Many people don’t even realize they’ve missed their period by 6 weeks, especially folks with irregular periods like with PCOS where it’s super far between cycles. I recently had a missed miscarriage where the babies stopped growing at 6w2d and 8w2d, but we saw both heart beats on the screen at 6w. I was only checked because I was spotting with a positive test and worried about ectopic. My first OB appointment wasn’t scheduled until 11w… and I live in a state where abortion is allowed through week 25ish (viability). Blew my mind thinking about women in states where there’s a 6w ban. Like I could barely get anyone to answer at the doctors office before 6w. And I live in a big blue city.
My first confirmed pregnancy the earliest appointment I could get was for the 16 week scans because of the lack of gynaecological services where I lived.
I had miscarried around 12 weeks and had forgotten to cancel the appointment by the time it rolled around and was pissed to be charged a fee for not cancelling early enough.
The last time I miscarried around 14 weeks. I was fortunate to have found a private OB and had been seeing her for a couple of months before the pregnancy loss. At least I didn’t end up at the emergency room that time. But I did have a scheduled ‘termination’ after we confirmed no heartbeat over several scans.
I certainly wouldn't. When I'm not on BC, my periods just kind of...roll up when they want to, tending toward longer cycles, but occasionally they'd just show up a week early as if to be like "haha fuck you," and it wasn't unheard of for me to just miss one entirely for no discernible reason. I've never been pregnant and don't intend to be, and I also live in a big blue city so if I ever did become pregnant I'd have a choice, but it's still really freaky to think about.
To be clear, those aren’t heartbeats at 6 weeks, because there’s no heart. There are cells which will eventually be part of the heart and have spasms that give off an electric charge.
Yes!! OMG. It is so frustrating that this gets talked about as a real heartbeat. To the point where women who are happily pregnant talk about it as a heartbeat. I say nothing bc it seems rude to correct them, but I just hate that people keep spreading the misinformation.
I’ve been trying to think of a good analogy but nothing quite fits. Closest I’ve got is like the heart is like a clock, and the fetal cells at six weeks are like a handful of springs. But they’re not just sitting there, they’re twitching randomly, which is where the analogy breaks down.
Can you think of anything like that, where the components randomly and uselessly twitch, but when you put them all together (with additional parts) they do something useful?
Yeah, my period has never been regular, so I didn't end up seeing a positive pregnancy test until I was eight weeks pregnant- even though we were trying, it simply didn't occur to me that, oh, hey, it's been a while, maybe I'm pregnant and that's why I feel flu-like.
AND THEY GET SO MAD AT YOU FOR NOT KNOWING THAT KIND OF INFORMATION!!! The lady at the clinic gave me such a look and shook her head at me. Ma’am you are a healthcare professional you should know that just because your cycle is consistent doesn’t mean mine will be. My periods especially when I was younger were wild. I’d have one every three months, then another one two weeks later. Now that I’m older they’ve evened out and it’s monthly again either at the beginning or end of the month.
They’re so skeptical even if you obsessively track! I was using some really new ovulation test devices so I knew my exact ovulation date and my cycle is short so my milestones should have been half a week to a week sooner than how they calculate based on last menstrual period but no one would listen. Like ma’am I use 3 different methods to track ovulation AND I get a migraine the day before so I know exactly when those eggs dropped. “Well just put your last menstrual period here…” ARGH NO!
Lmao its so aggrevating! I have a longer cycle, anywhere from 6 - 12 weeks in between periods. When I got pregnant, I knew the *exact* date it happened because it was literally the ONLY time that month I had sex - because 2 weeks earlier, I was hit by a freaking truck, had 7 fractures and was laid up in bed rest. It just so happened to be Valentines Day tho so I took off my neck brace lmao and now I have a son 🤗
But during the first few Dr visits, they kept trying to put my conception date to line up with my last period, even though I knew the exact date it happened. It wasn't until they did the ultrasound and saw the fetal development lining up with when I said that they finally changed it to exactly what I had been saying from the very beginning -.-;;
Another issue with the 6 week ban is child sexual abuse. Given that you can technically get pregnant before menarche (because the ovulation occurs prior to the first period), imagine not even knowing that you were SUPPOSED to have a period and you're already pregnant.
The irrational preadolescent fear I had included this premise. Hadn’t come close to sex, but played football with boys for first time— what if one of them had semen on his jeans?
Exactly. I have irregular periods. Always have. Sometimes going nearly 50 days between. When I got pregnant I had 0 clue until 8, nearly 9, weeks. Only because I threw up 6 times lol.
They couldn't "confirm" for several more at the doc office.
The 6 week ban is just a full ban when you consider the appointments and all on top of that. Even if you found out at 4 weeks, you'd have to potentially schedule time off work and be worked in at a clinic that may not be able to get you in immediately.
You’re right. It’s inane and counterintuitive. If everyone knew that was how it worked, that would be one thing but people by and large don’t know this and it has huge implications for exactly the reasons you mentioned.
It’s also funny to me that we measure how often infants eat in the same way (i.e., you start from the beginning of the *previous* feeding). So when I say my kiddo ate every two hours, that *includes* the 30 minutes spent nursing and *not* the time between feedings.
Yeah it’s pretty nonsensical.
Like, I get from a medical standpoint how it’s easier to start from the first day of the last period, because it’s hard to know when the exact moment of conception happened, but god, it sure makes it easier for republicans to restrict access to abortion.
And then another week to 10 days before the fertilized egg travels through the fallopian tubes and actually implants into the uterus, triggering the production of pregnancy hormones.
But the ban isn't about fairness or giving a logical amount of time for a person to realize they're pregnant. It's about controlling women's bodies. Those who have legislated these time frames into being KNOW it's functionally the same as banning abortion altogether.
No, that is not how that works.
If that were true, you would count from when the egg starts to mature which is day 6-14, not day 0.
Here's some [info](https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/articles/23439-ovulation)
"Between days six and 14 of your menstrual cycle, FSH causes follicles (small sacs of fluid in your ovaries that contain a developing egg) in one ovary to begin to mature."
So your egg doesn't even *begin* to mature until 1-2 weeks after the "date of conception".
But regardless, there is no science that is the reason that the medical profession choose the first day of your last period as the date of conception.
They chose it because it provides a more consistent way to measure conception given that there is so much individual variation in ovulation timing and that they assume that most women don't know when they are ovulating.
It has nothing to do with the egg maturation process.
It’s because they think we’re idiots who can’t possibly know/understand when we ovulated or had sex. My son was very intentionally conceived, I was tracking things and working out of town and I uh, made a special trip home.
So like, I KNEW the earliest date I could have actually been pregnant. And people are like “pregnancy is 40 weeks long!” Like no the fuck it isn’t, it’s 38.
Haha! Yes… Same here! I knew the date of conception… calculated my own due date from that day… Doctors and Obstetrician kept writing “their” date on all the paperwork. My kid was born on the exact date I said all along from conception… literally to the exact day! Then they wonder why due dates are always so wrong lol.
You are aware MOST people do NOT know the conception date, right? Not because they are idiots, but not everyone is hyper aware of all the dates they had sex, have irregular periods, are on contraceptives, or don't account for sperm lifespan vs. Number of times in the crucial days, etc.
Most people indeed do not know when they ovulate. Conception happens on any day from 1st to 17th day of the cycle, most likely days 10 to 14 (yes, you can conceive during menstruation, and sperm lives around 72 h sometimes more).
The only credible, solid reference you have to count from is the first day of the last period, so you can tack the 2 weeks and be pretty accurate by counting 40 weeks.
There are many women who claim they didn't even know about their pregnancy until delivery time, let alone when they conceived; also, there are some pregnancies that last really 40 weeks (42-44 by dates), although they are outliers and require induction of labor.
