Trying To Conceive- The Two Week Wait
For some women trying to conceive may be easier than others. On average, it takes most women at least three months before they conceive. Some women go to great lengths to determine the most fertile part of their cycle. They begin charting their temperature, checking their cervical mucous, using ovulation predictors, and plotting it all on a calendar. For most of us out there trying to conceive the worst part of it all is “the two week wait”.
That’s the two weeks after you ovulate before you are able to take a home pregnancy test. When you want to be pregnant so bad, those two weeks can seem like an eternity. Almost every day that goes by, you wonder if you are pregnant. You think about it constantly, daydreaming about seeing that plus on a pregnancy test.
Most of us even make ourselves pregnant in our minds by experiencing many of the early signs of pregnancy. Every change in our body is felt. You could have indigestion but think you have morning sickness all because getting pregnant is on the forefront of your brain.
There are plenty of home pregnancy tests on the market that enable you to test up to five days before you miss a period. This only adds to the insanity of the two week wait. I find that although it’s emotionally harder to wait out those two weeks, it’s better and more accurate than testing early. The reason is that most women will have what’s called a chemical pregnancy in her lifetime and not even know it. A chemical pregnancy is a type of early miscarriage.
A woman gets a positive on a home pregnancy test before her period is due, and then she miscarries before the heartbeat is seen on an ultrasound. Hence the name chemical pregnancy, because it could only be confirmed chemically, through a pregnancy test and not an ultrasound. Usually a woman will start to bleed like a heavy menstrual cycle around 4-5 weeks pregnant. This is why it’s not always the best to test early.
With chemical pregnancies the line on the pregnancy test is usually light or faint. This can be confusing to some women and also create feelings of disappointment. Experts say that most women will have one in their lifetime and not even know it because the menstrual cycle will start a few days later.
So as difficult as it is to wait those two long weeks, it’s worth it to wait until missing your period before testing. You won’t have the worry of things like “Is the line dark enough? Why is it so faint? And Am I really pregnant?”
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