TWW: What Is the Two-Week Wait? (And How to Make It a Little Less Torturous)

If you’re trying to conceive (TTC), the two-week wait (TWW)—aka the 14 days between ovulation and either your period or a positive pregnancy test—can feel downright agonizing.

Personally, I’m a bit of a control freak, which doesn’t help in situations where I have virtually none. Before both of my two pregnancies, I faithfully tested for ovulation, timed sex accordingly and then waited (impatiently) until I could finally take a pregnancy test. It took four months to conceive my first baby. Each progressive month of negative pregnancy tests ratcheted up my anxiety; thankfully, the wait was over quickly. The second time around, I got a positive pregnancy test around four months into trying—followed by bleeding a week later. It took another four months before I was pregnant again. In the meantime, I did my best to stay distracted. (Having a toddler helped.)

Ahead, learn exactly what happens during the two-week wait, the best time to take a pregnancy test—and how to cope with this nail-biting stretch of time.

Key Takeaways

• The two-week wait—sometimes referred to as the TWW—is the length of time between when you ovulate (aka the best time to conceive) and when you either get your period or a positive pregnancy test.
• The two-week wait can be emotionally challenging, especially when you’re actively trying to conceive. It’s totally normal to feel anxious or restless during this time. Finding ways to stay busy and engage in activities you enjoy can make the wait more manageable.
• Big changes might be happening during this window, but symptoms (or lack thereof) aren’t necessarily reliable indicators of pregnancy. Try to resist the urge to overanalyze every twinge or search for early signs of pregnancy. Everyone’s experience is different.
• For the most accurate results—and to save yourself some stress—wait until the first day of your expected period to take a pregnancy test. Testing too early can lead to false negatives and unnecessary worry.

What Is the Two Week Wait (TWW)?

The two-week wait refers to the two weeks between when you ovulate (and try to conceive) and when you either get your period or a positive pregnancy test. If you’re doing in vitro fertilization (IVF), it refers to the waiting period between your embryo transfer and taking a pregnancy test.

What’s Happening During the Two Week Wait?

The best time to conceive, aka your fertile window, are the several days around ovulation—so that’s when you’ll likely be getting busy.

Ovulation, or when the ovaries release a mature egg, typically happens about halfway through your menstrual cycle. Since an average cycle is 28 days, that puts ovulation at around day 14. (Remember, your cycle restarts each month on day one of your period.)

When the egg leaves the ovary, it’ll hang out for a day in the fallopian tube in case it gets fertilized. If sperm meets egg, the fertilized egg will then travel down the fallopian tube. It’ll then implant, or embed in the uterine lining, about a week later—around day 21 of your cycle.

A successfully implanted fertilized egg, now known as an embryo, will begin producing the pregnancy hormone hCG, which is what pregnancy tests look for. You’ll likely be able to detect hCG levels with a pregnancy test around day 28 of your cycle, or when you’d normally expect to get your period. If the test is positive—congratulations!

If the fertilized egg doesn’t embed in the uterine lining, or if the egg isn’t fertilized after ovulation, you’ll get your period around day 28.

Keep in mind that this timing isn’t exact. Some people have shorter or longer cycles. Others—especially those with conditions like polycystic ovary syndrome, or PCOS—may not have regular periods and can’t predict with any certainty when they’re ovulating.

How to Cope During the Two Week Wait

The two-week wait can be brutal, especially if you’ve been actively trying for a while. “It’s a time of questioning every symptom or sign. My biggest recommendation is to continue to do the things that make you happy and bring you joy,” advises Priyanka Ghosh, MD, a reproductive endocrinologist and infertility specialist at NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia University Irving Medical Center in New York City.

Fill your downtime with hobbies and meetups with friends and family. Yoga can be particularly helpful to lower your stress levels. If you’re a gym lover or a runner, keep up those activities too (unless otherwise advised by your healthcare provider). “You want to focus on keeping busy, going about your normal activities and not creating a lot of space for you to be stuck just perseverating as you wait,” says Deborah Bartz, MD, an ob-gyn at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston who specializes in complex family planning.

Experts also recommend avoiding anything that doesn’t serve you. For example, if you find social media triggering—or are tempted to look up every potential pregnancy symptom you might experience—keep your phone out of your bedroom to remove the temptation.

Two Week Wait Symptoms

Pregnancy symptoms are caused by the pregnancy hormone hCG, which a fertilized egg begins producing when it implants in the uterine lining. hCG levels steadily rise in the first trimester and peak at around weeks 10 to 11 of pregnancy, says Bartz, then go back down in the second and third trimesters. That’s why many women have the worst morning sickness during the first trimester.

There’s a chance that you may experience pregnancy symptoms after implantation, or in the week before your expected period. The most common early pregnancy symptoms are breast tenderness and heightened sense of smell, which you might notice a couple of days before your expected period, says Bartz. Sometimes, you might also experience cramping related to implantation as well as light spotting, which leads some women to think they’re having their period when they’re really pregnant, she adds.

You may also not notice any symptoms at all during the two-week wait. “The absence or presence of these symptoms aren’t reliable indicators of pregnancy,” says Ghosh.

When to Take a Pregnancy Test

The best time to take a pregnancy test is the day you expect your period to arrive. Before then, there isn’t enough of the pregnancy hormone hCG to be picked up on a pregnancy test. “While it’s very difficult to refrain from testing too early, I do recommend against it if possible,” says Ghosh.

If you do want to test sooner, early pregnancy tests may pick up hCG soon after implantation, or about five days before your expected period. “You just need to know that there’s a lack of accuracy in those earlier tests, and you can’t necessarily rely on them,” says Bartz. This is because a fertilized egg only starts producing hCG after implantation, and “it does take a few days for the hormone to get high enough in the bloodstream for it to actually be picked up,” says Bartz.

If you do decide to take an early pregnancy test, you’re more likely to get a false negative. That’s because the hCG levels are still too low to pick up. It may also be because you ovulated (and conceived) later than you expected. “A lot of people don’t have 28-day cycles. And most people don’t know when they’re actually ovulating” unless they took an ovulation test, says Bartz.

To Sum It Up

The two-week wait—or the time between ovulation (or embryo transfer) and when you can take a pregnancy test—can feel endlessly long and emotionally intense. It’s tempting to analyze every possible symptom and test early. Try to be patient. Most people won’t have early pregnancy symptoms. And you can’t know for sure whether you’ve conceived until your expected period, since that’s when a fertilized egg produces enough hCG to be picked up on pregnancy tests. In the meantime, focus on activities that bring you joy, avoid stress triggers and maintain healthy habits to help you cope and stay grounded.

Please note: The Bump and the materials and information it contains are not intended to, and do not constitute, medical or other health advice or diagnosis and should not be used as such. You should always consult with a qualified physician or health professional about your specific circumstances.