How accurate are conception indicators?

[Kat91]

I took 3 pregnancy tests today (just found out I'm pregnant through them) and one of them was the clear blue pregnancy test that tells you how far along you are as well, my question is, is it reliable to go by? mine came out as 2-3 weeks but I spoke to my doctor on the phone and she asked me when was my last period, well I don't keep track of them because they're very irregular, but I guessed about 1.5 months-2 months or something like that and she said I'm probably about 5 weeks along?? so which one do i go by? lol

 

[Nat26]

Hi Kat,

I think the conception indicators are fairly accurate, mine was. If its 2-3 weeks since you conceived you would be 5 weeks pregnant as your pregnancy is dated from your last period. So in theory the first couple of weeks youre not actually pregnant lol

Hope this helps

Welcome to Tri 1, hope you have a happy healthy 9 months xx

 

[Laura_C]

I'm not sure how accurate they are tbh I must have high hcg in this pregnancy as i took the cbd test at 4+5 weeks and it came up 3+!! My last pregnancy took ages for me to get to 2-3 weeks as I ov'd later than I thought!

 

[i.love]

Hi Kat,

I think the conception indicators are fairly accurate, mine was. If its 2-3 weeks since you conceived you would be 5 weeks pregnant as your pregnancy is dated from your last period. So in theory the first couple of weeks youre not actually pregnant lol

Hope this helps

Welcome to Tri 1, hope you have a happy healthy 9 months xx

sorry? are you sure about this? It sounds very confusing.

Surely the pregnancy is counted since the day of the conception. Mine definitely was! That's why if you had last period about 4 weeks ago, they would date you at about 2 weeks or so.

 

[Constantstar]

Yes if u look at the leaflet it shows a chart. If I remember correctly its whatever the indicator says plus 2 weeks really as docs count from ur last period x
x

 

[DW1978]

Hi Kat,

I think the conception indicators are fairly accurate, mine was. If its 2-3 weeks since you conceived you would be 5 weeks pregnant as your pregnancy is dated from your last period. So in theory the first couple of weeks youre not actually pregnant lol

Hope this helps

Welcome to Tri 1, hope you have a happy healthy 9 months xx

sorry? are you sure about this? It sounds very confusing.

Surely the pregnancy is counted since the day of the conception. Mine definitely was! That's why if you had last period about 4 weeks ago, they would date you at about 2 weeks or so.

Pregnancy is counted from the 1st day of your last period, so she is correct that you count two weeks when you're not actually pregnant. My LMP was 19th Jan so my due date before my scan was the 26th October (LMP + 9 months + 7 days is a really quick way to do it). Now I've had my scan I've been pushed back 2 days.

I think the clearblue tests work from conception so you should add 2 weeks to the date on the test i.e. if it says 1-2 then you are 3-4 weeks, if it says 3+ then you are 5+ weeks.

 

[lynne_n]

Pregnancy is dated from the first day of your last period.
You don't actually conceive till aprox 2 weeks later.. so a 2-3 on the test means you are at least 4-5 weeks pregnant
However i got a 3+ on my test and i should have only been 4 weeks from my lmp so i don't think it's reliable at all

 

[Laura_C]

Pregnancy is dated from the first day of your last period.
You don't actually conceive till aprox 2 weeks later.. so a 2-3 on the test means you are at least 4-5 weeks pregnant
However i got a 3+ on my test and i should have only been 4 weeks from my lmp so i don't think it's reliable at all

Same here!

 

[i.love]

right, I think you are talking about gestational age.

when I had my scan done, it said on it that the gestational age is 10 weeks 4 days, but the term of pregnancy is 8 weeks 5 days. So there are two ways to count it, but I believe that second one is more important?

Well I just had a look for fetal pole sizes here: http://www.earlypregnancy.org.uk/Your_Care.asp?ID1=12 . It says that at week 8 it should be 16-22 mm, and in my case it was 20 mm, which is right for 8w+5d, not for 10w+4d! So they also talk about 8 weeks after conception, not the gestational age.

hope I make sense?

sorry don't mean to confuse anyone, just seems quite important. For example, when booking a 12w scan, it was booked for me for my 12 'proper' weeks, not GA weeks.