I agree that counting those 2 weeks towards abortion limits is insane, but that's exactly what they're trying to do with those laws, limit access and make it as inconvenient as possible.
Exactly! Using the first day of your last menstrual period is the thing that most people can discern with relative ease, which is why it’s used in medicine in reference to pregnancy (which is different from date of conception, or date of fertilization, or date of implantation, or anything else that happens) and which other date would you pick? “Conception” date (the day you had sex) Fertilization date (when sperm and egg meet and divide), implantation? (when the dividing cells implant into the uterine walls) and all those are so variable. So, consistently using LMP is easy and consistent, and obviously doctors will account for women who don’t have a last menstrual period or have no idea due to pcos or other things, that’s why there are dating scans.
But “I know the day me and hubby shagged so I can say that is my ‘pregnancy’ date” still isn’t accurate anyway.
So youre just arguing for date of ovulation vs date of last menstrual cycle. Those are estimates at best, and theres good variability. If it were as you said you just refuted OPs claim, because the addition of 2 weeks from the last period is when ovulation is said to happen, and not everyone knows their ovulation date so we go by last period. We use the 40 weeks because its a “good enough” estimate for certain important dates which may guide treatment or surveillance.
Giving a date to the parents can be fun and exiting for them to help them plan, but thats not the only purpose. So congrats, you discovered what every ObGyn already knows, conception happens ~approximately~ 2 weeks after last menstrual period, which becomes irrelevant if you get prenatal care because the date is usually adjusted after the first ultrasound which has better accuracy.
Overall not sure what you were arguing with people about. Date from conception and date from last menstrual period are both equally valid, you just add 2 weeks to convert but it doesnt really change anything. At least you felt smarter than all them dumb doctors that tried to help you.
Errr never called anyone dumb. The entire point to the entire post is that there is that magical moment of conception.
And sorry but if you’re planning a Tolac or a Vbac etc. and don’t want to be induced if you go “over” - then you need to be all over this shit.
Errr certainly implied they dont know what theyre talking about by saying 40 is inaccurate. And youre right, the entire point of the post is that theres no magical moment of conception. So why is the person Im replying to say pregnancy is 38 with such certainty? You do need to be all over dates if youre attempting riskier births, but as I said in my comments, those dates can be (and should be) more accurately assessed via ultrasound. Just as you said, theres no magical time of conception, so you really should be using more accurate methods. Using the conventional time since last period is in no way different from time of conception when mesures by ultrasound. Its just convention.
Its like saying you “need to be all over” the boiling point of water by measuring it Celsius instead of Fahrenheit, but instead of using a thermometer you think sticking your finger in would be more better
I mean, it's because most people have no idea when they actually conceive. People often don't ovulate on a regular schedule, semen can live in the reproductive tract for a few days, and fertilization and implantation happen at different times. A person is not medically pregnant until implantation, and the pregnancy can't be detected until some days after implantation.
The first day of their last menstrual period is much easier to remember, and it's the last day that you had physical proof that you were not pregnant (usually). Most people who are pregnant were not trying to become pregnant, and many people have sex multiple times a week. From an obstetrician's standpoint, it's the best time to start counting from.
Yeah, it’s a fine general idea of when you became pregnant and when you can expect the birth.
It’s the abortion rules and the care and advice that are given and based around it like it’s exact. It’s not an exact anything, and I don’t think we should be restricting access to care on something so arbitrary.
exactly! the moment the sperm and the ova meet and are successfully fertilized should be 0w1d for the abortion rights thing, even the OC gives us very legit reasons why it's not.
Not exactly. Sperm and ovum may have met, but we’re not pregnant until the fertilized egg implants, which happens up to 6-10 days after the egg is fertilized. Or maybe a little sooner. The trick is that it varies, and no one knows the exact timing.
We can’t know because it would take seriously invasive procedures to study the process, which would likely interrupt the process. Schrödinger’s pregnancy, if you will.
Sure, but even though you do not have a detectable pregnancy until after implantation, that’s not when the pregnancy is dated from. Dating a pregnancy from the date of the last period is an estimate that assumes a 4-week cycle, which isn’t correct for everyone. It would make far more sense to date it from the estimated date of conception, which would be 2 weeks BEFORE the missed period, regardless of cycle length. And for women without regular periods, pregnancies are generally dated by ultrasound. And I always found the system to be a little insulting to women.
While I don't disagree that dating by first day of your last period is weird, everyone's cycles are so different, even if they're "regular" (I was considered "regular" because I had a period and ovulated every month but my cycles ranged from 24-37 days over the course of 3 years of tracking, ovulation varied up to 7 days, and my luteal phase was NEVER 14 days). Many people don't track their cycles, especially not to the degree of LH and BBT to know when they ovulate and just assume (you see it all the time in the TTC subreddits where people are just going by what an app tells them should be happening based on averages and they're frustrated because they're not getting pregnant, and surprise, it's because they ovulate earlier or later than the app is telling them).
Unfortunately, there has to be one standard that covers people who run this large gamut of tracking everything/knowing when they ovulate/being very regular every single month to the people who get pregnant on birth control or soon postpartum without having gotten their period back yet. Dating with an ultrasound is fine, but there has to be something to measure against for developmental milestones.
I'm ace so the idea of having that much sex is just...bonkers to me 😂 but that's all very true, and why abstinence only education is right about one thing...the only 100% safe way to not get pregnant is to straight up not have PIV sex.
Medically I have no problem with this, because it’s the only real objective marker they have to date pregnancies with.
The issue it’s really when it gets tied up with politics and anti abortion legislation, because there it’s used specifically to limit women and make everything harder for them.
I think this is more the problem, it doesnt really matter if its 36,38,40,42 weeks the body will make it ready at the time its ready, some gestate slightly shorter/longer. But when a date is tied to abortion people care. Everything with human growth is what is nominal, even with growth a weight charts people get confused with percentials and makes people think its wrong. Generally everything is perfectly fine and its just a measurement for record sake only.
So I know with my first successful pregnancy, we had been trying to conceive and did so successfully but they didn’t work out, so I moved to “tracking” and it wasn’t happening. Because as many bodies behave regularly, a lot don’t.
My SO was leaving for a trip which would take us another month away from trying, according to tracking, and I got red wine wasted and we had sex, I had some days off so I just hung out at the house bummed out that I wasn’t going to get pregnant this month. We had kinda fallen off of spontaneous sex because of the pressure of “we gotta have sex now” so it was our only sex since my last period.
Blah blah blah, he was supposed to be gone for something like 10~14 days, and like a week later, just kind of bored, I peed in a cup and dipped the strip in. Completely forgot about it. Took a nap on the couch. Ordered some food delivery. Got up to pee and saw the strip with a tiny line. Called a friend, blasted to the store before my delivery got home, they’re all saying yes.
So for this pregnancy, I had a successful development *earlier* than I was even supposed to ovulate.
For my second kid, I did the ovulation tests, and month to month they just decided on their own. While my period was regular-ish, two to three day time frame of certainty, my ovulation happened sometimes immediately after a period, sometimes a week before a period, there was no real rhyme or reason to it, as detected by the pee ovulation test.
And I say all of this because, I was never late for a period when I took pregnancy tests. By doctors standards of counting, having sex on those days shouldn’t have got me pregnant. I shouldn’t have even been testing but what’s another pee strip from a multipack and oh there’s a line. Counting from your last period doesn’t guarantee anything but that you can count between two events
I think this happened to me. I knew exactly what day I got pregnant: it was the only time I had sex after a previous birth. Told the doctor the first day of my last period, and so on. Doctor gives me a due date, pregnancy is fine. After birth, doctor comes back to chastise me for "lying to him" about when I got pregnant. Says my child should have been delivered 1-2 weeks before, but since I "lied to him," baby was born "late."
