Common Early Pregnancy Symptoms
When you think you might be pregnant, but its too early to take a pregnancy test, youll often look for any signs that you are pregnant. I sure did anyway!
With all of my pregnancies, I suspected that I might be pregnant because I experienced some of the very early signs of pregnancy. Even though a test said negative, I just had a feeling that it only said so because it was too early to tell.
While the only surefire way to know if you are pregnant is with a pregnancy test, there are quite a few early symptoms of pregnancy to look for that may give you a hint.
When Can I Take A Home Pregnancy Test
Although you may start to feel early pregnancy symptoms before your period, most women have to wait for an average of two weeks from the time they ovulate for a positive home pregnancy test result. Home pregnancy tests measure levels of human chorionic gonadotropin in your urine.
This placenta-produced hormone makes its way into your urine almost immediately after an embryo begins implanting in your uterus, between six to 12 days after fertilization. You can start using most home pregnancy tests as soon as hCG can be detected in your urine and hCG levels usually arent high enough to be picked up by a home pregnancy test until your periods expected.
Cant wait until then? Some HPTs promise 60 to 75 percent accuracy four to five days before you expect your period. Wait until your period and the rate jumps to 90 percent wait another week and the results are 99 percent accurate.
Know that false negatives are much more common than false positives, so if the time for your period comes and goes without your monthly flow, check in with your health care provider. Either way, youll want to get a blood test to confirm your pregnancy status.
No matter what symptoms you’re having, the only way to know for sure that you’re pregnant is to make an appointment with your OB/GYN.
Reasons You Missed Your Period
- /Birth Control
- /Reasons You Missed Your Period
Have you missed your period recently? Did you know that there are many hormones in women that affect their daily life?
Additionally, did you know that it is crucial for women, young and old, to understand the importance of hormones? Balanced hormones help us to perform and feel our best.
Your hormone health is important. Understand the role your hormones play, what is normal for your body, and reasons you missed your period .
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Pregnancy Symptoms Before Missed Period: Do You Know Them
By Sitaram Bhartia Maternity Program | July 7, 2018 | Maternity | 2018-07-0720 November 2020
If you think that a missed period is the only sign of pregnancy, think again!Your body displays pregnancy symptoms before missed period as well and women who are actively trying to get pregnant may notice them more.
Rachna Mitra and her husband Rajiv were one such couple.
Over the past week, Rachna had been feeling nauseous and tired. She wondered if these were pregnancy symptoms. She could not tell for sure since the expected date of her period was still a week later.
Overcautious by nature, she decided to get her doctors opinion on whether one can experience any pregnancy symptoms before missed period.
Timeline Of Early Pregnancy Symptoms
While pregnancy tests and your practitioner can offer definitive answers, these early pregnancy symptoms may be clues that you’re expecting.
Keep in mind, just because youve experienced some of these symptoms doesnt mean youre pregnant. You could also have none of them at all and still go on to have a perfectly healthy pregnancy.
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What Are The Benefits
Women learn about their bodies and how to use cycle signs to understand:
Implantation Bleeding And Cramping
If you have unprotected sex during your fertile window, there is a chance that you might get pregnant. Implantation takes place when the fertilized egg attaches to the lining of the uterus. If that happens, you may experience implantation bleeding around the same time your period is due .
Implantation bleeding is light, and you may notice just a few drops of blood in your panty or while wiping your vagina. Therefore, you may or may not notice it.
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Your Boobs Are Sore & Heavy
If your boobs are aching and feel a bit fuller, it could be a sign. “Breast changes are early signs of pregnancy,” says Walters. “The moment you conceive, hormones send signals to the breasts to get ready in 40 weeks.” However, this may not be as pronounced of a , if this isn’t your first, according to the Mayo Clinic â they may not be as tender or experience as much of a change in size, if that’s the case.
Faint Line On Pregnancy Test
Did you see two lines on the pregnancy test, but one of them was faint? Guess what? That’s a positive result. It’s possible that your levels of hCG aren’t strong enough yet to produce a stronger colored line. If you’re concerned about it, take a second test in a few days or ask for a blood test to determine pregnancy.
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Dizziness Lightheadedness And Headaches
Blood vessels are known to widen and expand during pregnancy, which tends to cause dizziness and lightheadedness due to a decrease in blood pressure in the body4.
Youre also no longer getting all of your bodys supply of blood now, a significant portion of it is now being sent to your fetus.
