Conception date confusion?

[Whippetmother]

Hello,

this might be a wild thing to ask, but do folks here have any experience of under calculating how far along they are? I’m newly pregnant and according to the apps etc I’m 5+3. But I realised I had symptoms a week prior to missed AF and I’ve just looked at when we actually DTD and it was a week before my expected ovulation date (we weren’t actively trying as such). I know sperm can live inside the body for 5 days so perhaps that’s it.

I’m now tempted by a dating scan (also due to general anxiety!) to see what’s what.

curious to hear if this is common (although appreciate it doesn’t matter in the grand scheme of things) :)

If you weren’t tracking them you probably ovulated earlier. Symptoms that early on can also be attributed to progesterone rise so I wouldn’t put much stock in them.

So you could be up to 7 days further along but I’d hold out at least another week for a scan if you must as it’s still super early and sometimes can lead to more anxiety if you’re not seeing a heartbeat etc.

@Pollywoddles thanks for this - had no idea that could happen. Ahh and good shout on the progesterone rise - makes sense.
I’m on the fence about the early scan, so will see how I feel in another week or so. Thank you for the reply!

No worries and congratulations!!

Thank you 😊

I had IVF so my "conception" date was known down to the time. I had an early scan at the clinic which put me right on track. And yet, I still got dated 4 days ahead at my 12 week scan, which overruled all the other dates!

Hi OP, I know I ovulate early as I have quite short cycles, each time my due date has been adjusted at the 12 week dating scan.

Though it’s generally good to know how far along you are and each extra week means so much in the early days. Moving your due date earlier has the knock on effect of people pushing you to have interventions earlier if baby does go overdue.

If you have a private dating scan the NHS one will still overwrite it due date wise.

Thank you @Olivia199 and @PinkPlantCase these are both super helpful responses. I guess I need to just go with the flow - so hard in these early days when it’s all I can think about!

perhaps I’ll dodge the early scan and just see what happens at the NHS one… thank you for replying to my early morning pondering :)