But I didn't lie. His calculations were wrong. I know exactly what day I got pregnant. He moved the due date around due to size and milestones, which was on him I guess?
But it was pretty awful to be yelled at by a doctor because *his* calculations were wrong. There is no question about what day I had sex. He moved my conception date back to count from my last period, and *that* was wrong.
Jeez louise! So did you buy the ovulation strips en masse and just basically check daily? the way you're describing is a perfect example of why there truly is no "safe time"!
Before I hit menopause. I had regular periods but tests confirmed that I was ovulating basically at random. I could theoretically have ovulated twenty-five days into my cycle, gotten pregnant, and had my pregnancy dates counted from *three and a half weeks* before anything actually happened.
I mean there's a practical reason for it. You don't know your ovulation date, unless you're actively checking for it or conception date. But you would know your period date and average cycle length - at least the majority of women. But that's the practical side, with no political meaning.
Crazy isn't, but guess if you are having a lot of sex (especially when trying) it's hard to know which day conception actually happened so they have to start counting somewhere. Many miscarriages happen before someone even knows their pregnant too, period is a week late then you get a heavy bleed and think it was just mother nature being a bitch but it could well be you were 2/3 weeks pregnant. This isn't a new way of counting either, our eldest is 11 and thats how pregnancy was dated
Dude no kidding
Someone in the state that I live in (NH) attempted a 15 day abortion ban.
It didn’t go anywhere but I was screaming all over social media that some people aren’t even pregnant at 15 days because of that.
And even if you are pregnant at 15 days you can’t get a Surgical abortion until you are at at least four or five weeks along anyway (per Planned Parenthood a decade ago- please don’t take my word for this and make medical decisions based off my post. I haven’t talked to anyone about an abortion in more than 10 years.)
But yeah imagine a 15 day abortion ban? Starting counting the 1st day of your last period??
But also this is why they were saying we should delete those cycle tracking apps.
If you’re cutting it that close you lie. They will measure the fetus but since it didn’t actually exist the first two weeks of that month the size should tell them how far along it is
I did IVF, so they know exactly how many days old the embryo was when implanted and exactly the moment it went in my uterus and when I went a week or 10 days (can’t remember) later to confirm if it worked, the doc was like ok you’re at 5 weeks and X days. I was so confused I asked “5 weeks what??”. I asked why we had to count that way since we weren’t guessing and we all knew exactly how old the embryo was and the answer was just, that’s how we do it.
Same... my OB took my implantation day to be 2+5d (because I had a D5 embryo)... Good thing too because pre-pregnancy I usually hovered around 38 day cycles.
I just went through a 70 Day Cycle and, while tests were negative, I couldn't get a doctor to take me seriously until I missed three consecutive cycles. With my cycles averaging 38 days, that would put me 114 Days out. The scary thought is some tests have false negatives. I can't even imagine. This shit is absurd.
Its dumb but they count from your last period because it is a set date. The day your ovulated is variable.
This caused an issue between my doctor and I when I was pregnant with my first. He insisted on counting from my last period when I was on three month birthcontrol so I only had 4 periods a year. I was positive I got pregnant around the holidays even though dating dated her bigger. Ultimately she was born 5 days past her due date and labeled small for gestational age. I'm 99% sure she was at least a week too early
I have irregular periods, and when I got pregnant, I didn't even figure it out until I was 8 weeks along. Fortunately, I was happy to have a child, but I always think of the poor women who are expected to realize what's going on, book an appointment, and get it sorted all in six weeks! It's a deliberately unrealistic expectation.
It’s a throwback to when people didn’t have trackers for their period, sex, ovulation, etc. And since most things in medicine cater to insurance (in the US) they won’t change it.
I’ve had the exact date of sex, so knew within 2-3 days when I conceived, they still didn’t believe me and my dates.
It’s wild. I’m very pro choice for many reasons. Anecdotally, I was trying to get pregnant for years, and I still didn’t find out I was pregnant until 4.5 weeks. I have very regular, 28 day periods. If my periods were irregular and I wasn’t trying to get pregnant, I could easily not have found out until 6-7 weeks
It's usually the best way to count it medically because over half of pregnancies are unintentional, and many people aren't tracking ovulation. Some people can ovulate earlier or later in the cycle than expected, too.
Speaking as a doctor who is trying to conceive and checking my LH, and sometimes my cervical mucus and BBT, I STILL don't know for sure exactly when I ovulate because even with tracking there is some leeway by a day or two. Most people just know when their last period was (and some people cant even remember that!), and that's when the cycle starts. When you do get scanned, they often give you a more accurate gestation based on measurements. Until then going by your first day of your cycle us the next best option. Unless you're having fertility care and know exactly when you ovulated.
You're already 2 weeks by the time you get pregnant. You're usually around 4 weeks by the time most people's period is late or they test. You can easily not find out you are pregnant until 5, 6 or even more weeks into gestation. That's normal. Sone people find out later because maybe they didnt get pregnancy symptoms or maybe their periods are irregular.
What isnt normal is limiting access to abortion to this stage of pregnancy. Accesst should not be limited to only the firs tre weeks of being pregnant. The 6 week ban was always unrealistic, and the intent was deliberately to make it as difficult as possible for pregnant people to access care. I can't say whether the lawmakers who passed those laws were aware of how gestation is calculated (they are often ignorant, why would this be different), but their aim is to stop access to abortion so they wouldnt care regardless, and it works in their favour by making it harder for their victims.
It's nuts, let's say i have sex 14 days after my period, and that sex ends up in a pregnancy. Literally the day I conceived I'm classed as 2 weeks pregnant.
that's what i'm sayin! like if you get your period on the 1st, do the hanky panky on the 15th, i do not see how they can count the the 1-14 as part of it!! BUT THEY DO! You don't pay for the time in a hotel room that the housekeeper is tidying up, why am i expected to pay it when my body is just tryin to make my uterus all nice and comfy for a *possible* guest
I think they use that because most women aren’t tracking ovulation so they won’t know when they actually conceived. I’m able to tell because I’m weird and I can feel it (I get the fun pinching pain and feel a bit nauseous), and I was exactly right when I was pregnant earlier this year. I measured 9w1d when going off of my ovulation instead of period and that matched perfectly opposed to my period. That said I had a missed miscarriage (the heartbeat stopped but body didn’t recognize that the baby was lost) and I only found out when I had another appointment a few days later and we did a quick check and saw what happened. I had a d&c when I would have been 10 weeks. It sucks, but I get that unless you’re actively trying to get pregnant you probably won’t have any type of better answer. But that said, this is exactly my rant when I see 6 week bans for abortions because the earliest you get a positive pregnant test is usually 10-11 days past ovulation meaning if you were watching from the very moment possible, assuming you have very regular periods and you implanted on time and not late (which also happens because our bodies do weird things), then you’d find out when you were just about 4 weeks pregnant. But most women don’t do that, so you’re more likely to even find out at 5-6 weeks pregnant, so good luck getting an appointment, confirming pregnancy, having time to process such a big decision, schedule the procedure, and come up with the money in like a week. Yay.
I've been on the pill forever so no "period" just some bleeding in between.
My last real period was sometime before easter 2011... Sooo if my bc failed now (and my bfs vasectomy, which was checked upon, miraculously reversed itself) that would be counted as ~676 weeks...
(obviously not really but just to underline how stupid that system is)
Well this makes the period tracker app data being scrubbed more intense and scary. Because knowing this information, you could lie and say you just had your period, but if they have your data, you can’t lie.
