2 weeks of pregnancy from the date of conception: symptoms and signs, embryo development

Two weeks after conception, a lot of fascinating changes are starting to happen. Even though it’s early, the body is starting to get ready for pregnancy during this crucial time for the embryo’s development.

At this point, many women’s symptoms are mild. It’s possible to experience mild cramps or subtle physical changes, but it’s more typical to have no symptoms at all. Some people may exhibit early symptoms like weariness or heightened sensitivity, but it’s possible to ignore these.

The fertilized egg is traveling toward the uterus at this time in order to implant and begin growing there. Despite its small size, the embryo is already starting to form vital structures that will eventually give rise to various body parts.

What is this period?

2 weeks of actual pregnancy (that is, after conception) is already the 4th obstetric week of pregnancy. Many women at the very beginning of the period of bearing a baby get confused due to the fact that the dates set by the gynecologist in the antenatal clinic do not coincide with her own calculations. In order not to get confused, it is enough to understand that the obstetric period and the actual (embryonic) period are different things. Obstetric period is counted from the first day of the woman"s last menstruation. Actual – from the day of conception or from the day of expected ovulation, which usually falls in the middle of the cycle. If a woman’s cycle is 28 days, then most likely conception for 14 -15 days, if the cycle is 30 days, then conception is most likely on 15-16 days.

Thus, the first two weeks of pregnancy are already four weeks of pregnancy. There are still a few days before the supposed monthly periods, so the delay hasn’t started yet. However, if conception has occurred, then the woman is going through some fascinating and intricate processes, and she may already be showing the first signs of pregnancy, which are going to be discussed below. We also observe that the gestational age is 4 embryonic weeks, or 6 obstetricians, with a 2 week menstrual delay. There shouldn’t be any confusion now. Obstetric standards will be followed while counting the deadline and calculating the date of childbirth during pregnancy.

Many women may not have any symptoms at all at two weeks after conception, but the body is already working very hard. During this critical phase, the fertilized egg implants in the uterus, and mild cramps, light spotting, or tenderness in the breasts may be the first symptoms. Inside, the minuscule embryo starts to grow quickly, establishing the framework for key organ systems like the heart and brain. These early shifts, though slight, herald the beginning of an amazing journey.

Symptoms and first signs

A woman searches for signs that she is now pregnant practically every day this week, after a long and ardent pregnancy. We regret to inform you, though, that there might not even be any symptoms. Not every pregnant woman exhibits any symptoms at this point.

Two weeks after conception, it is impossible to discuss clear-cut, undeniable signs because the primary symptom is the absence of the subsequent menstrual cycle, and a delay can only be addressed the following week.

The implantation of the blastocyst takes place at the start of the second week following conception, and it is a significant and ultimately decisive event. Following fertilization, which takes place in the wide region of the fallopian tube, the egg turns into a zygote. It continually divides, producing more smaller cells but staying the same size. After a successful conception, a spherical blastocyst "arrives" in the uterus on days six or eight. Its primary goal at this point is to use its villi to adhere to the uterine wall, break through, and start growing actively. We refer to this procedure as implantation.

Again, not every woman will experience this process, but she may be able to identify it by certain signs. The so-called implantation bleeding is the most noticeable of them. A woman may have a slight pulling sensation in her lower back at the start of the second week. They are regarded by many as signs of the menstrual cycle. A woman may discover a tiny bloody or bloody spot on a daily pad or underwear on the sixth or eighth day after conception (or slightly later, if ovulation occurred later). This spotting goes away fast.

Some women think that the menstrual cycle failed and that the subsequent period started earlier than expected. However, the bleeding stops, and the pad is completely clean the following day. The typical and common symptoms of an impending menstrual cycle will start to show at the end of the second week following ovulation if implantation was unsuccessful, which occurs in 40% of cases. The week will conclude with the onset of menstruation.

Since they are exactly like the regular ones in nature, many women are not even aware that the embryo was attempting to implant.

If implantation is successful, literally within a few hours the chorion cells begin to produce a specific substance – gonadotropic hormone, better known as hCG. Its level will gradually increase in the blood and urine, “growing” every two days. As a result, by the end of the second week it can be determined using a laboratory test of the woman’s venous blood, as well as sensitive express tests that can be bought at any pharmacy. In the second week of embryonic development, a woman is under the influence of the hormone progesterone. It begins to be produced immediately after ovulation, regardless of whether conception has occurred. If it has occurred and implantation has been successful, the concentration of progesterone increases significantly. This hormone is needed to prevent the death of the embryo. It creates optimal conditions for its development – thickens the endometrium of the uterus, suppresses the mother"s immunity, which may well regard the embryo as a foreign object and destroy it.

