John Edwards's defense rests following medical details about Rielle Hunter The details about Hunter's menstrual cycle, which are being used to establish a timeline about the conception of a child fathered by Edwards, were revealed in the waning moments of an anti-climactic final day of defense testimony. Lowell had suggested the day before that he might call Hunter and Edwards as witnesses, an announcement that drew so many spectators to the federal courthouse here that an overflow room had to be set up to accommodate the crowd. But neither was called, a decision that assured that almost all the main characters in the drama will have remained off stage. Over 17 days of testimony, jurors also didn't hear from the wealthy patrons who prosecutors say funded the coverup in hopes of avoiding a scandal that would have killed Edwards's presidential campaign and his later ambitions to be nominated for attorney general or as a justice of the U.S. Supreme Court. One of the donors - Fred Baron - is dead, and the other - the heiress Rachel "Bunny" Mellon - is 101 years old and considered too old to testify. The jurors also can't hear from the woman defense attorneys say Edwards was covering up his affair to protect: his wife, Elizabeth Edwards, who died of cancer in 2010. Instead, they got a detailed report Wednesday about Hunter's medical history. Her child, Frances Quinn, was most likely conceived between May 25 and 28, 2007, according to a doctor's analysis read to the jury by Lowell. She learned of her pregnancy during a July 3, 2007, doctor's visit, and there is no indication she previously used a home pregnancy test, Lowell said. The dates place the confirmation of Hunter's pregnancy squarely into the time frame of Edwards's campaign. Edwards did not suspend his campaign until the end of January 2008, six months later. Defense attorneys cited the length of Hunter's menstrual cycle as they tried to show that she could not have known she was pregnant in May 2007 when prosecutors allege that Edwards and Andrew Young, the key prosecution witness and former Edwards aide, solicited money from Mellon. They are using the dates of Hunter's menstrual cycle, 28 days with periods lasting four to five days, to establish when her June cycle would have been expected to start. It is on that day -- June 8 - that she first could have reasonably suspected that she was pregnant, they say. Prosecutors are expected to argue that the defense timeline is irrelevant because Edwards would have still been motivated to keep the affair secret even if Hunter hadn't been pregnant. A key element of the defense is Edwards's claim that he and his aides consulted with attorneys who told him that the money paid by Mellon and Baron did not need to be reported. After much speculation about their identities, Lowell revealed on Wednesday that they are Baron, who was a wealthy trial lawyer, as well as Baron's wife, Lisa Blue, and David Kirby. In a possible boon to the defense, Lowell was allowed to tell the jury that Young told government investigators that he was "concerned" that the payments constituted "excessive contributions," but that his concerns were alleviated after talking to Edwards and the three attorneys. It's a key point because prosecutors must prove that Edwards knowingly violated campaign finance law. The defense rested after less than three days of testimony. Closing arguments are scheduled to begin Thursday morning, and the jury is expected to start deliberations on Friday. Then, after more than 30 witnesses and dozens of hours of testimony, all Edwards will be able to do is wait.