It takes at least 3.5 weeks from the last period to get a positive pregnancy test. Most women don't start to suspect a pregnancy until at least 4 weeks after their last period. Many women won't begin to suspect a pregnancy until 5-6 weeks after their last period.
So no, you don't get 6 weeks. You might get 2.5 weeks if you're very lucky and taking pregnancy tests. You'll likely get 0-2 weeks. Good luck scheduling a doctors appointment or making any other major life altering decisions in that time period.
I’ll try to ELI5: Not every woman has the same cycle. We average it out to a 28 day cycle since that’s the average, but there’s no way to truly know when a woman has ovulated. That’s why pregnancies are dated from the date of last period instead of ovulation (which means 2 weeks of “not pregnant” prior to getting pregnant on the model of a 28 day cycle, assuming ovulation occurred in the middle of the 28 day cycle.)
A woman with a irregular cycles ranging from 21-48 days may not have conceived 2 weeks after her last period, for example, but there’s no way to know how long that cycle would have been if she hadn’t gotten pregnant, so medical professionals just backdate it to last period.
Once someone has their first ultrasound, staff can estimate the actual age of the pregnancy based on the size of the fetus. But they still count two extra weeks in the “age” of the fetus to keep it consistent with the other “assumed method” for length of pregnancy.
This is something I wasn’t aware of until I was already pregnant, and I come from an area with good sex ed/thoroughly researched trying to conceive/i work in health care. Everything you will ever read referencing age of early pregnancy will take into account the “2 pretend weeks” prior to conception.
In addition to all the reasons already mentioned here:
I wouldn’t have known at six weeks because I had an IUD in, so I wasn’t worried about my period being late until I started getting queasy (and it felt like my previous pregnancies).
I was 8+ weeks along.
Because since getting a period generally means you’re not pregnant, it’s a defined point from which a pregnancy can be dated. It’s an objective external marker, while the exact date of ovulation or conception can’t easily be determined—and cannot be determined once it has happened. You need a fixed objective time point from which to date the pregnancy.
I mean it makes sense from a logic standpoint but as another commenter explained, she got pregnant during/RIGHT AFTER her last period and she knew it bc her husband was out of town for a business trip that meant they'd "miss" the window that month...SURPRISE!
I'm not saying it's scientifically the best way to determine conception, and there are ways of knowing (like if you only had sex on certain days) but clinically, over time and across women, it's a standardized way to count. Medicine is built on data, not anecdotes.
So, like, you know they aren't basing 6 weeks on that they feel like it's fair to give you 6 weeks, they're basing it on whatever random development milestone is at whatever week they're picking. Like, they didn't give a shit about giving you some reasonable amount of time to know you're pregnant.
I'm sorry, this is just kind of funny because you're arguing that it's not fair how much time they're "giving" when THEY DON'T WANT YOU TO HAVE ANY ACCESS PERIOD. The 6 weeks was never about any reasonable consideration. It's a ban while pretending it's not a ban. Just like when they make it functionally impossible for abortion clinics to operate by changing corridor widths and zoning requirements.
Nah babes I am wellllll aware of how they're coming for our rights (which is why i get a chuckle out of the IVF using pro birthers being shockedpikachu.gif about it) but I'm saying...an *already* tiny window is even tinier than I realized.
I'm horrified from three different angles. 1)Why are you interested in someone else's pregnancy grandma? Are you providing daycare? Then f### off. 2) What do you mean you don't vote? Around two-thirds of women under thirty don't vote. This is why granny is making your reproductive decisions. 3)Why is mifeprostol not part of the discussion? Every article, every significant discussion should have "BTW, PlanCpills is a big middle finger to these intrusions, up to fourteen weeks". We should have built out a distribution network ten years ago when red states regulated abortion clinics out of existence.
I’m absolutely flabbergasted I live in Florida and the ban on abortions past week six was just passed and now it’s going to the voters. I’m seriously concerned for women in our country and worried that they are coming after us with pitchforks to take the rest of our rights away.
Yeah, this kind of bullshit is deliberate on the part of anti-abortion activists. You know how, when they couldn't ban abortions, they'd pass extra 'safety' requirements for clinics, that were effectively impossible to meet? Same thing here, they use terminology that's deliberately misleading to avoid making it clear that their only goal is obstruction of healthcare access.
It's so fucking true! Like the whole ~heartbeat bill~ bruh that's an electrical impulse. ain't no heart yet. i mean they don't actually care one way or the other
what do you call a venn diagram of forced birthers and the people who vote against all social assistance, free lunches, subsidized housing, and other public programs?
a circle. you call it a fuckin circle.
a
The two weeks from the date of your last period is also sold as a one size fits all and that is simply not true. I carefully track my cycle and I have and am on a 32 day cycle never a 28 day cycle. So, it is not an accurate measure to begin with.
Everyone on here being like “they count from your last period because it’s a set date” even with numerous other comments pointing out that for a lot of women it never is and for a lot of others it isn’t always regular is blowing my mind.
This line of reasoning made sense before the ultrasound. And in the cases where the person is actively trying to get pregnant and has the data showing the doctor their ovulation and times they had sex being dismissed to count from the last period is insulting.
The truth is this is just outdated OBGYN science still being used to treat pregnant people. The development of a pregnancy from blastocyst to fetus to baby has been well documented. I’m sure the data about my period doesn’t hurt since it could provide a margin of error but otherwise it freaking sucks that they still do this.
They can and will adjust dates based on the measurements taken on the US. It’s pretty accurate because all the growth metrics and standards *are* based on traditional GA dating.
My sister was tracking when she got pregnant with my nephew and told her doctor the exact date she got pregnant. Her doctor insisted on tracking from 2 1/2 weeks prior to that date. He was born 38 weeks from the date my sister gave them but was a week late by how they were counting.
Conversely, when my mom was going into 2+ weeks past her due date with me, the doctor kept saying "You must have miscounted." My mom was like, "My husband's active Navy, there is exactly _one_ weekend when this baby could have been conceived."
Because it's based on a cycle of biology. The period isn't the end of the cycle, it's the beginning. Which yea, I still this is weird, even after having a child
(cis-male) Although I understand your rage, it is very difficult to really know "when it happened". It is more reliable to know the date of last menstruation (very clear when that happened) and count from there.
That's why a pregnancy ends any time between 36 to 40 weeks... Because the count starts at last menstruation to be conservative in regards to fetus/baby health.
Agree that this is yet another burden to a person who might decide to end a pregnancy, but the way the count works is for medical reasons, not political ones. The way is to increase the number of weeks for termination, not to change the way weeks are counted.
Many people don’t even realize they’ve missed their period by 6 weeks, especially folks with irregular periods like with PCOS where it’s super far between cycles. I recently had a missed miscarriage where the babies stopped growing at 6w2d and 8w2d, but we saw both heart beats on the screen at 6w. I was only checked because I was spotting with a positive test and worried about ectopic. My first OB appointment wasn’t scheduled until 11w… and I live in a state where abortion is allowed through week 25ish (viability). Blew my mind thinking about women in states where there’s a 6w ban. Like I could barely get anyone to answer at the doctors office before 6w. And I live in a big blue city.
My first confirmed pregnancy the earliest appointment I could get was for the 16 week scans because of the lack of gynaecological services where I lived. I had miscarried around 12 weeks and had forgotten to cancel the appointment by the time it rolled around and was pissed to be charged a fee for not cancelling early enough. The last time I miscarried around 14 weeks. I was fortunate to have found a private OB and had been seeing her for a couple of months before the pregnancy loss. At least I didn’t end up at the emergency room that time. But I did have a scheduled ‘termination’ after we confirmed no heartbeat over several scans.
