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Finding the Conception Date

Young couples who want to start their family sometimes wonder what is the actual conception date, or better yet, the due date from conception? Conception is that moment when the female egg is fertilized. As a start, a woman wants to know what are the conception symptoms. Many women who use a conception calculator and a conception chart to keep track of their menstrual cycle are better able to determine the conception date when it happens.

The female reproductive cycle is a complex process. It is driven by hormones and various small organs within the body that we don't usually think about from day to day. The date of conception is determined by these hormones acting in tandem with a woman's menstrual cycle and ovulation.

Once a woman becomes pregnant, the physician estimate the conception day, and hence the due date by conception, based upon the first day of her last period. It can be confusing. Another way to put it is that ovulation happened about two weeks after the start of the last period. And if everything is working as expected, then conception can be determined, or at least calculated.

The thing is, ovulation itself is not exact based upon a woman's cycle. There are often variations during the menstrual cycle and even more often during the first two weeks before ovulation.

But once ovulation begins, menstruation starts two weeks later. The differences that come up are usually from those first two weeks prior to ovulation. Physicians tack on those extra two weeks because they are unsure as to when the woman really ovulated.

Date of Conception

When the sperm meets the egg and conception begins, the cells begin to divide. This dividing cellular mass is called the zygote. It takes about 10 to 14 days after ovulation for the zygote to travel through the fallopian tubes and into the uterus where it becomes a new baby.

Women who track their menstrual cycle notice that ovulation occurs approximately 14 days after the start of the menstrual period. Semen implantation needs to take place 10 to 14 days after that. Then, if conception takes place, many women experience mild cramping and spotting when the zygote takes hold in the uterus.

Although conception actually happens in the fallopian tubes when the sperm and the egg meet, the body does not recognize the pregnancy until the fertilized egg implants itself in the uterine wall. When actual implantation takes place, there is an increase in hormone levels that trigger additional changes. And once implanted as the fertilized egg, it starts sending signals for the body to continue producing progesterone so the uterus can remain fertile.

During this time new levels of chorionic gonadotropin are released and double their volume every other day. An early pregnancy test may show that pregnancy took place approximately 7 days after ovulation, that is, conception. But it is quite rare to see a positive test like that and even more uncommon earlier than 7 days. The best chance of seeing a positive pregnancy result is with a urine test around 10 to 12 days post-ovulation when the developing baby has begun to secrete human chorionic gonadotropin.

All of this means that conception begins when the sperm meets the egg in the fallopian tube and begins to divide itself in the uterus into a brand-new baby.

The previous article is on knowing how to Improve Your Fertilility.

Other wiki resources: causes of infertility; conception; how to get pregnant; artifical insemination; infertility studies; fertility after 40