Early pregnancy symptoms and signs may be valid or fictitious. The only accurate way to determine if you are pregnant or not is to take a pregnancy test. However, if it is too soon to take a test, you could be on the lookout for early signs of pregnancy, or perhaps you already believe that you are experiencing some early pregnancy symptoms.
Is it possible to determine if you are pregnant at this point? Which symptoms could be the first indications that a woman is pregnant? In HealthValueTips, we will address all of your questions and more.
Likewise, you must take a pregnancy test at the appropriate time to validate your suspicions or hopes. But when it comes to the initial pregnancy signs, everyone is different. Some individuals begin to observe alterations within a week of conception. It’s possible that some people won’t notice anything until their menstruation is missed.
The standard recommendation is to take a pregnancy test after a missed menstrual period. This is due to the fact that pregnancy tests detect the amount of human chorionic gonadotrophin (hCG) in your body, which is a hormone that begins to accumulate after conception. Your body may have enough hCG to detect pregnancy after three to four weeks from the first day of your last period.
The 11 Most Common Early Pregnancy Symptoms
Each month, your menstrual cycle is your body’s method of preparing for a potential pregnancy. This includes the thickening of your uterine lining, where a fertilized egg would deposit to start a pregnancy. If you are not pregnant, your uterus will shed its excess lining during your period. If you are pregnant, your lining remains intact and you do not have your normal flow. Consequently, a missed period is frequently the first indicator of pregnancy.
A delayed or missed period does not necessarily indicate pregnancy. If your body is under a great deal of stress or if you have an imbalance of hormones, you may have an irregular menstrual period.
1. Symptoms of Nausea and Vomiting
Since nausea and vomiting can occur at any time of the day, whoever came up with the name “morning sickness” clearly never experienced it themselves.
According to the NIH, this sensation typically begins two to eight weeks after conception and may last the entire pregnancy, but most women feel better after the first trimester.
The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists offers some tips on how to deal with morning sickness, including changing mealtimes and avoiding items that make you feel particularly queasy (ACOG).
Hyperemesis gravidarum is a term used to describe more severe occurrences, such as when pregnant women vomit regularly and feel nauseous for several hours each day. Fortunately, according to ACOG, this only occurs in 3% of pregnancies. Hospitalization is occasionally required for women with this illness to replace vital body fluids that are being lost.
2. Light Bleeding/Implantation Bleeding
Spotting or light bleeding can be an early symptom of pregnancy, which many women are startled to find, but only one-third of people actually experience it. Because doctors think it happens as the fertilized egg attaches (or implants) itself into the uterine lining, this is frequently referred to as implantation bleeding. This is not the same as bleeding that could result from a miscarriage, which is typically heavier.
When does bleeding during implantation happen?
Typically, implantation bleeding starts 10 to 14 days after conception, either before or at the same time as your period is due. Thus, you might believe that your period has arrived.
However, implantation bleeding is a little flow that may begin and end over a few days. Although it can appear in a variety of colors, pink, brown, or pale red are the most frequent choices.
On the other hand, your period may begin with a modest flow and color, but after a few days it gets heavier, turns scarlet red, and can linger for up to a week.
3. Feeling Extremely Tired
Many women experience early pregnancy fatigue, and some may even become aware of their pregnancy before it is confirmed. In actuality, exhaustion could begin to set in as soon as one week after conception. This results from the unexpected changes in hormone levels, especially the rise in progesterone.
4. Frequent Urination
Around the time your next period is due, if you find yourself using the restroom more frequently than normal, it could be a symptom of pregnancy.
Undoubtedly, how often you urinate throughout the day is greatly influenced by your drinking habits. But while your body produces more blood during pregnancy, your kidneys have more fluid to filter and trash to eliminate.
Therefore, if you’re pregnant, you might discover that you’re peeing a lot more. This symptom can appear early in pregnancy and (sadly) persist throughout.
5. Breast Sensitivity, Puffiness, or Tingling
In order to provide adequate nourishment for your developing child, your body goes through significant hormonal shifts throughout pregnancy, notably an increase in the levels of estrogen and progesterone. This shift in hormone levels can be responsible for a variety of symptoms, including discomfort in the breasts.
It is fairly uncommon for a woman to experience increased breast soreness, swelling, or tingling beginning a few days before her period is unexpectedly absent. This pain may be accompanied by the following other changes: Nipples may darken and expand. In addition, as a result of the hormones’ effect on breast tissue, some women find that their bras no longer fit properly.
6. Lower abdominal cramps or pain
While lower-abdominal pain and cramps can indicate the start of a menstrual cycle, they can also indicate the implantation of an egg.
Implantation cramps might feel different from period cramps and can happen with or without spotting or bleeding. For instance, over a few days, you might experience mild to moderate prickling, pulling, or tingling that comes and goes.
However, menstrual cramps often begin a day or two before your period and frequently feel like a throbbing or dull ache. An ectopic pregnancy or another issue may be indicated by severe cramping or pain that is primarily on one side of the body. If you get cramps like this, get in touch with your healthcare provider right away.
7. Headaches
Chronic headaches are common. They bring allergies and colds. They appear when you are stressed, exhausted, or when you reduce your caffeine intake to assist your body in getting ready for pregnancy. But pregnancy may also bring them.
Headaches can result from the increased blood volume and hormonal changes that take place in the early stages of pregnancy. Additionally, headaches can develop from dehydration brought on by nausea.
8. Mood Swings
You might experience changes in mood between weeks 6 and 10. This is typical in the first trimester of pregnancy, and it may be particularly prominent early on due to your body experiencing an abrupt surge in estrogen and progesterone.
Any mood changes you may be having when pregnant are probably accompanied by additional symptoms like exhaustion or nausea. You might become more emotional or teary. Or perhaps you have a shorter temper and get irritated more easily.
9. Avoiding or Craving Particular Foods
The majority of women don’t actually crave the fabled pickles and ice cream combination, but they do occasionally experience food cravings or find something they once loved to dislike. Usually in the first trimester, cravings begin. By the twelfth week of pregnancy, three-quarters of the women in the research the reviewers quoted reported having at least one food yearning.
What do pregnant women desire the most? primarily sweets, which frequently include chocolate as well as fruits, juices, dairy products, and desserts. However, the reviewers found that just a small proportion of women prefer savory or salty foods.
Why these desires occur is unclear. Some people think it’s because of changing hormones, which can alter taste or fragrance, but others claim it’s because it satisfies the fetus’s nutritional demands or is caused by cultural standards or other causes.
10. Basal Body Temperature
The smallest changes in body temperature occur throughout a woman’s menstrual cycle, with basal body temperature typically rising by approximately one-half degree F at ovulation. Therefore, you must be measuring your temperature every day if you want to detect a rise that might be a sign of early pregnancy.
According to the period-tracking business Clearblue, there is no particular temperature that signifies an early pregnancy. The basal body temperature, on the other hand, is at its maximum during ovulation and rapidly drops if an egg is not fertilized. According to the firm, you may be pregnant if your basal body temperature has increased and remains elevated for the next 18 days.
Keep a thermometer on your nightstand to monitor your basal body temperature because it needs to be taken every morning, ideally at the same time, before getting out of bed. For simple comparison with earlier days, note the temperature on a paper chart or in a tracking app.
11. Sensitivity to smell
A sensitive sense of smell is one of the early pregnancy symptoms that many women report experiencing. During pregnancy, as many as two-thirds of women experience an increase in their sensitivity to, or reactivity to, the odors in their environment.
And in many cases, this heightened sense of smell can continue on through the first trimester or beyond, and it can contribute to other symptoms such as nausea, as well as food cravings or aversions.
