Pregnancy Week 1 - When does pregnancy start?
Are you in pregnancy week 1? When does pregnancy start? The answers to these questions really depend on what chart or system you are using. Our website will be using the same system that most obstetricians go by, which is the gestational age (menstrual age).
Your gestational age actually begins on the 1st day of your last period. The abbreviation for this would be (LMP), which stands for last menstrual period. With this method the average length of pregnancy is 40 weeks. So pregnancy week 1 would be the week of your period, and you would not conceive for another two weeks or so.
The reason why most doctors use this method is because many women do not know with certainty the exact day that they conceived their baby. But most women can remember the first day of their last period.
So when does pregnancy start, officially? Is it one week after your period, two, or three? Even though you start calculating your gestation from the first day of your last period there are a few steps that must occur before a viable pregnancy is established. The egg must mature to the state where it is possible to be fertilized. In a normal menstrual cycle only one egg will reach a point of maturity to be released.
You must ovulate, which is the releasing of the mature egg (or ovum) into the fallopian tube in hopes of becoming fertilized further along the fallopian tube. The ovum must be penetrated by the male sperm and fertilized. When this meeting of the sperm and egg happens it is considered the moment of conception. From this point on the fertilized egg is referred to as a zygote (or fertilized ovum).
The zygote divides into two cells, and then keeps dividing every twelve to twenty hours as it continues traveling down the fallopian tube into the uterus.
By day 5 after conception, the cluster of divided cells is referred to as a blastocyst. The blastocyst must implant itself into the endometrium, or the thickened inner wall of the uterus, where it can continue to develop into an embryo.
If any of these steps do not happen, or aren't successful, then you will not succeed with impregnation. Many women have had a fertilized egg, or zygote occur during their monthly cycle without a successful implantation and were not aware of it. Their period may have come early, late, lasted a little longer than usual, or there could have been no noticeable changes at all.
It isn't until after implantation has occurred and pregnancy hormones are being produced by the body that pregnancy can be officially confirmed. This positive confirmation can come from a home pregnancy test (urine test) or a blood test. But getting back to the original question about pregnancy week 1, if you are following the doctors gestational age calendar then the first week of pregnancy begins on the first day of your last menstrual period.
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What Other Visitors Have Said
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I had lost my period
Q. I had lost my period for a month and I tried my pregnancy test and shows me positive which means I am pregnant?
A. Yes, you are very possibly pregnant ...
Is brown discharge a sign of pregnancy Is brown discharge a sign of pregnancy? I wanted to know because my period is almost 5 days early instead of late, but it is not the normal color. I have ...
Worried! I had my last menstrual period on November 13th 2010 and it lasted around 4 days. My fiancee and I had unprotected sex on November 19th and November 28th....
Please Help. I already spoke to my Obgyn but Im still concerned about a couple issues. My last LMP was MAY 13 2010, I found out I was Pregnant June 30, 2010 and at ...
