How Far Along Am I?

You have a positive pregnancy test in your hand and you begin to wonder how far along you really are. You might Google the answer and think to yourself “There is no way I am that far along!”

There are two terms you might see when trying to figure out how far along you really are. One is “conceptional age” and the other is “gestational age”. The medical community uses the term “gestational age” to date your pregnancy. This date begins on the first day of your last menstrual period.

On the first day of a woman’s period, an egg starts to mature in the ovary. It takes about 14 days for the egg to mature and then ovulation happens (the egg comes out of the ovary). The egg is only viable and able to be fertilized for about 24 hours. Sperm can live for 3 to 5 days.

Because of this, your most fertile days are typically days 10-17 of your cycle. It is during this time, that conception happens. This means that gestational dating dates the egg instead of the baby. In other words, if you are 8 weeks pregnant by gestational dating, you are 6 weeks from conception.

Not all women have the perfect 28-day cycle that gestational dating is based upon. Some women have more or less than 28 days between cycles and some women have very irregular cycles. This can make it hard to know exactly when you got pregnant.

A sonogram can help confirm your pregnancy and determine the gestational age of the fetus. Once that is done we can then help you understand the window of time that conception most likely occurred.

We understand this can be extremely confusing but the good thing is that we are here to help! Call or click here to schedule an appointment for a pregnancy test and sonogram today.