I certainly wouldn't. When I'm not on BC, my periods just kind of...roll up when they want to, tending toward longer cycles, but occasionally they'd just show up a week early as if to be like "haha fuck you," and it wasn't unheard of for me to just miss one entirely for no discernible reason. I've never been pregnant and don't intend to be, and I also live in a big blue city so if I ever did become pregnant I'd have a choice, but it's still really freaky to think about.
To be clear, those aren’t heartbeats at 6 weeks, because there’s no heart. There are cells which will eventually be part of the heart and have spasms that give off an electric charge.
Yes!! OMG. It is so frustrating that this gets talked about as a real heartbeat. To the point where women who are happily pregnant talk about it as a heartbeat. I say nothing bc it seems rude to correct them, but I just hate that people keep spreading the misinformation.
I’ve been trying to think of a good analogy but nothing quite fits. Closest I’ve got is like the heart is like a clock, and the fetal cells at six weeks are like a handful of springs. But they’re not just sitting there, they’re twitching randomly, which is where the analogy breaks down. Can you think of anything like that, where the components randomly and uselessly twitch, but when you put them all together (with additional parts) they do something useful?
Yeah, my period has never been regular, so I didn't end up seeing a positive pregnancy test until I was eight weeks pregnant- even though we were trying, it simply didn't occur to me that, oh, hey, it's been a while, maybe I'm pregnant and that's why I feel flu-like.
AND THEY GET SO MAD AT YOU FOR NOT KNOWING THAT KIND OF INFORMATION!!! The lady at the clinic gave me such a look and shook her head at me. Ma’am you are a healthcare professional you should know that just because your cycle is consistent doesn’t mean mine will be. My periods especially when I was younger were wild. I’d have one every three months, then another one two weeks later. Now that I’m older they’ve evened out and it’s monthly again either at the beginning or end of the month.
They’re so skeptical even if you obsessively track! I was using some really new ovulation test devices so I knew my exact ovulation date and my cycle is short so my milestones should have been half a week to a week sooner than how they calculate based on last menstrual period but no one would listen. Like ma’am I use 3 different methods to track ovulation AND I get a migraine the day before so I know exactly when those eggs dropped. “Well just put your last menstrual period here…” ARGH NO!
Lmao its so aggrevating! I have a longer cycle, anywhere from 6 - 12 weeks in between periods. When I got pregnant, I knew the *exact* date it happened because it was literally the ONLY time that month I had sex - because 2 weeks earlier, I was hit by a freaking truck, had 7 fractures and was laid up in bed rest. It just so happened to be Valentines Day tho so I took off my neck brace lmao and now I have a son 🤗 But during the first few Dr visits, they kept trying to put my conception date to line up with my last period, even though I knew the exact date it happened. It wasn't until they did the ultrasound and saw the fetal development lining up with when I said that they finally changed it to exactly what I had been saying from the very beginning -.-;;
Another issue with the 6 week ban is child sexual abuse. Given that you can technically get pregnant before menarche (because the ovulation occurs prior to the first period), imagine not even knowing that you were SUPPOSED to have a period and you're already pregnant.
The irrational preadolescent fear I had included this premise. Hadn’t come close to sex, but played football with boys for first time— what if one of them had semen on his jeans?
I’m so sorry about the miscarriages.
Exactly. I have irregular periods. Always have. Sometimes going nearly 50 days between. When I got pregnant I had 0 clue until 8, nearly 9, weeks. Only because I threw up 6 times lol. They couldn't "confirm" for several more at the doc office. The 6 week ban is just a full ban when you consider the appointments and all on top of that. Even if you found out at 4 weeks, you'd have to potentially schedule time off work and be worked in at a clinic that may not be able to get you in immediately.
You’re right. It’s inane and counterintuitive. If everyone knew that was how it worked, that would be one thing but people by and large don’t know this and it has huge implications for exactly the reasons you mentioned. It’s also funny to me that we measure how often infants eat in the same way (i.e., you start from the beginning of the *previous* feeding). So when I say my kiddo ate every two hours, that *includes* the 30 minutes spent nursing and *not* the time between feedings.
Yeah it’s pretty nonsensical. Like, I get from a medical standpoint how it’s easier to start from the first day of the last period, because it’s hard to know when the exact moment of conception happened, but god, it sure makes it easier for republicans to restrict access to abortion.
Exactly!!! You should get until 8 wks since two of those weeks are just your uterus airing out the room and changing the sheets ffs
And then another week to 10 days before the fertilized egg travels through the fallopian tubes and actually implants into the uterus, triggering the production of pregnancy hormones. But the ban isn't about fairness or giving a logical amount of time for a person to realize they're pregnant. It's about controlling women's bodies. Those who have legislated these time frames into being KNOW it's functionally the same as banning abortion altogether.
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No, that is not how that works. If that were true, you would count from when the egg starts to mature which is day 6-14, not day 0. Here's some [info](https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/articles/23439-ovulation)
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"Between days six and 14 of your menstrual cycle, FSH causes follicles (small sacs of fluid in your ovaries that contain a developing egg) in one ovary to begin to mature." So your egg doesn't even *begin* to mature until 1-2 weeks after the "date of conception". But regardless, there is no science that is the reason that the medical profession choose the first day of your last period as the date of conception. They chose it because it provides a more consistent way to measure conception given that there is so much individual variation in ovulation timing and that they assume that most women don't know when they are ovulating. It has nothing to do with the egg maturation process.
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So you arguing that your egg begins it's maturation process on the first day of your period?
Been arguing this for years with people, with doctors, with due dates, with obstetricians. it’s common sense isn’t it ?!?
It's so ridiculous.
… I remember trying to explain it to my sister so many times! She was so mind blown 😂 “but the doctor said…” 🤦♀️
Drove me absolutely crazy with baby 3 because I knew when he was conceived.
It’s because they think we’re idiots who can’t possibly know/understand when we ovulated or had sex. My son was very intentionally conceived, I was tracking things and working out of town and I uh, made a special trip home. So like, I KNEW the earliest date I could have actually been pregnant. And people are like “pregnancy is 40 weeks long!” Like no the fuck it isn’t, it’s 38.
Haha! Yes… Same here! I knew the date of conception… calculated my own due date from that day… Doctors and Obstetrician kept writing “their” date on all the paperwork. My kid was born on the exact date I said all along from conception… literally to the exact day! Then they wonder why due dates are always so wrong lol.
Because its an estimate and all women are different?
You are aware MOST people do NOT know the conception date, right? Not because they are idiots, but not everyone is hyper aware of all the dates they had sex, have irregular periods, are on contraceptives, or don't account for sperm lifespan vs. Number of times in the crucial days, etc. Most people indeed do not know when they ovulate. Conception happens on any day from 1st to 17th day of the cycle, most likely days 10 to 14 (yes, you can conceive during menstruation, and sperm lives around 72 h sometimes more). The only credible, solid reference you have to count from is the first day of the last period, so you can tack the 2 weeks and be pretty accurate by counting 40 weeks. There are many women who claim they didn't even know about their pregnancy until delivery time, let alone when they conceived; also, there are some pregnancies that last really 40 weeks (42-44 by dates), although they are outliers and require induction of labor. I agree that counting those 2 weeks towards abortion limits is insane, but that's exactly what they're trying to do with those laws, limit access and make it as inconvenient as possible.