 

[Kat91]

um...im even more confused now lol!

so when i read up on books and the net about pregnancy stages and embryo/fetus development...which one do i use? 2-3 weeks or 5 weeks? I'm confused...i understand the difference in conception timing and the way doctors count it (why do they do that?) but which one do i go by when im looking at info on the net about my baby's development?? sorry im all new to this *blush*

 

[i.love]

um...im even more confused now lol!

so when i read up on books and the net about pregnancy stages and embryo/fetus development...which one do i use? 2-3 weeks or 5 weeks? I'm confused...i understand the difference in conception timing and the way doctors count it (why do they do that?) but which one do i go by when im looking at info on the net about my baby's development?? sorry im all new to this *blush*

sorry to confuse you.. I'm rather confused myself now, honestly saying. I knew about GA before, but didn't think it was used for anything, but looks like it might be in some cases...

 

[Laura_C]

All medical professionals will count your dates from your LMP, this is how all of my 4 pregnancies have been calculated not from the GA. I have never had anyone calculate my pregnancy from the GA before.

You would read info for 5 weeks pregnant if that is when your LMP was.

The conception indicators are:

1-2 = 3-4 weeks pregnant
2-3 = 4-5 weeks pregnant
3+ = 5+ weeks pregnant

You will then have a dating scan at between 10-14 weeks from your LMP that will provide you with a more accurate due date dependent on when you ovulated, but you do get 2 'free' weeks so to speak!

For example:

My LMP was 22nd January, we BD on 6th February - I had a positive pregnancy test on 25th February which made me either 4+3 or 4+5 weeks due to my cycle from my LMP - my period was late that month and usually appears on 20th of the month. I had an early scan on 10th March which confirmed I was 6w and 4d as the fetal pole measured 4mm. The hospital confirmed that my dates were correct and they most definitely worked this out from my LMP.

 

[Kat91]

um...im even more confused now lol!

so when i read up on books and the net about pregnancy stages and embryo/fetus development...which one do i use? 2-3 weeks or 5 weeks? I'm confused...i understand the difference in conception timing and the way doctors count it (why do they do that?) but which one do i go by when im looking at info on the net about my baby's development?? sorry im all new to this *blush*

sorry to confuse you.. I'm rather confused myself now, honestly saying. I knew about GA before, but didn't think it was used for anything, but looks like it might be in some cases...

that's okay,it's confusing stuff!

All medical professionals will count your dates from your LMP, this is how all of my 4 pregnancies have been calculated not from the GA. I have never had anyone calculate my pregnancy from the GA before.

You would read info for 5 weeks pregnant if that is when your LMP was.

The conception indicators are:

1-2 = 3-4 weeks pregnant
2-3 = 4-5 weeks pregnant
3+ = 5+ weeks pregnant

You will then have a dating scan at between 10-14 weeks from your LMP that will provide you with a more accurate due date dependent on when you ovulated, but you do get 2 'free' weeks so to speak!

For example:

My LMP was 22nd January, we BD on 6th February - I had a positive pregnancy test on 25th February which made me either 4+3 or 4+5 weeks due to my cycle from my LMP - my period was late that month and usually appears on 20th of the month. I had an early scan on 10th March which confirmed I was 6w and 4d as the fetal pole measured 4mm. The hospital confirmed that my dates were correct and they most definitely worked this out from my LMP.

why do they do that? makes more sense to count it from the conception surely? what does LMP stand for? sorry I'm completely new to all this

 

[i.love]

right, girls, sorry for confusing everyone! After an hour or so of reseacrhing stuff on internet together with my husband, we at last found out what the two different ages on my scans are about.

they both were gestational ages! Just one is the gestational age calculated by LMP, which in my case is a very inaccurate method as my cycle is almost 40 days long, not standard 28. So at the bottom of my scan I had another date without any explanation about it. This, I believe, is also a GA but according to the size of the baby's fetal pole.

This put me 2 weeks behind (to be expected due to my long cycles). This 2 weeks difference confused me as I thought that the second age was the baby's age, which is also 2 weeks less.

