty of MamasBabyPapasMaybe hijinks.) On the flip side, Dawn decides she wants to have a baby (with Charlie) and remains completely convinced that she will have no trouble conceiving even though she's past optimum child-bearing age. Dawn is completely crushed when the OB tells her that her eggs are not viable.
* Played hilariously straight on ''Series/{{Scrubs}},'' where J.D. accidentally impregnated his girlfriend without even having sex with her (he didn't have a condom, and he ''didn't want to get her pregnant''), Jordan and Dr. Cox had Jack with [[SexWithTheEx their relationship being little more than a booty call]], and Jennifer Dylan after Dr. Cox had two vasectomies. Turk and Carla, on the other hand, had to both have fertility tests and counseling before they finally had Izzy.
* In ''Series/SexAndTheCity'', Charlotte, who is the character who's the most excited about the idea of marriage and family, turns out to have trouble conceiving. Miranda, who's more lukewarm on the subject, suffers an unplanned pregnancy. What's more, Miranda had a lazy ovary and the man who impregnated her had lost one testicle to cancer!
** Charlotte does get pregnant in TheMovie, though, as an example of "getting pregnant once you stop trying."
** Also averted with Samantha, who remains adamant that she doesn't want children throughout the series and movie, and doesn't have any.
* On ''Series/{{Sisters}}'', youngest sister Frankie and her husband struggle to conceive for months before finally realizing that it isn't going to happen the natural way. To that end, ''all'' of her sisters volunteer to be a surrogate mother for her. When the one she chooses is about halfway through the pregnancy, she begins to suspect that she herself has finally conceived after all, only for it to turn out that she hasn't.
* Used multiple times in ''Series/SixFeetUnder''. Spoilers ahoy: [[spoiler: Lisa becomes pregnant with Nate's child after a one-night stand; she decides to keep the baby, which causes Nate much angst. After Nate and Brenda decide to get married, Brenda becomes pregnant only to have a miscarriage the day before the wedding. They conceive again but only after their marriage has begun to show signs of strain. Claire gets pregnant by her boyfriend but only finds out after they break up; she chooses to abort, and during a hallucinatory trip to the land of the dead sees the baby in Lisa's arms and asks her to take care of him.]]
* ''{{Series/Smallville}}'':
** Jonathan and Martha desperately wanted a child, but Martha turned out to be infertile. [[MosesInTheBulrushes Cue baby Kal-El landing almost literally right in their laps]].
** In Season 2, Martha gets pregnant, thanks to Clark's ship (or rather, AI!Jor-El) healing her. Considering the AI's general [[ManipulativeBastard personality]] and [[GoodIsNotNice world]] [[UtopiaJustifiesTheMeans view]] combined with its ''very'' occasional PetTheDog habits, it is more than likely that it facilitated this as mixture of thanks to the Kents for raising Clark and in order to give them a replacement for Clark, allowing it to take him away to be trained. And no, it doesn't generally have much of a grasp on human nature. In any case, StatusQuoIsGod and Clark's attempt to destroy the ship ends up causing Martha to miscarry.
* ''Series/SouthOfNowhere'' has Chelsea getting pregnant to Clay, and then deciding that she can't go through with an abortion. She later loses the baby in a car accident.
* ''Series/StElsewhere'' There's a story arc about a married couple going through in-vitro fertilization at the hospital; at the same time, two mentally disabled patients experiment with sex once, and the girl conceives. The ''TV Guide'' description of the episode summarizes this trope: "The rabbit dies for the wrong woman."
* On ''Series/SpartacusBloodAndSand'' and ''[[Series/SpartacusBloodAndSand Spartacus: Gods of the Arena]]'', Lucretia tries for years to provide her husband Batiatus with an heir, even resorting to adultery with one of his gladiators due to the belief that a Gaul's seed was extraordinarily potent. Despite regularly having sex with both men and undergoing a fertility ritual, she remains unable to conceive. [[spoiler:Until the end of season one. Not long afterwards, the Gaullish gladiator and probable father stabs her in the womb during a revolt.]]
* Justified in the ''Series/StargateSG1'' episode "2010", where in an alternate timeline Sam and her husband Joseph Faxon have been trying for a couple of years now to have a baby. [[spoiler:It turns out the off-world government that helped them defeat the Goa'uld has now sterilized most of Earth's population.]]
* In season five of ''Series/{{Stromberg}}'', Jennifer gets pregnant with Stromberg's child, which was unwanted and thought they had used birth control. Conversely, in the same season, Tanja and Ulf are trying to have a child, but it turns out that Ulf is infertile.
* In ''Series/That70sShow'' this trope is invoked when Eric and Donna realize that Donna had missed a day of her birth control and were therefore convinced that Donna was pregnant. Most teenagers don't realize that birth control doesn't stop working just because you missed one day, so their panic is understandable.
* On ''Series/TheWestWing'', we find out via flashbacks that Toby's wife Andi desperately wanted to have a baby, and they tried every fertility treatment under the sun. In the series timeline, they're divorced, but Andi becomes pregnant with Toby's twins -- and then rejects his proposal of remarriage, saying that he's "sad," "angry" and "not warm," and she's worried about the influence he would have on the kids. Oddly, we're never told whether she finally had a successful in vitro fertilization using his stowed-away sperm or they rekindled their relationship long enough to do it the old-fashioned way. This is a point of contention in the fanbase: one side insists that it's too much of a long shot for Andi to have become pregnant just by luck, after failing for all those years, while the other maintains that if those are really her conclusions about Toby's potential as a family man, she wouldn't have intentionally made him the father of her children.
* On ''Series/TheXFiles'', Scully is not only told she is infertile, but that she had her ova removed. While she had never given that much thought to having children before, she did after hearing that. An in-vitro attempt with Mulder failed, as did trying to adopt, and yet by the end of season seven Scully is pregnant by circumstances never fully explained. However, WordOfGod did confirm that Mulder is the father of Baby William.
* ''Series/{{Veep}}'': As a middle-aged, divorced politician, the last thing Selina Meyer wants is another child, so of course she gets pregnant after having unprotected sex one time. She has a ConvenientMiscarriage shortly afterwards. Meanwhile Mike [=McLintock=], Selina's Director of Communications and his wife want to have a child, but they can't conceive, not even with using in vitro fertilization.
* ''Series/{{Velvet}}'': Pedro and Rita are eager to become parents, but have difficulty conceiving.
* ''Series/WarOfTheWorlds2019'': Both Emily and Sophie get pregnant without intending to.
* ''Series/TheWitcher2019'': After giving up her ability to have children in exchange for losing her disabilities, Yennefer becomes intent on restoring it. She explains that it's not so much she's intent on having children, but wants to have the ''choice''. Geralt, in contrast, is just as infertile as Yennefer and resolutely against having children, but manages to acquire one anyway via the Law of Surprise and promptly spends the next twelve years avoiding her. When it comes out in an argument that he’s been lecturing Yennefer on wanting to have a child while “conspiring with Destiny to steal one,” she lets him have it for his hypocrisy.
* ''Series/WorldOnFire'': Lois gets pregnant unintentionally from sleeping with Harry just once.
* ''{{Series/Underground}}'': Elizabeth badly wants to have a baby, but has trouble conceiving. Her pregnant sister-in-law Suzanna Macon likes to rub that fact in her face. [[spoiler:Rosalee]] later gets unintentionally pregnant due to having sex once with [[spoiler:Noah]].
[[/folder]]