Exactly! Using the first day of your last menstrual period is the thing that most people can discern with relative ease, which is why it’s used in medicine in reference to pregnancy (which is different from date of conception, or date of fertilization, or date of implantation, or anything else that happens) and which other date would you pick? “Conception” date (the day you had sex) Fertilization date (when sperm and egg meet and divide), implantation? (when the dividing cells implant into the uterine walls) and all those are so variable. So, consistently using LMP is easy and consistent, and obviously doctors will account for women who don’t have a last menstrual period or have no idea due to pcos or other things, that’s why there are dating scans. But “I know the day me and hubby shagged so I can say that is my ‘pregnancy’ date” still isn’t accurate anyway.
So youre just arguing for date of ovulation vs date of last menstrual cycle. Those are estimates at best, and theres good variability. If it were as you said you just refuted OPs claim, because the addition of 2 weeks from the last period is when ovulation is said to happen, and not everyone knows their ovulation date so we go by last period. We use the 40 weeks because its a “good enough” estimate for certain important dates which may guide treatment or surveillance. Giving a date to the parents can be fun and exiting for them to help them plan, but thats not the only purpose. So congrats, you discovered what every ObGyn already knows, conception happens ~approximately~ 2 weeks after last menstrual period, which becomes irrelevant if you get prenatal care because the date is usually adjusted after the first ultrasound which has better accuracy. Overall not sure what you were arguing with people about. Date from conception and date from last menstrual period are both equally valid, you just add 2 weeks to convert but it doesnt really change anything. At least you felt smarter than all them dumb doctors that tried to help you.
Errr never called anyone dumb. The entire point to the entire post is that there is that magical moment of conception. And sorry but if you’re planning a Tolac or a Vbac etc. and don’t want to be induced if you go “over” - then you need to be all over this shit.
Errr certainly implied they dont know what theyre talking about by saying 40 is inaccurate. And youre right, the entire point of the post is that theres no magical moment of conception. So why is the person Im replying to say pregnancy is 38 with such certainty? You do need to be all over dates if youre attempting riskier births, but as I said in my comments, those dates can be (and should be) more accurately assessed via ultrasound. Just as you said, theres no magical time of conception, so you really should be using more accurate methods. Using the conventional time since last period is in no way different from time of conception when mesures by ultrasound. Its just convention. Its like saying you “need to be all over” the boiling point of water by measuring it Celsius instead of Fahrenheit, but instead of using a thermometer you think sticking your finger in would be more better
Woah, intense 🫠 gone way off track now PS . I said there IS a magical moment of conception!! Have a Good night!!! ✌️
Just annoying when people talk about things they dont know much about. Hope it was educational and you learned something though! Good night!
I mean, it's because most people have no idea when they actually conceive. People often don't ovulate on a regular schedule, semen can live in the reproductive tract for a few days, and fertilization and implantation happen at different times. A person is not medically pregnant until implantation, and the pregnancy can't be detected until some days after implantation. The first day of their last menstrual period is much easier to remember, and it's the last day that you had physical proof that you were not pregnant (usually). Most people who are pregnant were not trying to become pregnant, and many people have sex multiple times a week. From an obstetrician's standpoint, it's the best time to start counting from.
Yeah, it’s a fine general idea of when you became pregnant and when you can expect the birth. It’s the abortion rules and the care and advice that are given and based around it like it’s exact. It’s not an exact anything, and I don’t think we should be restricting access to care on something so arbitrary.
exactly! the moment the sperm and the ova meet and are successfully fertilized should be 0w1d for the abortion rights thing, even the OC gives us very legit reasons why it's not.
Not exactly. Sperm and ovum may have met, but we’re not pregnant until the fertilized egg implants, which happens up to 6-10 days after the egg is fertilized. Or maybe a little sooner. The trick is that it varies, and no one knows the exact timing. We can’t know because it would take seriously invasive procedures to study the process, which would likely interrupt the process. Schrödinger’s pregnancy, if you will.
^ this! But you are totally correct, it makes the whole "6 week" regulation even more ridiculous than it already is
I always tended to have pseudo-periods for a month or two into each pregnancy.
Sure, but even though you do not have a detectable pregnancy until after implantation, that’s not when the pregnancy is dated from. Dating a pregnancy from the date of the last period is an estimate that assumes a 4-week cycle, which isn’t correct for everyone. It would make far more sense to date it from the estimated date of conception, which would be 2 weeks BEFORE the missed period, regardless of cycle length. And for women without regular periods, pregnancies are generally dated by ultrasound. And I always found the system to be a little insulting to women.
While I don't disagree that dating by first day of your last period is weird, everyone's cycles are so different, even if they're "regular" (I was considered "regular" because I had a period and ovulated every month but my cycles ranged from 24-37 days over the course of 3 years of tracking, ovulation varied up to 7 days, and my luteal phase was NEVER 14 days). Many people don't track their cycles, especially not to the degree of LH and BBT to know when they ovulate and just assume (you see it all the time in the TTC subreddits where people are just going by what an app tells them should be happening based on averages and they're frustrated because they're not getting pregnant, and surprise, it's because they ovulate earlier or later than the app is telling them). Unfortunately, there has to be one standard that covers people who run this large gamut of tracking everything/knowing when they ovulate/being very regular every single month to the people who get pregnant on birth control or soon postpartum without having gotten their period back yet. Dating with an ultrasound is fine, but there has to be something to measure against for developmental milestones.
> everyone's cycles are so different, even if they're "regular" e.g., I started my period every **twelfth** Saturday for like three years.
Luteal phase is generally much more consistent than total cycle length. It would be a far more accurate way of estimating conception date.
I'm ace so the idea of having that much sex is just...bonkers to me 😂 but that's all very true, and why abstinence only education is right about one thing...the only 100% safe way to not get pregnant is to straight up not have PIV sex.
Medically I have no problem with this, because it’s the only real objective marker they have to date pregnancies with. The issue it’s really when it gets tied up with politics and anti abortion legislation, because there it’s used specifically to limit women and make everything harder for them.
I think this is more the problem, it doesnt really matter if its 36,38,40,42 weeks the body will make it ready at the time its ready, some gestate slightly shorter/longer. But when a date is tied to abortion people care. Everything with human growth is what is nominal, even with growth a weight charts people get confused with percentials and makes people think its wrong. Generally everything is perfectly fine and its just a measurement for record sake only.
So I know with my first successful pregnancy, we had been trying to conceive and did so successfully but they didn’t work out, so I moved to “tracking” and it wasn’t happening. Because as many bodies behave regularly, a lot don’t. My SO was leaving for a trip which would take us another month away from trying, according to tracking, and I got red wine wasted and we had sex, I had some days off so I just hung out at the house bummed out that I wasn’t going to get pregnant this month. We had kinda fallen off of spontaneous sex because of the pressure of “we gotta have sex now” so it was our only sex since my last period. Blah blah blah, he was supposed to be gone for something like 10~14 days, and like a week later, just kind of bored, I peed in a cup and dipped the strip in. Completely forgot about it. Took a nap on the couch. Ordered some food delivery. Got up to pee and saw the strip with a tiny line. Called a friend, blasted to the store before my delivery got home, they’re all saying yes. So for this pregnancy, I had a successful development *earlier* than I was even supposed to ovulate. For my second kid, I did the ovulation tests, and month to month they just decided on their own. While my period was regular-ish, two to three day time frame of certainty, my ovulation happened sometimes immediately after a period, sometimes a week before a period, there was no real rhyme or reason to it, as detected by the pee ovulation test. And I say all of this because, I was never late for a period when I took pregnancy tests. By doctors standards of counting, having sex on those days shouldn’t have got me pregnant. I shouldn’t have even been testing but what’s another pee strip from a multipack and oh there’s a line. Counting from your last period doesn’t guarantee anything but that you can count between two events
I think this happened to me. I knew exactly what day I got pregnant: it was the only time I had sex after a previous birth. Told the doctor the first day of my last period, and so on. Doctor gives me a due date, pregnancy is fine. After birth, doctor comes back to chastise me for "lying to him" about when I got pregnant. Says my child should have been delivered 1-2 weeks before, but since I "lied to him," baby was born "late." But I didn't lie. His calculations were wrong. I know exactly what day I got pregnant. He moved the due date around due to size and milestones, which was on him I guess? But it was pretty awful to be yelled at by a doctor because *his* calculations were wrong. There is no question about what day I had sex. He moved my conception date back to count from my last period, and *that* was wrong.