If you notice frequent dizziness, lightheadedness and/or headaches along with other unusual symptoms that pop out of the blue, take note of them and talk to your doctor about them.
Sometimes, dizziness coupled with abdominal pain or vaginal bleeding can be a sign of something very serious, such as an ectopic pregnancy.
As for headaches, these are often caused by decrease in blood sugar levels during pregnancy, increased levels of estrogen and progesterone in the body, as well as the vessels in your head now being under increased stress due to changes in blood pressure levels.
What Are The Signs Of Pregnancy
For a lot of people, the first sign of pregnancy is a missed period. Most pregnancy tests will be positive by the time youve missed your period. Other early pregnancy symptoms include feeling tired, feeling bloated, peeing more than usual, mood swings, nausea, and tender or swollen breasts. Not everyone has all of these symptoms, but its common to have at least 1 of them.
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Are There Any Cure For Delayed Period
If you have a delayed period, then it may not mean you are pregnant. Your delayed period if dues to stress and exercise can be treated with basic lifestyle changes. Also, delayed period due to PCOS can be treated with losing weight, metformin, and oral contraceptive.
In addition, home made therapy can help cure your delayed period. Use of garlic and honey can help regulate your cycle.
How Much Are Pregnancy Tests
Buying a multitude of pregnancy tests can get expensive, especially if you are testing too early. There are tests at the dollar stores for a dollar, or you could buy one test at a superstore or grocery store for $3-$4. Some tests come in packs of twos or threes and can range from $10-$15.
Pregnancy tests can also be found online. Testing strips can be as little as $0.32 each and are usually sold in bulk.
Clinics may give pregnancy tests for free. Health care professionals may also give blood tests, which should be covered by insurance.
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Basal Body Temperature Charting
Basal body temperature can predict and suggest ovulation. This only works if you have been taking your temperature in the days prior to ovulation. Temperature elevation begins one or two days after ovulation and persists for several days.
Temperature elevation identifies prior ovulation it does not diagnose pregnancy.
Early Signs You’re Pregnant Before A Missed Period
Early pregnancy symptoms can overlap with common body changes, such as PMS. Here’s how to tell the difference.
Your menstrual cycle is your body’s monthly preparation for pregnancy — if you get pregnant, the lining in your uterus has a job to do and you won’t experience any typical menstrual bleeding. But while a missed period is many people’s first signal that they’re pregnant, it often isn’t the first clue your body gives you.
In the first weeks of pregnancy , the body starts producing a lot of hormones that can affect you physically and mentally. In addition to amping up its regular production of progesterone and estrogen, your body starts producing new ones, including human placental lactogen and human chorionic gonadotropin .
While your body is in hormonal overdrive during early pregnancy, you may feel some side effects. But if hormones are to blame, how do you tell if it’s PMS, ovulation symptoms or something else completely? Below, we outline some signals you might notice from your body during early pregnancy, before you even take a pregnancy test.
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What Are The Major Differences Between Early Pregnancy And Pre
“They certainly are similar!,” says Mark P. Trolice, M.D., reproductive endocrinology and infertility specialist at Fertility CARE, The IVF Center, and Associate Professor of Ob/Gyn at University of Central Florida College of Medicine. “A pregnancy test at the time of expected menses can make the distinction.”
- Premenstrual symptoms include mood swings, increased appetite/cravings, abdominal bloatedness, fatigue, breast tenderness, headaches, and hot flashes.
- Early pregnancy symptoms include nausea , breast tenderness, fatigue, frequent urination, mild uterine cramping, abdominal bloatedness, constipation, heartburn, food cravings, and mood changes.
How Many Days Late Can A Period Be Before Worrying About Pregnancy
Everyones cycle is different. Healthy cycles can range in length from 21 to 35 days, and how long a cycle lasts can vary from cycle to cycle. Unless you have irregular cycles due to a medical condition, you probably have at least a rough idea of when to expect your next period.
A period is considered late if it hasnt started within seven days of when you expect it. Most pregnancy tests will be able to give you accurate results by the time your period is late. If you get a negative pregnancy test after missing a period, and your period is more than a week late, you may want to see your health care provider to figure out whats going on.
If you get a negative pregnancy test result, still havent gotten your period, and start to experience early pregnancy symptoms, consider taking another test. Sometimes, home pregnancy tests can give a false-negative result if its taken too early in the pregnancy to detect human chorionic gonadotropin in your urine. In these cases, it can take a bit longer to know youre pregnant after a late period. The earliest hCG detection can be done with an hCG serum test performed by a doctor as early as 8 to 10 days after ovulation.
