Date of conception: what is it?
This is the day when the fusion of male (sperm) and female (ovum) reproductive cells occurred. This is possible at the moments of ovulation, when the female cell enters the abdominal cavity from the ovary, but the duration of this period is extremely short, it lasts only two days. Pregnancy can occur exactly in these two days or 2-3 days before, but after that it is no longer possible. The fact is that sperm can exist in the female body for up to three days, and the likelihood that one of them will wait in the wings is extremely high.
What does knowing the date give?
Knowing when conception occurred is important in order to calculate the time of delivery. In addition, such information will help monitor fetal development. Specific changes occur with the fetus every week; in order to find out whether this is the norm or a deviation, it is necessary to reliably determine the gestation period. This will help monitor the processes of growth and development of the fetus, determine whether the pregnancy is proceeding favorably, etc.
In addition, knowing the exact day of conception, you can find out the exact date of birth, determine the time of the mother’s maternity leave, etc.
Why is it necessary to know the date?
This is extremely important to know, as you can find out the gestational age. Based on the date of conception, doctors can determine a more accurate date of birth, and expectant mothers, using the tablet that we will present in further content, will determine in advance the sex of the baby. You need to know the date to undergo the necessary examinations, which are done on certain weeks. In addition, in the first weeks of pregnancy the fetus is very vulnerable, and during this period it is necessary to adhere to proper nutrition and a healthy lifestyle.
Any girl should understand how to find out the date of conception. Pregnancy is not always planned, and situations arise when a woman decides to terminate it. It is important to perform the procedure before seven weeks after conception to reduce the risk of complications and side effects.
Since calculating the day of conception directly depends on the day of ovulation, the calculation rules will be useful to those women who are planning to have a baby. Using the calculator, you can certainly find out the most suitable day for intimacy in order to get pregnant or, on the contrary, to avoid it.
Finally, knowing the date is important when disputes about paternity arise. Of course, you can take DNA tests, but this is an expensive procedure, and it requires both the baby and the father, and the second may not always be present.
hCG
HCG (or gonadotropin) is a human protein hormone. In pregnant women, the level of hCG increases sharply, which indicates a successful pregnancy and a healthy fetus. It is to increase this hormone that pregnancy detection tests are set up, which can accurately give results within three to four days after a missed period.
The hormone is produced throughout the entire period of pregnancy, so it is very easy to calculate the date of conception based on medical tests, namely the presence of the hormone level in the body.
Determine with your doctor the period when the level of the hormone in your body increased - in fact, this day coincides with ovulation, it is the day of pregnancy.
In reference books you can find information about what level of the hormone should be in a woman’s body at each week of pregnancy. According to this information, immediately after conception, the level of hCG in the body rises from a value of 3 to 10.
How to tell if pregnancy has occurred?
If you miss your period (you are late), this may be a sign that conception has occurred. Before the delay occurs, you can take a blood test that will show the amount of human chorionic gonadotropin, a hormone that increases sharply during pregnancy.
If there are no periods, then a test is purchased. The presence of a negative answer does not guarantee the absence of a fetus; the test may simply be faulty, or your period is still too short, and the hormone has not had time to be produced in the required quantity.
If the tests consistently show a negative result, contact your antenatal clinic to see a gynecologist; you may have a hormonal imbalance.
We calculate the day of fertilization according to the menstrual cycle
You can find out the date of conception from your periods, but it will not be the most accurate, since the calculation of the period is carried out from the first day (beginning) of the last menstruation. It’s not a fact that you could have gotten pregnant then. Fertilization could occur before (and this happens, but rarely) or after the last menstruation. So, if you judge by menstruation, as doctors do, then the period is counted from the first, but not the final day of the last menstruation. Subtract three months from this date, add seven days, this way you can find out the expected day of birth. It won’t be accurate either, since everyone’s cycles are different, and the date of conception still remains in question.
Menstrual cycle
Fertilization, conception and development of pregnancy becomes possible due to the onset of ovulation, which occurs in the middle of the menstrual cycle. You can calculate the approximate date of conception by knowing the day of ovulation.
Ovulation is the release of a mature egg from the follicle for fertilization by sperm in the fallopian tube. Follicles are formed in the ovaries during the period of intrauterine development of the female embryo. It is noteworthy that at week 20 there are 2 million immature eggs under the ovarian membrane. By the period of reproductive maturity, there are about 500 thousand follicles that are ready for maturation.
With the onset of menstruation in girls, the first stage of puberty ends. Menstruation is characterized by irregularity and lack of ovulation, despite the two-phase cycles. After a year and a half, the cycles become full.
