Are doctors bad at math or just lazy?

[Lina]

Why do doctors when predicting a woman's due date use a standard 28 day cycle as a starting point when most women have shorter or longer cycles. This is especially irritating at doctors appointments when you point out that your cycle is significantly shorter than 28, and they take no notice. Does anyone else find this ridiculous. This, and including the first day of a woman's menstrual cycle when calculating due dates makes the whole process inaccurate and useless. Sorry for the rant.

 

[hanelei]

They definitely should take each woman's cycle into account when calculating due dates. I suppose they just take the average between a longer cycle and a shorter one- probably a bit lazy really.

I actually have a 28 day cycle though and the due date the doctor gave me was exactly what I had calculated based on the first day of my last period- looks like I ovulated right on Day 14 as well!

 

[MilosMommy7]

i was thinking that lately too. because mine are usually 31-32 days long. obviously way more than 28days! but i still measured fairly close to what they thought. they use the first date of your lmp to estimate 14days from that which is when your ovulation SHOULDVE happened. i guess 14 days from lmp doesnt change? unless you tell them that your lutheal cycle is longer or shorter. then i think they should take THAT into consideration.

 

[Merry]

As I charted and used OPK I know that i ovulated on CD 17, which is 3 days ahead of what the doc thinks. So they have me 2 days (for some odd reason) ahead of where I think I am but don't think 2 days will make much of a diffrence in the long run as babies hardly ever arrive on their due date!

 

[maddog37]

I agree but I guess doctors are very conventional.

I told my GP that I was charting and ovulated about 10 days after the textbook CD14. She said "they" don't care about that. Then I got called in urgently to tell me my hcg was low for week 6 as she expected. I'd be so scared if I didn't know better because my hcg level was actually quite high for week 4, which I'd be based on ov date.

My OB, one of the best around and super nice, went with the GPs estimation even though I said i ovulated late. I was told to schedule my u/s for last week ("week 12"). Technician said I shouldve waited because baby was too small to measure everything that she wanted to. I still got to see baby and it was exactly the age I expected from ovulation. But now I have to go back in 2 weeks so I have to take time off work again. The technician said that they consider the ov date, so there's a bit of inconsistencies between the medical teams.