Many women who are trying to conceive for the first time ever might feel a bit surprised by how big of a role waiting plays. No one tells you this, but waiting around is an entirely normal and necessary part of the journey.
By the time you are at day three past ovulation, you might feel you still have miles to go and centuries to wait in order to finally find out whether you are pregnant or not. The suspense and the not knowing might be the worst part of the two-week wait.
Luckily, the wait has an expiration date too.
Three DPO is near the beginning of the two-week wait that happens between ovulation and your next expected period and is an extremely important time for women actively trying to conceive.
During ovulation, the released eggs travel to your fallopian tube. If there is awaiting sperm present, these eggs might be fertilized by it. However, the time period for fertilization is pretty short: only 24 hours of the release of the egg from your ovary is the time period allowed to create a fertilized egg.
If fertilization of the egg does indeed happen on time and successfully, the newly formed fertilized egg (or zygote, as it is called) will travel down the fallopian tube. Its only mission now is to implant itself into the uterus lining and start growing and developing there.
We cannot know or tell you for sure, as instances can vary, but implantation tends to happen in the luteal phase, somewhere between six and twelve days post ovulation.
If the implantation in the luteal phase is successful, your body will recognize this change, and it will start producing a hormone called hCG (short for Human Chorionic Gonadotropin). The human Chorionic Gonadotropin hormone is very useful. His job is to communicate with your body and inform it to keep producing progesterone.
Progesterone is a beneficial hormone in pregnancy because it helps the uterus grow, and it staves off contractions until the time is right, among other useful features. Some studies also suggest that progesterone plays a role in reducing the chance of early miscarriage.
The hormone hCG probably sounds familiar because of its another helpful feature: it helps detect pregnancy. Most pregnancy tests work by looking for high hCG in the sample of your urine.
To get a positive result on your home pregnancy test, your hCG levels have to be above 25 mIU/mL.
What does this mean? Unfortunately, it means that you will have to wait just a bit longer to know because, at 3 DPO of the luteal phase, you are not able to get the answer you are looking for. Even if the released egg has been fertilized, you still need to give it a few more days as the fertilized egg implants itself into the uterus, in order to take a pregnancy test and have the test be accurate and correct.
Once you have a missed period, it is the right time, because there is a chance of a positive pregnancy test.
Another common occurrence that many women who are trying to get pregnant experience is becoming extremely aware of every single little change that happens to your body, including every single little ache, cramp, tingle, as well as any hormonal changes.
If you are actively trying to get pregnant, you are probably itching to know what are the signs that you should look out for at 3 DPO.
Even though this probably is not the answer you are hoping to hear, at 3 DPO, it is very early for symptoms or signs that pregnancy is on the way, as there are not enough hormonal changes that are going to cause these first pregnancy symptoms.
The first possibility for pregnancy symptoms to appear is around implantation—and 3 DPO is too early for implantation to even happen. Even if the implantation (which comes later) has been successful, many women do not experience any symptoms that early on.
Many women report that they feel some slight cramping three days post ovulation. Cramping at this part of your menstrual cycle is very likely to be connected to or caused by PMS or ovulation, and it is not likely to be caused by implantation, as it is way too early in the two-week wait.
However, it is worth mentioning that it is possible to be pregnant and have no symptoms at all until weeks into the early pregnancy. This does not mean that anything is wrong; it just means that all bodies and experiences are different.
You might not experience cramping as the implantation occurs, and it does not even necessarily happen for every woman.
While it is not likely that you are going to experience any pregnancy symptoms at 3 DPO, it is still useful to get familiar with the symptoms that might be your new normal in the days and weeks ahead.
Some of the most common early pregnancy symptoms include:
Fatigue is often one of the first early pregnancy symptoms. However, fatigue also happens to many people during each menstrual cycle and the usual 3 DPO symptoms of the luteal phase, regardless of whether the pregnancy happens or not.
Just like fatigue, nausea is often one of the first signs of the early stages of pregnancy. If you are actively trying to conceive and you notice that you are feeling nauseous around 3 DPO, make sure to track this symptom, as it could be very useful to your gyno later on.
For the majority of women, ovulation occurs about halfway through the menstrual cycle, which is when bloating usually occurs as well. So by 3 DPO, you are very likely to feel this way.
A variety of factors can cause breast tenderness and nipple tenderness, as well as extreme nipple sensitivity. Some of the most common causes for breast tenderness include high caffeine intake or an ill-fitting bra.
However, another reason for breast tenderness could be a hormonal change that happens during your menstrual cycle and early pregnancy at 3 DPO.
Other symptoms of early pregnancy can also include:
Also, many women experience bloating, backaches, heightened sense of smell, sore nipples, light spotting for a few days, and feel fatigued and even completely exhausted.
All of these symptoms that can happen 3 days past ovulation do look extremely unappealing on paper, but if you are a woman trying to conceive, you are probably hoping you are going to experience all of them. Once these symptoms start, you will experience significant relief, and you will probably be so happy when they do appear!
It is important to note that is too early to take a pregnancy test at 3dpo, as the pregnancy test is not likely to be accurate.
Keep in mind that every woman is different, and every pregnancy is different; every journey is unique, and that is its beauty. Different women feel different things during their future pregnancy journey, and they go trough different phases while trying to get pregnant.
At 3 DPO, your best bet is relaxing, staying away from taking the pregnancy test (because it is way too early for any pregnancy test to be accurate), and hoping that you are indeed pregnant.
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