Quick Answer — What Is Gestational Age?
Gestational age (GA) is how far a pregnancy has progressed, counted from the first day of the last menstrual period (LMP) — not from conception. It is written as weeks *and* days, like 22w4d, because a single week of difference matters clinically.
The two formulas that do almost all the work:
- Gestational age = Today − LMP, expressed as weeks + days
- Estimated due date (EDD) = LMP + 280 days (40 weeks)
Working backwards from a known due date: LMP = EDD − 280 days, then apply the first formula.
Worked example. LMP was 1 January 2025 and today is 15 August 2025. That is 226 days, which is 32 weeks and 2 days — you would say 'thirty-two and two'. The due date is 1 January + 280 = 8 October 2025, which is 54 days away.
The two-week offset that confuses everyone: because the count starts at the LMP but conception happens roughly two weeks later, you are already considered '2 weeks pregnant' on the day you conceive. This is not an error; it is the clinical convention, because the LMP is a date women can usually recall and conception is not.
Key reference points: a full-term pregnancy is 40 weeks from LMP. Fewer than 5% of babies arrive on the exact due date. Fetal (embryonic) age = gestational age − 2 weeks.