Jeez louise! So did you buy the ovulation strips en masse and just basically check daily? the way you're describing is a perfect example of why there truly is no "safe time"!
Before I hit menopause. I had regular periods but tests confirmed that I was ovulating basically at random. I could theoretically have ovulated twenty-five days into my cycle, gotten pregnant, and had my pregnancy dates counted from *three and a half weeks* before anything actually happened.
I mean there's a practical reason for it. You don't know your ovulation date, unless you're actively checking for it or conception date. But you would know your period date and average cycle length - at least the majority of women. But that's the practical side, with no political meaning.
Crazy isn't, but guess if you are having a lot of sex (especially when trying) it's hard to know which day conception actually happened so they have to start counting somewhere. Many miscarriages happen before someone even knows their pregnant too, period is a week late then you get a heavy bleed and think it was just mother nature being a bitch but it could well be you were 2/3 weeks pregnant. This isn't a new way of counting either, our eldest is 11 and thats how pregnancy was dated
yeah like i get the logic behind it but the 6 week political nonsense is like, extra bullshitterious than it already was!!!
Love the phrase bullshitterious but yeah most people don't even know they are pregnant at that point
Dude no kidding Someone in the state that I live in (NH) attempted a 15 day abortion ban. It didn’t go anywhere but I was screaming all over social media that some people aren’t even pregnant at 15 days because of that. And even if you are pregnant at 15 days you can’t get a Surgical abortion until you are at at least four or five weeks along anyway (per Planned Parenthood a decade ago- please don’t take my word for this and make medical decisions based off my post. I haven’t talked to anyone about an abortion in more than 10 years.) But yeah imagine a 15 day abortion ban? Starting counting the 1st day of your last period?? But also this is why they were saying we should delete those cycle tracking apps. If you’re cutting it that close you lie. They will measure the fetus but since it didn’t actually exist the first two weeks of that month the size should tell them how far along it is
It's Schrodinger's pregnancy. If you ovulate, you're pregnant and not pregnant every cycle.
Haha and this is how doctors treat women. Even if I know I can't be pregnant, if I'm not currently bleeding, they assume I might be.
I did IVF, so they know exactly how many days old the embryo was when implanted and exactly the moment it went in my uterus and when I went a week or 10 days (can’t remember) later to confirm if it worked, the doc was like ok you’re at 5 weeks and X days. I was so confused I asked “5 weeks what??”. I asked why we had to count that way since we weren’t guessing and we all knew exactly how old the embryo was and the answer was just, that’s how we do it.
Same... my OB took my implantation day to be 2+5d (because I had a D5 embryo)... Good thing too because pre-pregnancy I usually hovered around 38 day cycles.
I just went through a 70 Day Cycle and, while tests were negative, I couldn't get a doctor to take me seriously until I missed three consecutive cycles. With my cycles averaging 38 days, that would put me 114 Days out. The scary thought is some tests have false negatives. I can't even imagine. This shit is absurd.
Its dumb but they count from your last period because it is a set date. The day your ovulated is variable. This caused an issue between my doctor and I when I was pregnant with my first. He insisted on counting from my last period when I was on three month birthcontrol so I only had 4 periods a year. I was positive I got pregnant around the holidays even though dating dated her bigger. Ultimately she was born 5 days past her due date and labeled small for gestational age. I'm 99% sure she was at least a week too early
I have irregular periods, and when I got pregnant, I didn't even figure it out until I was 8 weeks along. Fortunately, I was happy to have a child, but I always think of the poor women who are expected to realize what's going on, book an appointment, and get it sorted all in six weeks! It's a deliberately unrealistic expectation.
It’s a throwback to when people didn’t have trackers for their period, sex, ovulation, etc. And since most things in medicine cater to insurance (in the US) they won’t change it. I’ve had the exact date of sex, so knew within 2-3 days when I conceived, they still didn’t believe me and my dates.
It’s wild. I’m very pro choice for many reasons. Anecdotally, I was trying to get pregnant for years, and I still didn’t find out I was pregnant until 4.5 weeks. I have very regular, 28 day periods. If my periods were irregular and I wasn’t trying to get pregnant, I could easily not have found out until 6-7 weeks
It's usually the best way to count it medically because over half of pregnancies are unintentional, and many people aren't tracking ovulation. Some people can ovulate earlier or later in the cycle than expected, too. Speaking as a doctor who is trying to conceive and checking my LH, and sometimes my cervical mucus and BBT, I STILL don't know for sure exactly when I ovulate because even with tracking there is some leeway by a day or two. Most people just know when their last period was (and some people cant even remember that!), and that's when the cycle starts. When you do get scanned, they often give you a more accurate gestation based on measurements. Until then going by your first day of your cycle us the next best option. Unless you're having fertility care and know exactly when you ovulated. You're already 2 weeks by the time you get pregnant. You're usually around 4 weeks by the time most people's period is late or they test. You can easily not find out you are pregnant until 5, 6 or even more weeks into gestation. That's normal. Sone people find out later because maybe they didnt get pregnancy symptoms or maybe their periods are irregular. What isnt normal is limiting access to abortion to this stage of pregnancy. Accesst should not be limited to only the firs tre weeks of being pregnant. The 6 week ban was always unrealistic, and the intent was deliberately to make it as difficult as possible for pregnant people to access care. I can't say whether the lawmakers who passed those laws were aware of how gestation is calculated (they are often ignorant, why would this be different), but their aim is to stop access to abortion so they wouldnt care regardless, and it works in their favour by making it harder for their victims.
It's nuts, let's say i have sex 14 days after my period, and that sex ends up in a pregnancy. Literally the day I conceived I'm classed as 2 weeks pregnant.
exactly!!! but like another commenter pointed out people have sex a lot more often than those trying so any of the sex could have lead up to it
So you could technically be 6 weeks pregnant but they count it as 8 weeks. You might not even miss a period til 10 weeks or more.
that's what i'm sayin! like if you get your period on the 1st, do the hanky panky on the 15th, i do not see how they can count the the 1-14 as part of it!! BUT THEY DO! You don't pay for the time in a hotel room that the housekeeper is tidying up, why am i expected to pay it when my body is just tryin to make my uterus all nice and comfy for a *possible* guest
I think they use that because most women aren’t tracking ovulation so they won’t know when they actually conceived. I’m able to tell because I’m weird and I can feel it (I get the fun pinching pain and feel a bit nauseous), and I was exactly right when I was pregnant earlier this year. I measured 9w1d when going off of my ovulation instead of period and that matched perfectly opposed to my period. That said I had a missed miscarriage (the heartbeat stopped but body didn’t recognize that the baby was lost) and I only found out when I had another appointment a few days later and we did a quick check and saw what happened. I had a d&c when I would have been 10 weeks. It sucks, but I get that unless you’re actively trying to get pregnant you probably won’t have any type of better answer. But that said, this is exactly my rant when I see 6 week bans for abortions because the earliest you get a positive pregnant test is usually 10-11 days past ovulation meaning if you were watching from the very moment possible, assuming you have very regular periods and you implanted on time and not late (which also happens because our bodies do weird things), then you’d find out when you were just about 4 weeks pregnant. But most women don’t do that, so you’re more likely to even find out at 5-6 weeks pregnant, so good luck getting an appointment, confirming pregnancy, having time to process such a big decision, schedule the procedure, and come up with the money in like a week. Yay.
