How do I know how pregnant I am?

[jesso]

Hi - I'm newly pregnant and new to this site and was hoping to get some thoughts from anyone else who has found it difficult to figure out dates.

I saw my GP for the first time earlier this week and he believes I am 10 weeks, based on the first day of my last period, so he says I should go for my 12wk scan in a couple of weeks.

However I can't believe that this is correct, and as I came off the pill a couple of months ago after 9 years I think it just took a while for my body to settle down and my cycle wasn't back to regular yet.

Also I was doing fertility tests for most of July which were all negative. So I think I probably conceived around the start of August (when I gave up on the tests on the basis that a watched pot never boils) which would make me more like 5 or 6 weeks.

I'm looking into having an early scan as I think that this will hopefully clear it up - but what happens when you have one of these - are they likely to revise the dates? My GP seems to think everything is set in stone and has even given me a due date but surely there must be flexibility with this sort of thing?

Also are you allowed to change GPs within the same practice? I don't want to see this one again but am a bit worried that everything will get confused if I start afresh with a new one.

Thanks in advance for any advice anyone can offer.

If there is a discrepancy they will adjust the dates.

if you have recently stopped taking hormonal contraceptives it can make your lmp an untrue one!
your scan at 12 weeks will be a dating scan and if the size of your baby doesnt match the dates they will give you a new edd i got three different edd's with three different scans so you will only know by how big the baby is good luck

i dont see why you would want to change doctors if it is unclear when the last date was the scan will priove that by size of baby my dates were all guess work as many others and all went back for a 12 wk after early first scan it has no affect on the doctors ability

as it would be more a midwife who would know doctors are only there to agree that your infact pregnant help to try and figure out how far gone you are and refer you to appropiate people so dont feel you need to change gp unless real reson to do so i came off pill and was pregnant within a month and also had negative results so just wait for your scan to provide exact dates that is what they are there for

thanks everyone for the advice - it's good to know that they will amend the dates if necessary once I've had the scan.

the changing GP question was a bit unrelated, sorry I didn't make it clear; it was more that he was very unapproachable and I didn't have much confidence that he was telling me what I needed to know - he seemed a bit "rusty" when it came to pregnancy!

Thanks again

did you ask him how long it had been since he was last pg lol! we have several gp's at our surgery one has kids who are older than me so is not used to baby's etc on the other hand the other has got 5 under 4yo so he is dab hand very helpful (his wife peadiatric dr too)

You could be 8 weeks pregnant based on waht you have said. the first two weeks of your pregnancy your're not really pregnant at all - I know it sounds wierd, but that's they way they count it. SO if you conceived at the beginning of August, that would make you eight weeks pregnant.

Assuming a standard 28 day cycle (which is waht the docotr assumes), you would concenive around day 14 (e when you ovulated).

Sounds similar to my experience, just come off the pill and on my scan date was 13 weeks according to GP, it was adjusted to 11 weeks following the scan. The date from this scan is your official due date, this is what will be used for all official documents etc.

Good luck with your pregnancy and welcome to MN

If it helps Jesso, I had the old date confusion at early stage pregnancy and from talking to others it is common. I just didn't know what was going on and was feeling upset and hormonal about everything!

I went for a private scan and discovered I was only 9 weeks, and had thought I was 12 weeks. I felt much happier having had a dating scan, so if this is an option, I'd go for it - mine was £100.00.

Thanks - I'm definitely going to try and get a scan as it's strange having no idea and I am so rubbish at keeping secrets so it would be good to know when I finally get to tell everyone!