!!Examples

[[folder:Myths & Religion]]

''The fertility of a couple is inversely proportional to their desire to have a child.''

* ''Literature/{{Clade}}'': Ellie and Adam badly want a child and have to go through a two-year ordeal of fertility treatments in order to have one. Tom and Maddie have little interest in being parents and have Declan entirely by accident.

* ''A Soldier of the Great War'' references this trope. A young boy is talking to the protagonist about various fertility superstitions he's heard. Alessandro tells him that the real rule is "Once if you're not married; a thousand times if you are."

* "Literature/{{Momotarou}}": The childless couple is given one child.

* In [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Momotaro "Momo-tarou"]], the childless couple is given one child.

* One chapter of ''Fanfic/ConcerningADrifter'' implies that Satsuki is physically unable to have children due to [[ParentalIncest childhood]] [[RapeAsBackstory abuse]].

* This is detailed extensively in the autobiographical manga ''I Don't Know How to Give Birth'' where the author and her husband find themselves incapable of concieving the old fasioned way despite their best efforts and multiple visits to a gynecologist. After a year and a half of failure, they opt for IFV, which ultimately proves to be a lot more sucessful.

* In ''ComicStrip/ForBetterOrForWorse'' Elly is absolutely horrified when she finds herself pregnant with April at 39. Connie reveals she's jealous because she and Greg had been trying for a baby with no luck, while April was an 'accident'.

* Naomi Novik's ''Literature/{{Temeraire}}'' series, particularly ''Victory of Eagles'', also references this trope.

* ''Series/{{Veep}}'': sa middle-aged, divorced politician, the last thing Selina Meyer wants is another child, so of course she gets pregnant after having unprotected sex one time. She has a ConvenientMiscarriage shortly afterwards. Meanwhile Mike [=McLintock=], Selina's Director of Communications and his wife want to have a child, but they can't conceive, not even with using in vitro fertilization.