Due to decreased immunity this week, a woman may feel a little unwell. HCG and progesterone together can cause evening temperature rises to subfebrile values ​​(37.0 – 37.5 degrees). At the same time, a woman will feel a slight chill in the evenings, there may be a feeling that her cheeks are “burning”. Many people believe that a cold has started during this period. But in the morning the temperature returns to normal again and begins to rise again closer to the evening. Many women notice that their breasts have slightly swollen, their nipples have become more sensitive. But such a symptom is considered quite natural for non-pregnant women in the second phase of the menstrual cycle, so it cannot be considered reliable. By the end of this week, women with a tendency to toxicosis may experience its first manifestations – familiar smells and tastes will be perceived differently, some of them, which previously did not cause any rejection, can cause vomiting, nausea. In the morning, these sensations usually intensify in a woman.

A woman’s mood can fluctuate due to the progesterone hormone’s influence. A lot of people "write it off" to premenstrual syndrome (PMS) out of habit. In fact, the mechanisms of occurrence are the same: progesterone is "to blame" for the erratic emotional state in both situations. This shows up as more sentimentality, sensitivity, and occasionally irritability. Pictures of babies on the Internet can bring a woman to tears, but after fighting with her husband, coworkers, and an old friend, she can cry again 15 minutes later.

All of the woman’s body’s functions start to proceed more quickly after implantation, and all of her organs and systems start to require significantly more energy. A woman may thus experience fatigue, drowsiness, and tiredness.

In addition to the effects mentioned above, progesterone in its early stages can also increase appetite. Thus, the hormone "takes care" of making sure the baby has an adequate supply of fat and nutrients for growth. A woman might observe that her desire to eat almost always.

Embryodevelopment

The baby up to the 9th week of pregnancy will be called an embryo. After this period, it will become a fetus. Now the embryo is only the size of a poppy seed. It is about a millimeter in size, its weight is less than half a gram. At this stage, the future son or daughter looks like a small round berry with bubbles-pimples on the surface of the spherical blastocyst, which turns into a morula. All this can be seen only under a super-powerful microscope. Three layers appear in the structure of the embryo – outer, middle and inner. The outer germ layer (a cluster of cells) will begin to transform into prototypes of the skin, hair, nervous system, brain and spinal cord as early as next week. The middle germ layer will soon provide the basis for the kidneys, heart and the entire cardiovascular system. The inner leaflet will be transformed into the digestive organs and lungs.

Cell division occurs every minute, these processes are intense. The baby is now fed by a whole system of extraembryonic organs. Nature has also taken care of them. The chorion is now needed for fixation in the uterine cavity and the synthesis of the hormone hCG. Then the chorion will turn into the placenta – the main organ of nutrition of the child throughout the entire period of gestation. The amnion will soon become the fetal bladder. It will be filled with amniotic fluid, in which the child will easily and pleasantly grow and develop. The yolk sac is now a "food warehouse", a little later it will dissolve, since the placenta will begin to form and the nutritional functions of the growing child will completely lie on it.

It is reasonable to say that this week is among the most crucial for the baby’s development. All of its future organs and systems are currently developing as cellular prototypes, and how this process proceeds will determine whether the baby will be healthy and viable.

The infant is now starting to get oxygen, two weeks after conception. It is "extracted" from the mother’s blood by the chorion. All of the baby’s organs will start to be placed one week from now. If it has succeeded in getting a foothold in the uterus, it is merely "settling in" during this time.

Early diagnostics

There are several ways to find out about the fact of pregnancy at this short period. The most reliable and accurate is a blood test for hCG. You can take it at any clinic. Since this hormone begins to be produced after implantation and doubles every 24-48 hours, the point in donating blood for the first time appears only on the 10-12th day after ovulation. By this time, the concentration of human chorionic gonadotropic hormone in the woman’s blood will exceed the “non-pregnant” threshold of 0-5 IU/ml. Thus, 3-4 days before the delay, a blood test can show the presence of pregnancy, provided that ovulation occurred on time, not delayed. If the blood test is negative on the 10-12th day, then it makes sense to repeat the examination in another 2-4 days. With late ovulation and implantation, the hormone concentration will be sufficient for diagnosis. Blood should be donated in the morning, on an empty stomach, excluding fatty foods from the diet in the evening. The results are usually ready in a few hours, such a test costs on average in Russia within 300-600 rubles.

