What is "gestational age"

n. the age of an embryo counting from the time of fertilization [syn: fetal age, fertilization age]

Gestational age (or menstrual age) is a measure of the age of a pregnancy where the origin is the woman's last normal menstrual period (LMP), or the corresponding age as estimated by other methods. Such methods include adding 14 days to a known duration since fertilization (as is possible in in vitro fertilization), or by obstetric ultrasonography. The popularity of using such a definition of gestational age is that menstrual periods are essentially always noticed, while there is usually a lack of a convenient way to discern when fertilization occurred.

The initiation of pregnancy for the calculation of gestational age can be different from definitions of initiation of pregnancy in context of the abortion debate or beginning of human personhood.