At the beginning of the first phase of the cycle, under the influence of the hormone FSH, several ovarian follicles develop. Follicles are temporary hormonal structures through which estrogen is synthesized. Only one, the most viable follicle undergoes complete development, which becomes dominant as it grows. By the end of the first phase of the cycle, due to the accumulation of FSH, a sharp jump in the level of LH occurs, which leads to rupture of the follicle membrane and the release of a mature egg ready for fertilization. This process is called ovulation.
In place of the remaining follicle membranes, in the second phase of the cycle, the corpus luteum develops, which synthesizes progesterone. In the absence of pregnancy, the corpus luteum dissolves shortly before the onset of menstruation.
In parallel with the changes in the ovaries, the process of growth of the inner layer of the uterus is observed, which ensures the implantation of the fertilized egg after fertilization. The functional layer of the endometrium is sensitive to the level of estrogens produced by the follicular apparatus of the ovaries. If pregnancy does not occur, at the end of the cycle it is possible to determine the rejection of the surface layer of the endometrium, which implies the onset of menstruation.
All changes that occur during the cycle ensure the implementation of the reproductive function, with the exception of periods of pregnancy and lactation. Normally, several anovulatory cycles per year are allowed. In particular, ovulation may be absent due to the influence of external and internal negative factors, for example, sudden weight loss, stress. In the chronic absence of ovulation, endocrine pathologies are often observed.
Pregnancy in the absence of ovulation is impossible. Determining the date of release of the egg allows us to predict the day of conception.
Planning a pregnancy
Every girl should keep a menstrual cycle calendar, regardless of whether she has had sexual intercourse in her life. The calendar will help track delays, which may indicate not only pregnancy, but also hormonal imbalances.
A calendar can help calculate the optimal periods for conceiving a child. As a rule, ovulation always occurs in the middle of the MC, which is calculated from the first day (beginning) of the last menstruation to the first day of the upcoming one and ranges from 28 to 30 days. Accordingly, we choose the middle for conception - three days, two of which will definitely be the dates of ovulation. The remaining days before and after it are considered “useless,” but there have still been many cases when pregnancy occurred precisely during those periods, so using the calendar for “safety” is not recommended.
The calendar will help you plan the baby's gender. As a rule, girls are born after intimacy, which occurred a couple of days before ovulation. During this period, male cells are less active and remain the most resilient and strong, which guarantees the female sex. If sexual intercourse took place during the days of ovulation, then it will be a boy, because the egg will be fertilized not by the hardiest, but by the most active.
How to determine the date of ovulation?
- by basal temperature: ovulation occurs after a temperature drop, observed one day before the release of the egg from the follicle (a decrease in BT by 0.1-0.2 degrees is noted). Then, after ovulation, the indicators increase by 0.2-0.5 degrees and exceed 37°C;
- by the nature of vaginal mucus: before ovulation, sticky and thick vaginal discharge in the first phase of the cycle becomes viscous and transparent, like egg white. The release of a mature egg may be accompanied by damage to the blood vessels, which a woman observes with minor impurities of blood in the vaginal discharge in the middle of the cycle;
- for ovulatory syndrome: some women with increased sensitivity may feel nagging pain from the active ovary and even complain of short-term malaise during this period;
- using an ovulation test: it works on the same principle as a pregnancy test, only unlike the latter it reacts to an increase in the concentration of the so-called fertility hormone (LH - luteinizing hormone);
- folliculometry method: the process of egg maturation is monitored by ultrasound, which allows one to accurately determine the day of ovulation.
In addition, an experienced gynecologist can quite accurately determine the approach of ovulation during an examination of a woman in a chair. The most reliable result can be obtained by combining several methods at once.
Electronic test
How to find out the exact date of conception if you have an irregular cycle and you are at a loss? A convenient, relatively new development - an electronic test - will help. How to find out the date of conception of a child using this device? It is extremely simple to use, just like a regular test that only shows stripes. The electronic test will indicate an approximate, but still quite truthful period, just subtract the number of days, and a more accurate date of conception will be determined. Look at the cycle in your calendar, “try on” the date calculated using the test, and correct the calculation by moving the date to the day of ovulation.
Ultrasonography
It is quite difficult to find out the date of conception by ultrasound, since this procedure is only necessary to confirm the obstetric “verdict”. Your day of conception will still be set to the day your last period began.
It is easy to find out the due date by the date of conception. Establishing the due date is much more difficult; it is calculated based on many factors. This is an obstetric guess for the day of conception, forty weeks are counted from it. The baby can be born at the 37th, 42nd, or 28th week. An ultrasound will also not indicate reliable dates of birth, only the period in which the baby is expected to be born. The weight of the fetus, the first movement and many other factors are also taken into account.
Calculating the due date - principles and algorithms
You can use several options to calculate the exact date of birth: an online calculator, your own calculations, the result of a doctor’s examination. But no matter which option is chosen, their principles and algorithms are very similar.