You can wait a little while and take a standard pharmacy express test on the first day of the postponement. Depending on the family budget, one must select. Regular strips, cassettes, and electronic tests are now available. But, you shouldn’t assume that every single one of them, no matter how much money they spend, will be able to reveal their pregnancy by the start of the second week. Only after the blood level of hCG rises do traces of the hormone start to show up in the urine. This indicates that a blood test is more informative in the early stages of pregnancy than a pregnancy test, which is simple to perform at home.

It is not true that some tests with a sensitivity of 10-15 IU/ml start to show a weak "ghost" of the second strip two to three days before the anticipated start of the next menstrual cycle. You should wait until the end of the second week following conception in order to obtain a more trustworthy result. It is imperative that the home test be conducted strictly in compliance with the test’s recommended instructions, adhering to the time constraints for evaluating the results and the requirements for urine collection.

It does not necessarily follow that there is no pregnancy if the test results are negative at the end of this week. If it is imperative that the matter be resolved immediately, you ought to give blood for hCG.

Right now, there’s nothing at all to do with an ultrasound. Not even the most skilled physicians or the most sophisticated expert-class ultrasound scanners can see the tiny cluster of cells that is now essentially your child, even if conception has occurred and the blastocyst has entered the uterus and managed to establish a foothold in it. The most inquisitive women should wait an additional 7 to 10 days before scheduling an ultrasound in order to confirm pregnancy as soon as possible. The embryo cannot be viewed prior to the 5–6 obstetric week, which occurs 3–4 weeks after conception.

Possible problems

Despite the fact that the pregnancy period is still very small, quite big problems can arise. If the baby does not take root or is rejected by the mother"s body a few days after implantation, the woman will simply have her period, perhaps with a slight delay. Medicine does not officially consider this a miscarriage. In this case, they talk about a biochemical pregnancy, in which, after a positive hCG test, menstruation still occurred, that is, the pregnancy, as they say, "failed". Many factors can influence this – a genetic error during fertilization, in which the embryo is not viable, immune reactions of the mother"s body, inflammatory processes in the uterus and other organs of the reproductive system, infections, including sexual ones, viruses, taking certain medications, alcohol, drugs.

Should the test reveal pregnancy and there was vaginal bleeding during the second week, along with a discharge that is not typical of menstruation, you should undergo multiple hCG blood tests separated by 2-4 days. Since the embryo is not yet visible on the ultrasound, there is currently no other way to determine whether it is alive. The hormone level will rise dramatically during a developing pregnancy and will start to decline during a non-developing or interrupted pregnancy.

At this stage, a total error can occur – the embryo will not attach itself in the uterus, where all the conditions for its development exist, but outside it – in the tube, in the cervix. Then the hCG level will grow less intensively, after a week or two, the fertilized egg in the uterus will not be detected on the ultrasound. The diagnosis of "ectopic pregnancy" will be made only after confirmation on the ultrasound. In this situation, the woman will be given emergency surgical care to extract the embryo. Doctors will try to preserve the woman"s reproductive organs so that she can get pregnant again later, but, alas, this is not always possible. For example, with a cervical pregnancy, it is often necessary to remove the entire uterus, and with a tubal pregnancy, the embryo is often removed along with the tube.

It is typically not possible to save a pregnancy if miscarriage warning signs manifest at such an early stage because it is difficult to verify the fact and medicine has not fully investigated the reasons why the embryo fails to take root.

Relying on their own experience, seasoned obstetricians and gynecologists contend that rejection typically happens as a result of the embryo’s genetic inferiority because in this scenario the baby is unable to develop further. The mechanisms of natural selection are activated by nature.

It’s common for many women to not notice any noticeable changes at two weeks after conception. However, as the body gets ready for the upcoming weeks, minor symptoms like mild cramps, slight bloating, or mood swings may start to appear.

The embryo is just beginning to develop at this point. Crucial procedures like implantation and cell division are happening now, laying the groundwork for the baby’s future development. Though the mother may not notice them, these early stages are crucial.

It’s critical to pay attention to your body’s cues and notice even tiny changes. Even though it might still seem early, it’s important to take care of your body as it starts this journey by eating healthily, drinking plenty of water, and getting enough sleep.

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