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Early Symptoms Of Pregnancy Before Missed Period
When you are eager to get pregnant, you could be closely tracking your ovulation and mating with your partner accordingly. And, you may want to know the result as soon as possible, rather than wait until you miss your period. But can you know if you are pregnant even before you missed your period?
A missed period could be the first major sign of pregnancy. But only a pregnancy test, a blood test, or an ultrasound scan may confirm your pregnancy. Although some changes begin to happen even before you miss your period, they are not accurate and may not necessarily confirm the pregnancy.
In this MomJunction post, we tell you how pregnancy symptoms vary from PMS symptoms, the possible symptoms of pregnancy before a missed period, and whether you can rely on them to confirm pregnancy.
What Happens During Week 1
These are the first 2 weeks of your menstrual cycle. You have your period. About 2 weeks later, the egg thats most mature is released from your ovary this is called ovulation. Ovulation may happen earlier or later, depending on the length of your menstrual cycle. The average menstrual cycle is 28 days.
After its released, your egg travels down your fallopian tube toward your uterus. If the egg meets up with a sperm, they combine. This is called fertilization. Fertilization is most likely to occur when you have unprotected vaginal sex during the 6 days leading up to and including the day of ovulation.
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Are Home Pregnancy Tests The Best Way To Check For An Early Pregnancy
Home pregnancy tests are generally very reliable. These tests involve urinating on a small test strip and then waiting for a symbol to appear in the result window. This window will usually show a test image . This symbol appears first and means that the test is working. Always check the packaging and instructions of your test to make sure it is working correctly. Within a few minutes, the test will show either a positive result or a negative result. Some digital tests will display a word or phrase .
Blood tests for a possible pregnancy are done in your healthcare providers office. This version of the test looks for hCG in your blood. You still need to wait for hCG to build up in your body before taking this type of pregnancy test. Your healthcare provider may recommend this option in some cases. Call your provider if you suspect youre pregnant and discuss the best type of test.
What Is The Last Menstrual Period
The LMP is the date of the first day of the last menstrual period you had before conceiving. It is the first day that your last menstrual cycle begins when you see bright red blood, not just a little brown spotting. You should keep track of your LMP each month, either with an online calculator or just by recording it on a calendar each month. That is the date you use when entering the LMP on an online period calculator.
Whether you are trying to get pregnant or not trying to get pregnant, keeping track of your menstrual periods is vital. Besides pregnancy, missing a menstrual period could also be a sign of other issues like missed ovulation.
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You Get Inexplicably Tired
Any of us would expect to be exhausted after a long and difficult day. This is totally normal, and, when considered by itself, is probably not a sign youâre pregnant. However, pregnancy causes women to experience fatigue, even when theyâre taking things easy and slow. The hormone responsible for making you tired goes off the charts when youâre expecting a baby, so your significantly lower energy levels may be something to look into. This intense fatigue can begin as early as one week after conception.
Home Pregnancy Test Accuracy
If used correctly and at the right time, home pregnancy tests are fairly accurate at detecting pregnancy. Used correctly means that you read the directions and follow them. Each test has slightly different directions, so if using different brands, it’s important to read the directions. Also, using the test at the right time makes a difference in ‘accuracy’. Women who test too early will get inaccurate results.
The absolute best time to take any pregnancy test is a few days after a missed period. This is when the hormone hCG, the pregnancy hormone produced by the growing balls of cells if there is indeed a pregnancy, is most easily detected by home pregnancy tests. Too soon before that and you may get a false negative as your body has not produced enough hCG.
Some tests do claim that they can get you early results, meaning results before your next expected period. If you truly read their statements, however, you’ll find that the early results are only possible for a small percentage of women, not every woman. It’s most likely a marketing ploy to encourage you to take more tests and hence spend more money.
I have had three different experiences with home pregnancy tests. With my first pregnancy, I saw a positive result on the day of my expected period. With my second pregnancy, I didn’t get a positive result until almost my sixth week of pregnancy . With my third, I was able to test two days before my expected period and get a positive result.
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Sore Or Sensitive Breasts
One of the earliest changes you may notice during pregnancy is sore or aching breasts. Your breasts may also feel tender to the touch, or fuller or heavier than normal. This is due to rising progesterone levels in the body.
This symptom may continue throughout your pregnancy or subside after the first few weeks.