Determination of term by date of conception
The easiest way is to create a pregnancy calendar by week and calculate the date of birth if the girl knows the date of fertilization. Usually this is where difficulties arise, because a couple who has decided to have a baby tries not to miss any of the favorable days. Therefore, if it is not possible to calculate the due date based on the date of conception, you can try to determine it yourself. It's not that difficult to do.
Understanding the processes occurring in the female body allows you to calculate the date of birth with high accuracy, as well as create a reliable pregnancy calendar by week
To do this, it is worth remembering how the process of childbirth occurs in a girl’s body:
- Bubbles form in the ovary immediately after menstruation. One is ahead of the others in growth and speed of development. It is in it that the female cell appears. The remaining follicles gradually disappear.
- The cell reaches its peak development and is ready to function, breaks through the follicle and is released. Its path lies in the direction of the uterus. Here, in the reproductive tract, fertilization by sperm should occur under favorable conditions. You will need to know this point in order to calculate the date of birth based on the date of conception.
- The fertilized cell continues its journey and ends with implantation in the uterus. This happens only 7 days after meeting the male cell.
- Subject to normal consolidation, the fetus begins its growth and development. This process is facilitated by progesterone, which is produced by the corpus luteum. The latter acts as a temporary gland, which grows on the wound from the rupture of the vesicle. It always appears, but if fertilization does not occur, it is structurally destroyed by the day of the next menstruation, leaving a small scar on the ovary.
- Changes occur in the structure of the mammary glands under the influence of progesterone. Signs of a new situation begin to appear, which is why the woman begins to look for ways to calculate the date of birth, create a calendar using a calculator, what tests need to be taken and when to visit her doctor for the first time.
Determining the due date and drawing up a pregnancy calendar based on the date of conception allows you to get the most reliable result
Ovulation and date of conception
So, in order to create a pregnancy calendar and calculate the date of birth, you need to calculate the day of fertilization of your cell. How can this be done, given the presence of daily sexual intercourse, for example? First, it is worth remembering that conception occurs only at the moment when the cell has already freed itself from the follicle membrane and has entered the sexual tract. Those. It is very easy to calculate the due date based on the date of ovulation. As you know, this process is very short and is usually equal to a day, which is why the error in calculations is practically eliminated.
Is it possible to find out the date of conception by date of birth?
When the baby has already been born, you can find out, again, the estimated date of conception. Why is this necessary? Many people want to know this simply for the sake of curiosity, but for some it helps in determining paternity.
So, remove a week from your date of birth and add three months. Add two weeks to the resulting result again. This will be the estimated date of conception, and you will be able to verify the correctness of your belief about the father or refute it.
So, we have become familiar with the methods of how to find out the date of conception. Is it possible to determine the gender of the unborn baby using it? How to plan the birth of a son or daughter, focusing on the days of ovulation?
How to calculate the day of conception
There are several methods to determine the day on which fertilization occurred. You can calculate the date of conception based on the last menstruation, the moment the child was born, ultrasound results, using an electronic test, etc. The accuracy of each of these methods depends on a number of factors: the regularity of the female cycle, the individual characteristics of the mother and child, and others.
Date of conception by menstrual cycle
This is one of the most popular methods. Doctors use it. They consider the date of conception to be the first day of the last menstruation. With this calculation, the obstetric period exceeds the embryonic period by two weeks. The method works when the cycle is regular, menstruation always comes on a certain day.
The method is not suitable for those women whose cycle is constantly shifting due to hormonal imbalances in the body.
By child's date of birth
Any woman can calculate the date of conception based on the date of birth. It is necessary to subtract a week from the baby’s birthday and add three months. This is how the obstetric gestational age is determined. If you add two weeks to the resulting result, you get the estimated moment of conception.
The advantage of this method is that it helps establish paternity without DNA tests. There is a drawback: the method is not the most accurate, since not all newborns are born on time.
The baby may be born not at 40, but at 42 or 38 weeks, which is considered quite normal.
Electronic test to determine the date of conception
This method is suitable for irregular cycles. The electronic test is easy to use, indicates an approximate, but close to reliable period already 3-4 days before the expected period. The test determines the presence of a specific substance produced by the female body only during pregnancy - human chorionic gonadotropin.
The disadvantage is the high cost compared to conventional strips.
Ultrasonography
The ultrasound method is one of the most reliable and accurate. Pregnancy can be seen in the fifth to seventh week. In some cases, ultrasound examination can also give erroneous calculations, since babies develop individually and often have different sizes at the same period.
How to find out gender?
On the Internet, on the advice of friends and relatives, many couples want to find out the sex of the child. By date of conception, by blood type, by positions used - there are so many methods! Whether to trust them or not is a purely personal matter, but you can still try. It is easier to find out the gender of the child by the date of conception; for this, tables were created by the sages of the East. Some of them, such as the Chinese one, are more than seven centuries old and are kept in museums. You don’t need to go to Beijing to look at this sign; we bring it to your attention in this publication.