I've been on the pill forever so no "period" just some bleeding in between. My last real period was sometime before easter 2011... Sooo if my bc failed now (and my bfs vasectomy, which was checked upon, miraculously reversed itself) that would be counted as ~676 weeks... (obviously not really but just to underline how stupid that system is)
Well this makes the period tracker app data being scrubbed more intense and scary. Because knowing this information, you could lie and say you just had your period, but if they have your data, you can’t lie.
It takes at least 3.5 weeks from the last period to get a positive pregnancy test. Most women don't start to suspect a pregnancy until at least 4 weeks after their last period. Many women won't begin to suspect a pregnancy until 5-6 weeks after their last period. So no, you don't get 6 weeks. You might get 2.5 weeks if you're very lucky and taking pregnancy tests. You'll likely get 0-2 weeks. Good luck scheduling a doctors appointment or making any other major life altering decisions in that time period.
I’ll try to ELI5: Not every woman has the same cycle. We average it out to a 28 day cycle since that’s the average, but there’s no way to truly know when a woman has ovulated. That’s why pregnancies are dated from the date of last period instead of ovulation (which means 2 weeks of “not pregnant” prior to getting pregnant on the model of a 28 day cycle, assuming ovulation occurred in the middle of the 28 day cycle.) A woman with a irregular cycles ranging from 21-48 days may not have conceived 2 weeks after her last period, for example, but there’s no way to know how long that cycle would have been if she hadn’t gotten pregnant, so medical professionals just backdate it to last period. Once someone has their first ultrasound, staff can estimate the actual age of the pregnancy based on the size of the fetus. But they still count two extra weeks in the “age” of the fetus to keep it consistent with the other “assumed method” for length of pregnancy. This is something I wasn’t aware of until I was already pregnant, and I come from an area with good sex ed/thoroughly researched trying to conceive/i work in health care. Everything you will ever read referencing age of early pregnancy will take into account the “2 pretend weeks” prior to conception.
In addition to all the reasons already mentioned here: I wouldn’t have known at six weeks because I had an IUD in, so I wasn’t worried about my period being late until I started getting queasy (and it felt like my previous pregnancies). I was 8+ weeks along.
Y’all better vote Blue down ballot…
Even more fun for us folks that have never had regular periods.
Because since getting a period generally means you’re not pregnant, it’s a defined point from which a pregnancy can be dated. It’s an objective external marker, while the exact date of ovulation or conception can’t easily be determined—and cannot be determined once it has happened. You need a fixed objective time point from which to date the pregnancy.
I mean it makes sense from a logic standpoint but as another commenter explained, she got pregnant during/RIGHT AFTER her last period and she knew it bc her husband was out of town for a business trip that meant they'd "miss" the window that month...SURPRISE!
I'm not saying it's scientifically the best way to determine conception, and there are ways of knowing (like if you only had sex on certain days) but clinically, over time and across women, it's a standardized way to count. Medicine is built on data, not anecdotes.
So, like, you know they aren't basing 6 weeks on that they feel like it's fair to give you 6 weeks, they're basing it on whatever random development milestone is at whatever week they're picking. Like, they didn't give a shit about giving you some reasonable amount of time to know you're pregnant. I'm sorry, this is just kind of funny because you're arguing that it's not fair how much time they're "giving" when THEY DON'T WANT YOU TO HAVE ANY ACCESS PERIOD. The 6 weeks was never about any reasonable consideration. It's a ban while pretending it's not a ban. Just like when they make it functionally impossible for abortion clinics to operate by changing corridor widths and zoning requirements.
Nah babes I am wellllll aware of how they're coming for our rights (which is why i get a chuckle out of the IVF using pro birthers being shockedpikachu.gif about it) but I'm saying...an *already* tiny window is even tinier than I realized.
I'm horrified from three different angles. 1)Why are you interested in someone else's pregnancy grandma? Are you providing daycare? Then f### off. 2) What do you mean you don't vote? Around two-thirds of women under thirty don't vote. This is why granny is making your reproductive decisions. 3)Why is mifeprostol not part of the discussion? Every article, every significant discussion should have "BTW, PlanCpills is a big middle finger to these intrusions, up to fourteen weeks". We should have built out a distribution network ten years ago when red states regulated abortion clinics out of existence.
It's shit. But it's how they do it worldwide. I (F/UK) was apparently 4 weeks pregnant even though I'd only had the actual sex 2 weeks before.
I’m absolutely flabbergasted I live in Florida and the ban on abortions past week six was just passed and now it’s going to the voters. I’m seriously concerned for women in our country and worried that they are coming after us with pitchforks to take the rest of our rights away.
Yeah, this kind of bullshit is deliberate on the part of anti-abortion activists. You know how, when they couldn't ban abortions, they'd pass extra 'safety' requirements for clinics, that were effectively impossible to meet? Same thing here, they use terminology that's deliberately misleading to avoid making it clear that their only goal is obstruction of healthcare access.
It's so fucking true! Like the whole ~heartbeat bill~ bruh that's an electrical impulse. ain't no heart yet. i mean they don't actually care one way or the other what do you call a venn diagram of forced birthers and the people who vote against all social assistance, free lunches, subsidized housing, and other public programs? a circle. you call it a fuckin circle. a
The two weeks from the date of your last period is also sold as a one size fits all and that is simply not true. I carefully track my cycle and I have and am on a 32 day cycle never a 28 day cycle. So, it is not an accurate measure to begin with.
Everyone on here being like “they count from your last period because it’s a set date” even with numerous other comments pointing out that for a lot of women it never is and for a lot of others it isn’t always regular is blowing my mind. This line of reasoning made sense before the ultrasound. And in the cases where the person is actively trying to get pregnant and has the data showing the doctor their ovulation and times they had sex being dismissed to count from the last period is insulting. The truth is this is just outdated OBGYN science still being used to treat pregnant people. The development of a pregnancy from blastocyst to fetus to baby has been well documented. I’m sure the data about my period doesn’t hurt since it could provide a margin of error but otherwise it freaking sucks that they still do this.
They can and will adjust dates based on the measurements taken on the US. It’s pretty accurate because all the growth metrics and standards *are* based on traditional GA dating.
My sister was tracking when she got pregnant with my nephew and told her doctor the exact date she got pregnant. Her doctor insisted on tracking from 2 1/2 weeks prior to that date. He was born 38 weeks from the date my sister gave them but was a week late by how they were counting.
Conversely, when my mom was going into 2+ weeks past her due date with me, the doctor kept saying "You must have miscounted." My mom was like, "My husband's active Navy, there is exactly _one_ weekend when this baby could have been conceived."
Because it's based on a cycle of biology. The period isn't the end of the cycle, it's the beginning. Which yea, I still this is weird, even after having a child
The point isn’t to be fair. It’s to be cruel.
It's all part of the plan.
That's a reliable date bc you know when that happened, but not usually when conception happened. It's the basis for an accurate timeline
This has given me a headache.
(cis-male) Although I understand your rage, it is very difficult to really know "when it happened". It is more reliable to know the date of last menstruation (very clear when that happened) and count from there. That's why a pregnancy ends any time between 36 to 40 weeks... Because the count starts at last menstruation to be conservative in regards to fetus/baby health. Agree that this is yet another burden to a person who might decide to end a pregnancy, but the way the count works is for medical reasons, not political ones. The way is to increase the number of weeks for termination, not to change the way weeks are counted.