Calculate Conception Date

Women who are planning to get pregnant need to know how to calculate conception date and determine the early symptoms of pregnancy.  Understanding ovulation and conception is significant to improve your odds of getting pregnant.

• Elevated basal body temperature (BBT). The basal body temperature of women undergoes a dramatic increase during ovulation period. There are thermometers specifically designed for this purpose. Take your BBT first thing in the morning before getting out of bed. Record your readings on a spreadsheet or graph paper. Check for a pattern. You will most likely become fertile 2-3 days prior to an increase in your BBT.

• Increased vaginal secretions. Prior to your ovulation, you will notice an increased secretion of cervical mucus. These secretions are clear and slippery, similar to the whites of a raw egg.   
To calculate conception date, your last menstrual period generally serves as the starting point instead of the actual date of conception.

Many women don’t know how to calculate the exact time of conception, especially with cases of unplanned pregnancies. Listed below are tips to help you determine your ovulation period and effectively calculate conception date.

• Since you are planning to get pregnant, start keeping a fertility calendar where you can take note of your fertility and ovulation period to start with. This will serve as your reference point to keep track of everything and will help you determine the pattern of your last menstrual cycles.

• An ovulation kit is also a very helpful tool to accurately identify your ovulation period. A surge of an LH hormone found on the kit’s dipstick will alert you on this. If you got pregnant and you calculate conception date, you will definitely know that conception happened during your surge days.

• You can also check pregnancy websites online for a conception date calculator. A conception calculator will allow you to enter your due date and the computer will determine the conception date in the process by counting the dates reverse. This is referred to as the reverse pregnancy due date.       

Pregnancy Symptoms

Start keeping a pregnancy calendar to be able to record all the signs and symptoms your body will experience along the way. Pregnancy symptoms may be different for each woman.

• Missed period. This is usually the most obvious symptom of early pregnancy. Some women may experience spotting or bleeding close to the time of their expected monthly cycle. This is referred to as implantation bleeding. 

• Breast pain, tenderness and swelling. These are usually related to pregnancy. Pregnant women experience fullness or heaviness of the breasts 1-2 weeks after conception.

• Bloating and abdominal cramps. Along with weight gain, pregnant women may experience these symptoms during the first trimester.

• Tiredness and fatigue. Because of the increased levels of progesterone, most women experience this early pregnancy symptom prior to conception.  

• Vomiting and nausea. This symptom is commonly known as morning sickness. Vomiting and nausea are usually experienced on the 2nd and 8th week after conception. The occurrence of morning sickness may vary from woman to woman. Some would develop some kind of food aversion and extreme sensitivity to certain smells thus resulting to vomiting and/or nausea.

• Frequent urination. This symptom may be caused by both hormonal and physical factors. Frequent urination is stimulated by the embryo that has successfully attached itself to the uterus as it starts producing a hormone called human chorionic gonadotrophin (hCg).