How is the gestational age calculated by week, from what day?

2024 Author: Priscilla Miln | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 00:21

How is the gestational age calculated by weeks and days? First of all, the girl or her gynecologist should find out when the direct conception occurred. Without this information, it is problematic to determine the stage of fetal development. Fortunately, there are different ways to cope with the task. And each woman can independently decide how exactly she should conduct calculations. Next, we will try to consider all the existing options for the development of events.

Types of terms

Every girl can calculate the gestational age by weeks and days. The main thing is to know how to act in this or that case.

But first you have to remember one simple truth - the gestational age can be different. It is conditionally divided into two types. Which ones?

You can find out information about the obstetric gestational age, or you can find out about the embryonic. These periods are slightly different from each other. And so sometimes unprepared women have some problems. All of them are solvable. And furtherwe will try to understand how not to get confused in the periods indicated above.

About obstetrics

How is the obstetric gestational age calculated by weeks and even days? First of all, you need to understand what it is all about.

Obstetric term is considered to be the gestational age, counted from the first day of the last menstruation. It helps to set the DA, as well as to understand exactly when conception could occur.

About embryonic

You can also hear from a doctor or an ultrasound specialist about the embryonic period. What is this?

This is the term used to call the immediate development of the fetus. It is two weeks less than obstetric. Serves as a faithful assistant in determining the pathologies of the development of the unborn baby.

Counting methods

Calculating the gestational age in weeks or days is not as difficult as it seems. The main thing is to choose for yourself one or another method of obtaining the information a woman needs.

At the moment, you can find out about pregnancy and assume its term:

• by blood test;
• using ultrasound;
• through the gynecological calendar;
• calendar counting method;
• using fetal movements;
• online calculator;
• on the DA, if delivered;
• according to the basal temperature chart.

You can also purchase a special electronic pregnancy test at the pharmacy. Some of these devices show not only successful conception, but also the term thereof. True, you will have to spend money on the test.

It is usually problematic to determine the exact gestational age by weeks without the help of specialist doctors. All of the above methods, with the exception of taking tests, a visit to a gynecologist, as well as an ultrasound examination room, cannot be considered reliable. But together they provide the most accurate data.

Important: when determining the stage of development of pregnancy, it is recommended to focus on the obstetric period.

Last period

How is the gestational age in weeks calculated correctly? It all depends on what kind of data the girl wants to receive. Let's start by calculating the obstetric gestational age. It, as already mentioned, helps to guess the date of birth, which is an extremely important point.

Usually, girls calculate their pregnancy from their last period. You need to remember when the last menstruation was, and then think about when it started. The time interval between the start date of the calculations and the beginning of the critical days is the gestational age. It can be counted in days, weeks and even months - as you wish.

By blood

Interested in gestational age? How many weeks should I wait before seeing a doctor or before using a special pregnancy test?

In general, you should not rush to check for the success of conception - everything has its time. Early diagnosis can be misleading, for good reason.

The thing is that immediately after the conception of a baby, certain changes begin to occur in a woman's body. The "pregnancy hormone" is produced in the blood. It is calledHCG. That's what pregnancy tests do. It changes depending on the term of the interesting position.

The table above will help you estimate the gestational age based on the results of the hCG blood test. It is better to wait for a delay in menstruation before taking it. Otherwise, the girl may miss the pregnancy in the early stages.

BT Calendar

Until how many weeks is early pregnancy? This is usually how the first trimester of an interesting position is described, up to 12 weeks (obstetric). Up to this point, every pregnant woman can, of her own free will, have an abortion or register with the LCD in order to receive appropriate benefits in the future.

In any case, you first need to understand that the conception was successful. This is not always easy to do, but if a woman is attentive to her body, you can try to achieve the necessary data as early as possible. The chart of basal temperature helps to judge the successful conception of a baby. True, it will have to be conducted in advance and for several months.

Usually, during ovulation, BBT rises to 37-37.7 degrees, stays at such values for several days, and then, if conception does not occur, drops to normal. In the case of pregnancy, the temperature remains elevated in the early stages. So, the deviation of the BBT schedule from the norm is a clear sign of successful conception.

What now? You need to look at the basal temperature chart and determinenote the date of conception of the baby. After that, it remains only to calculate the difference between the day of pregnancy and the time when the girl decided to make the appropriate calculations.

Movement

How is the gestational age calculated by week? The main problem sometimes becomes determining the date of conception of a child. And therefore, it is necessary to carry out the corresponding calculations by various methods.

Some girls can tell they are pregnant by the movements of the fetus. However, they don't usually wait that long. The thing is that the girl can feel the first movements of the unborn baby in the second trimester - at the 16-20th week. Accordingly, it is quite easy to understand from them when pregnancy occurred, conception occurred, and also to put the PDR.

Internet calculator

The gestational age by weeks and days for every woman can be found out without leaving home. True, this technique is somewhat reminiscent of the calendar method for determining the obstetric gestational age. We are talking about the use of special online calculators on a variety of women's sites and forums.

Usually, in order to use this technique, it is recommended to proceed as follows:

1. Remember when your last period was. More specifically, when it started.
2. Find and open the so-called pregnancy calculator on the Internet.
3. Write the average difference in days between critical days, as well as the date of the last critical days.
4. Click on the button responsible for starting calculations.