So, Kat91, it looks like you should be going with the GA (it's usually calculated based on your LMP date. However, LMP calculations are sometimes not very accurate, as in my case, so GA can be calculated by the baby's fetal pole size if you have an early scan)! I would say you are about 5 weeks

 

[i.love]

um...im even more confused now lol!

so when i read up on books and the net about pregnancy stages and embryo/fetus development...which one do i use? 2-3 weeks or 5 weeks? I'm confused...i understand the difference in conception timing and the way doctors count it (why do they do that?) but which one do i go by when im looking at info on the net about my baby's development?? sorry im all new to this *blush*

sorry to confuse you.. I'm rather confused myself now, honestly saying. I knew about GA before, but didn't think it was used for anything, but looks like it might be in some cases...

that's okay,it's confusing stuff!

All medical professionals will count your dates from your LMP, this is how all of my 4 pregnancies have been calculated not from the GA. I have never had anyone calculate my pregnancy from the GA before.

You would read info for 5 weeks pregnant if that is when your LMP was.

The conception indicators are:

1-2 = 3-4 weeks pregnant
2-3 = 4-5 weeks pregnant
3+ = 5+ weeks pregnant

You will then have a dating scan at between 10-14 weeks from your LMP that will provide you with a more accurate due date dependent on when you ovulated, but you do get 2 'free' weeks so to speak!

For example:

My LMP was 22nd January, we BD on 6th February - I had a positive pregnancy test on 25th February which made me either 4+3 or 4+5 weeks due to my cycle from my LMP - my period was late that month and usually appears on 20th of the month. I had an early scan on 10th March which confirmed I was 6w and 4d as the fetal pole measured 4mm. The hospital confirmed that my dates were correct and they most definitely worked this out from my LMP.

why do they do that? makes more sense to count it from the conception surely? what does LMP stand for? sorry I'm completely new to all this

LMP is Last Menstrual Period, I believe

 

[Kat91]

right, girls, sorry for confusing everyone! After an hour or so of reseacrhing stuff on internet together with my husband, we at last found out what the two different ages on my scans are about.

they both were gestational ages! Just one is the gestational age calculated by LMP, which in my case is a very inaccurate method as my cycle is almost 40 days long, not standard 28. So at the bottom of my scan I had another date without any explanation about it. This, I believe, is also a GA but according to the size of the baby's fetal pole.

This put me 2 weeks behind (to be expected due to my long cycles). This 2 weeks difference confused me as I thought that the second age was the baby's age, which is also 2 weeks less.

So, Kat91, it looks like you should be going with the GA (it's usually calculated based on your LMP date. However, LMP calculations are sometimes not very accurate, as in my case, so GA can be calculated by the baby's fetal pole size if you have an early scan)! I would say you are about 5 weeks

I see! i think mine's going to have to be calculate by looking at the fetal pole size because my periods are all over the place, that' why i never keep record of them. I can have a period today and have one in about a month, 2 months, 3 months or even 4 months!! it's mad...so i never have a regualr cycle

 

[Sam's Mum]

Until you have a scan they'll go by your LMP, but those dates assume you have an 'average' 28 day cycle, and ovulate two weeks into it - which isn't the case for a lot of people! x

 

[i.love]

right, girls, sorry for confusing everyone! After an hour or so of reseacrhing stuff on internet together with my husband, we at last found out what the two different ages on my scans are about.

they both were gestational ages! Just one is the gestational age calculated by LMP, which in my case is a very inaccurate method as my cycle is almost 40 days long, not standard 28. So at the bottom of my scan I had another date without any explanation about it. This, I believe, is also a GA but according to the size of the baby's fetal pole.

This put me 2 weeks behind (to be expected due to my long cycles). This 2 weeks difference confused me as I thought that the second age was the baby's age, which is also 2 weeks less.

So, Kat91, it looks like you should be going with the GA (it's usually calculated based on your LMP date. However, LMP calculations are sometimes not very accurate, as in my case, so GA can be calculated by the baby's fetal pole size if you have an early scan)! I would say you are about 5 weeks

I see! i think mine's going to have to be calculate by looking at the fetal pole size because my periods are all over the place, that' why i never keep record of them. I can have a period today and have one in about a month, 2 months, 3 months or even 4 months!! it's mad...so i never have a regualr cycle

well hun I had my dates confirmed during a scan because I had bleeding and needed to have an early scan. Hope everything will be going perfect for you and you won't need that! But as you did this advanced test you can probably trust it's results. It measures the level of your hormones, right? This must be pretty accurate, even if you don't know the length of your cycle.