How to find out the sex of a child by date of conception: table from China
This tablet will help you plan the sex of your child or determine it before an ultrasound. The upper numbers are the month of conception, going from top to bottom are the age of the expectant mother. The letters at the intersection indicate the meaning of gender. To use the table correctly, you need to add nine months to your age, because the Chinese count it not from birth, but from the month of conception.
We have already written how to find out the date of conception; what is important here is not the specific day, but the month in which ovulation occurred and fertilization occurred. Accordingly, in order to find out in advance who will be born and plan it, this table will help, because you can never be one hundred percent sure that conception has occurred or will occur on a specific day.
Calculator as a day teller
Some women wonder how to determine the day of conception of a child using this method. It works this way. 2 weeks are added to the first day of extreme menstruation. This is done due to the fact that ovulation and fertilization occur precisely in the middle of the menstrual cycle.
In the case of a 28-day menstrual cycle, such calculations are correct. If this period continues for 30 days, then ovulation is likely to occur on the 15th-16th.
The day the child was conceived does not always coincide with the day on which the sexual contact took place
A man's sperm have the ability to reach the egg within 5 days. This is influenced by the quality of sperm and the degree of maturity of a woman’s egg.
Possible table errors
Many couples plan everything, and pregnancy is no exception. It is important for parents that the baby is born in summer or winter, and therefore they choose the date of conception themselves. Many people don’t care whether it’s a son or a daughter, but there are still people who intend to give birth to a baby of a certain gender. This may be due to the fact that there are already three sons, and I want to finally braid my daughter’s hair and buy her elegant dresses. You can’t trust the table one hundred percent, and now we’ll tell you why.
It’s easy to find out your gender by the date of conception with a table if your ovulation occurs in the middle of the month or at the end. If it occurs in the first days of the month, then there can be a huge difference. As we have already written, male reproductive cells can live in the female uterus for up to several days. If sexual intercourse occurred in the last days of the month, and not in the first, then there is a high probability that fertilization will occur in the next month.
Parents can find out more accurate information about the sex of the baby from the results of an ultrasound scan, but this study can sometimes provide incorrect information.
Special cases
If a woman has an irregular cycle, a calculator will be of little help, especially if she does not remember the date of her last menstrual period. In this case, at up to 10-12 weeks it is important to do an ultrasound. It is during the first trimester that its results for determining the due date are most accurate.
This is due to the fact that all embryos develop at approximately the same speed, and after the end of the embryogenesis period, each baby begins to grow according to its own hereditary program given by the parents. In the early stages, the doctor can determine the due date based on the size of the fertilized egg within a few days.
Please note that the data in the ultrasound report is presented in obstetric weeks; in order to correctly understand when the approximate date of conception was, it is important to subtract 14 days from the indicated period.
For women after IVF, the question of calculating the date of conception does not arise at all. The conception was carried out by specialists - embryologists in the laboratory, it was controlled by doctors, and its date is absolutely known. But other questions may arise, for example, how to calculate the date of birth and gestational age. In this case, you should use a special calculator in which you need to indicate the date of transfer of the embryos into the uterus and the age of the embryos in days at the time of transfer. The program can calculate the rest as accurately as possible.
Sometimes you can come across a question that seems strange at first glance: it is usually asked by men who doubt their paternity - is it possible to calculate when a child was conceived by the date of birth. This is even more difficult to do than during pregnancy. Here's why: pregnancy lasts 288 days on average. But a normal full-term pregnancy can end in childbirth at 38 weeks, 39 weeks, and 42 weeks, and not just on the day of pregnancy (end of 40 weeks). Therefore, the very date of birth of a child cannot indicate exactly when he was conceived. In this situation, it is better to turn to geneticists and do a DNA test to determine paternity.
medical reviewer, psychosomatics specialist, mother of 4 children
Grandmother's method of gender recognition
People of the older generation are able to determine the gender of the unborn baby just by looking at the mother. They say that girls take away their beauty, but boys add it! If you have pimples, the contours of your face are blurred, then most likely you will give birth to a daughter. If the skin has become healthier in appearance, acne has disappeared, the contours of the face have become clearer, then expect a son!
You can also look at the tummy. Boys live in straight, straight bellies. If you look at the expectant mother from the back, the pregnancy will not be noticeable, since the entire belly has leaned forward. Girls distribute their belly to the sides, it does not protrude forward much, but it spreads well to the sides!
You can also follow your desires. Boys are less whimsical, and you won’t want to try fresh watermelon in the middle of winter, and even at night. This is for example. If you notice that there is a need to eat something that you would not normally consume, you can assume that you are expecting the birth of a daughter.
We hope that this publication will not only be interesting, but also useful. We wish you and your little ones great health, and this is more important than gender!