All that's left now is -look carefully at the screen. It will display information about the due date, as well as the current gestational age in weeks and days. Very comfortably! There is no need to use the calendar method and calculate the relevant data yourself.

If EDA is known

How is the gestational age calculated by week? The answer to this kind of question is already known. But the methods listed above are not exhaustive. You can achieve the desired result in different ways. True, it is better to give preference to medical methods for diagnosing pregnancy and setting the PDR.

It happens that the doctor reports the estimated date of birth, and the woman forgets the rest of the information. If you can’t look at it in the exchange card or help, you can find out for yourself when an interesting situation has come.

For this, 9 months must be subtracted from the estimated date of birth. The resulting time is the beginning of the obstetric gestational age. Accordingly, with the help of this, you can understand at what stage of development of an interesting position the girl is. There is nothing difficult in this - only the simplest mathematical operations.

About tests

Calculating the gestational age by weeks and days, as you can see, is not as difficult as it seems initially. In any case, if a woman is responsible for her body and knows its features well.

It was previously emphasized that with the help of a special pregnancy test, a girlcan find out about the gestational age. To accomplish this task, you just need to buy an electronic pregnancy test at a pharmacy, for example, Clearblue. It shows both the presence of a successful conception and the period of an interesting position in weeks.

Suppose the test is purchased. Now what? Usually you need to do the following:

1. Wait until your period is missed. Up to this point, the test (even electronic) may be wrong.
2. Take a pregnancy test in the morning and urinate on it.
3. Place the device on a vertical dry surface (preferably).
4. View the output.

This diagnostic is available to every girl, it takes only a few minutes. True, pregnancy tests can be wrong. And therefore, as already mentioned, it is better to contact specialist doctors if you suspect a successful conception. Only they are able to most accurately set the gestational age, as well as determine the pathology of the fetus, while also setting the estimated date of birth.

Ultrasound

Medical diagnosis of an interesting position is the most accurate. If a girl wants to quickly understand that she is pregnant, you need to give preference to more accurate methods for solving the problem. There aren't many of them.

You can go and get an ultrasound. According to the duration of pregnancy (in weeks), both the PDR, the embryonic period, and even the pathology of pregnancy are determined. Can they predict the date of birth in this way? Quite.

The specialist doctor will do an ultrasound of the pelvic organs, and then report the presence orno successful conception. In the first case, they can also assume or accurately name the gestational age. At the 6-8th week, the fetal heartbeat begins to be heard and seen.

Important: if you come to the ultrasound too early, some medical specialists may confuse the fetal egg with an inflammatory process or a cyst. Such cases do occur in practice, although not too often.

It is recommended to visit the ultrasound room to determine pregnancy only after the critical days did not come on time. Until this happens, the probability of error will be quite high.

At the gynecologist

How is the gestational age by weeks, we found out. You can always clarify information about the fetus, as well as about the development of pregnancy, with a gynecologist. This specialist collects an anamnesis, and then provides the patient with information of interest to her.

As a rule, at the first visit to the gynecologist due to pregnancy, the doctor asks:

• when was the last unprotected intercourse;
• how long does your period last;
• when was the last period;
• is there a delay of critical days.

With the help of this information on a special gynecological calendar, the doctor marks the beginning of pregnancy, and then determines its current term, sets the EDD.

Also, a woman will have to undergo an examination on a gynecological chair. The gynecologist will be able to determine whether there is a pregnancy by the state of the internal organs of the girl. For example, on the cervix - it becomes bluish.

With IVF andnormal cycle

Interested in gestational age? How many weeks a girl is pregnant is not so difficult to find out. The main thing is to act consistently, as well as decide on the appropriate diagnostic method.

Increasingly, couples are undergoing IVF. In this case, the definition of the day of the onset of pregnancy has its own characteristics. Women with a normal cycle, as a rule, can focus on the day when the last critical days began. The obstetric term will be counted from the corresponding day.

IVF and long cycle

The situation with IVF is somewhat different if a woman has a long menstrual cycle. In this case, the obstetric period will differ from the embryonic one by about a month. Such a difference is unacceptable, it leads to serious problems in determining the EDD, as well as the current gestational age and fetal pathologies.

What to do if a woman has undergone IVF, and she has a long menstrual cycle? In this situation, as a rule, it is necessary to consider the development of gestation from the moment of embryo transfer. And the beginning of the last critical days of gynecologists in this case is not particularly interested. In any case, such information for calculating the time of development of pregnancy will be superfluous.

Conclusion

We figured out how to calculate the gestational age in weeks as well as days and months. There are different ways to deal with this problem. It is better to use several methods at once to obtain the data of interest, as well as consult a specialist doctor.

Somegirls say they realize they are pregnant as soon as they conceive. Nobody canceled internal intuition, but you should not rely on it. And trust the harbingers of a successful conception, like toxicosis and implantation bleeding, too. These symptoms may indicate a hormonal imbalance. Is the woman a week late? The gestation period in this case is usually about 4 weeks. It's about obstetrics. As soon as there is a delay in menstruation, you need to take a test and go to the doctor.