Q. Are the first five to ten days when the period starts a safer time to prevent pregnancy?

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The fertile period depends totally on the length of your menstrual cycles. If you have a constant 28 days cycles, the most fertile days would be between Day 12 to Day 18 of your cycles. So normally, the egg release or the ovulation happens 14 days prior to your upcoming periods. This phase of 14 days between ovulation to periods is called as luteal phase and is universally fixed. So if the pregnancy does not occur, one gets their periods on Day 13 to 14 post to their ovulation day. However, the early phase before ovulation can vary from cycle to cycle and from person to person. So, although the chances of pregnancy are a little less when sexual intercourse happens between day 5 to day 10 of the cycle (counting the starting day of your bleeding as day one of your cycle). The chances are still present as some may ovulate too early, as in day ten, depending on the length of their menstrual cycles. And yes, if the ejaculation has happened, then sperms are deposited in the vagina, and then they swim up into the genital tract. So the chances or risk of the pregnancy increases. Also, the active sperms deposited in a single ejaculation can survive up to 48-72 hours post ejaculation in the female reproductive tract. At the same time, the egg released during the ovulation is viable only for 24 hours to be available for fertilization. I hope this information answers your query. Please do revert in case of any further doubts or questions. Take care.