What is conception? Fertilization & implantation explained
Written by Lauren McKay
Lauren McKay
Lauren McKay is a writer and journalist with more than ten years of experience writing across a variety of topics. She is a passionate advocate for driving women’s health knowledge and is a trained yoga teacher. She earned a Masters in Creative Writing from the University of Glasgow and currently lives in Scotland.
Fact checked by Dr. Eleonora Benhar PhD, VP of Science and Data at Natural Cycles
Dr. Eleonora Benhar PhD
As VP of Science and Data at Natural Cycles, Eleonora Benhar leads a team researching women’s health and developing algorithms. Transitioning from physics to fertility, she completed her PhD in particle physics at the University of Geneva while at CERN, and later joined Natural Cycles after working as a postdoctoral researcher at Yale University.
Key takeaways:
- Conception is when sperm joins together with an egg cell to form a zygote, and is a crucial step towards pregnancy
- The difference between conception and implantation is important. Conception is when the egg and sperm join together, while implantation is when the fertilized egg attaches to the uterus, marking the start of pregnancy.
There are many steps when it comes to getting pregnant — and one of the most important ones is conception. But what exactly is conception? And how does it differ from implantation? Let’s find out everything you need to know.
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