First trimester, week 2
2 weeks pregnant: Ovulation — and maybe conception
- Size
- A grain of sand (the egg)
- Length
- ≈ 0.1 mm the egg cell
- Weight
- —
- Heart rate
- — not yet
- Due date
- 266 days away 5% of the way
At 2 weeks pregnant there is still no baby. You usually ovulate around the end of this week, and conception can follow within about a day.
Your baby this week
- Around day 14 of a 28-day cycle, the leading follicle bursts and releases an egg. This is ovulation.
- The egg lives for only about 12–24 hours. Sperm can survive up to about 5 days, so the fertile window is the 5 days before ovulation plus ovulation day.
- If a sperm reaches the egg in the fallopian tube, fertilization happens. The baby’s genetic sex is set at that moment by whether the sperm carries an X or a Y chromosome.
Your body this week
- Cervical mucus often becomes clear, slippery and stretchy, a bit like raw egg white.
- Some people feel a brief one-sided twinge when they ovulate (mittelschmerz).
- Your resting body temperature rises slightly, by about 0.2–0.5 °C, after ovulation.
- Typical weight gain so far
- 0–0.2 kg
- Your uterus
- About the size of a pear (unchanged to the eye)
Weight gain range is for a pre-pregnancy BMI of 18.5–24.9 (IOM guideline). Your provider may advise differently.
Scans, tests and checkups
-
From week 4Home pregnancy test Self-care
Detects hCG in urine. Most reliable from the first day of a missed period.
-
From week 6First prenatal visit & bloodwork Checkup
Health history, blood pressure, urine, blood type and Rh factor, blood count, and infection screening (hepatitis B, HIV, syphilis, rubella immunity). The UK aims to see you by 10 weeks.
-
From week 6Early / dating ultrasound Ultrasound
Confirms the pregnancy is in the uterus, sees the heartbeat, counts babies and dates the pregnancy. Often part of the first visit or combined with the 12-week scan.
Real size, next to an adult hand
Growth curve
Tip for this week
Ovulation tests detect the LH surge that comes 24–36 hours before ovulation. Having sex every 1–2 days in the fertile window gives the best odds.
Myth or fact?
Can timing sex around ovulation choose a boy or girl?
MythNo. Methods like Shettles (sex close to ovulation for a boy, earlier for a girl) weren’t supported when tested.
Read the evidenceMore myths around week 2
Questions people ask about week 2
When am I most fertile?
In the 2–3 days before ovulation and on ovulation day itself. In a 28-day cycle that is roughly days 12–14, but it varies from person to person and cycle to cycle.
Can timing sex choose a boy or a girl?
No. A well-known 1995 study in the New England Journal of Medicine found that timing sex relative to ovulation had no effect on the baby’s sex.
References
Advice differs between countries, so follow your own care team’s plan. Weights from week 20 are the WHO median, and earlier weights are approximate. How we check this.
All 40 weeks
First trimester Weeks 1–13
From conception to a fully formed, tiny fetus. The most rapid change of the whole pregnancy.
Second trimester Weeks 14–27
Growth, movement and senses. Often the most comfortable stretch for parents.
Third trimester Weeks 28–40
Weight gain, brain and lung maturation, and getting into position for birth.
