Is It A Chemical Pregnancy
A chemical pregnancy basically means although an egg was fertilised, the clump of cells did not implant successfully, and the hormones triggered by implantation did not stop menstruation from happening.
I was pretty devastated and would advise against testing before the date of your period to avoid the disappointment.
Just remember women decades ago didnt have the early pregnancy test and they would never have known they were pregnant until after the missed period this is why the rate of miscarriage is technically higher these days.
I Think I Might Be Pregnant
Nothing is more likely to make you feel like youre in limbo than suspecting that youre pregnant but not knowing for sure. Sure, it can cause you undue stress, worry, and anxiety, but it can also make you feel hopeful and excited.
Early warning signs and symptoms can give you a heads up that you may be pregnant. Just keep in mind that they are not to be taken as sure signs of pregnancy, but rather indicators instead. Youll want to take a pregnancy test to know for sure.
Not all women experience pregnancy the same, nor do they experience the same early pregnancy symptoms. While many do experience early pregnancy symptoms, they may be different for you than they are for your colleague or best friend.
Whats more, if youve been pregnant before, the early symptoms you experience this time around may not be the same as your last pregnancy. Keep in mind, that many of these symptoms mimic menstruation symptoms before you get your period and after so you might be pregnant and not even realize it.
Below are some of the common early pregnancy signs and symptoms. However, its important to know that these symptoms could be due to other things going on with your body other than pregnancy. Therefore, youre not necessarily pregnant if you notice any of the symptoms below. Again, as it bears repeating, the only way to know for sure if youre pregnant is to take a pregnancy test.
What Are Early Signs Of Pregnancy
Your symptoms likely wont begin until your fourth week. This is when you may experience mild blood spotting and cramping and when you can expect to miss your period. But, if you are asking yourself, How do I know if Im pregnant, see if you can relate to any of these early indications:
1. Missed Period
According to an American Pregnancy Association survey, approximately 29 percent of women claimed their first sign of pregnancy was a missed period. Missing your period is a common symptom of pregnancy and it often leads women to do a pregnancy test. You may notice some bleeding even if youre pregnant, but it will usually be lighter and shorter than your normal menstrual period.
2. Urinating Frequently
A couple weeks after you conceive, you may have to urinate more. This is because of your pregnancy hormone hCG. This hormone causes an increase in blood flow to your kidneys, which helps them eliminate waste from your body more efficiently. As your uterus is growing more quickly the pressure on your bladder is greater. The amount of urine storage space you have decreases which causes you to urinate more often.
3. Swollen, Tender Breasts
4. Nausea and Sometimes Vomiting
Nausea was the first pregnancy indication 25 percent of women experienced. Although morning sickness doesnt usually hit women until around a month of becoming pregnant, nausea is often felt earlier. Its thought that your pregnancy hormones are what cause nausea, but it isnt quite clear.
5. Spotting
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Early Pregnancy Symptoms Vs Pms: Whats The Difference
Most early pregnancy symptoms before your period are strikingly similar to the side effects of PMS. However, youll only notice changes in your areolas if youre pregnant. A consistently elevated BBT and creamy vaginal discharge post-ovulation are also both relatively reliable signs of conception, but theyre certainly not foolproof.
Otherwise, the only way to know if other early pregnancy symptoms are due to a baby or PMS is to hold out until you can take a pregnancy test.
Late Or Missed Period
Being late or missing your monthly period is the most well-known early sign of pregnancy and for 1 in 3 women, says the American Pregnancy Association, a missed period is still their 1st pregnancy symptom.
There are plenty of other symptoms in our list that you may notice before you miss your period but, as Dr Larisa Corda says, this is the one that prompts most women to get a pregnancy test.
Be warned though that not all missed or delayed periods mean youre pregnant. Sometimes weight changes, hormone problems, stress or recently coming off contraception can affect your periods and possibly lead to you missing a period or having a delayed period.
And of course, for many of us, late and irregular periods can be the norm which is why its useful to know other symptoms.
Saying all that, if your period is unusually late, its time to take a pregnancy test.
Read Also: How To Regulate Your Period With Pcos
How Many Days Before Period Can You Not Get Pregnant
You can only get pregnant during a narrow window of five to six days a month. When these fertile days actually occur depends on when you ovulate, or release an egg from your ovary. Ovulation usually occurs in the middle of your menstrual cycle about two weeks before your period but not everyones cycle is regular.
Breast Swelling Tenderness And Pain
Feelings of breast swelling, tenderness, or pain are also commonly associated with early pregnancy. These symptoms are sometimes similar to the sensations in the breasts in the days before an expected menstrual period. Women may also describe a feeling of heaviness or fullness in the breasts. These symptoms can begin in some women as early as one to two weeks after conception.
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What Are The Earliest Signs Of Conception
Signs and Symptoms of Early Conception: The first sign of what is happening during conception may be a short-term stabbing pain in the abdomen, where the uterus is located. This is due to the implantation of the embryo on the mucosa. This implantation may also cause minor bleeding/spotting, usually brown blood.
About Our Expert Obstetrician Dr Larisa Corda
Dr Corda is an obstetrician and gynaecologist who specialises in IVF. After working in Sydney at IVF Australia , she returned to the UK and was awarded membership of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists. She now works as a gynaecologist and IVF consultant and is also Fertility Expert for ITVs This Morning show.
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How Do Pregnancy Tests Work
If you have a pregnancy test done at the doctors office, it basically lets the doctor know if your blood or urine contains hCG, which is a hormone known as human chorionic gonadotropin. This particular hormone is made immediately after you have a fertilized egg attach itself to your uterus wall, typically happening around five or six days after its been fertilized.
Youll have a rapid rise in hCG levels if youre pregnant. Your hCG levels will typically double approximately every 72 hours early on in your pregnancy. There are two different types of pregnancy tests that will give you the same answer. These are blood and urine tests.
The staff at your local Carlisle, Harrisburg and Mechanicsburg urgent care centers realize that it can be an exciting time starting a family, but the uncertainty in the beginning surrounding pregnancy tests can be nerve-wracking. Many women dont even consider going to an urgent care center to have a pregnancy test done and often rely on a home test instead.
The problem with this is these types of tests can give you a false-negative or false-positive, which can really add on to this uncertainty. There are a number of reasons why home tests give you false results. Some reasons include:
What Are The Symptoms Of Pregnancy At 1 Week
In the first week of pregnancy, remember that your symptoms at this early stage are typical of your period as you are not actually pregnant. These symptoms can last for three to seven days and include: Vaginal bleeding. Your body washes away the lining of the uterus that has just filled up during pregnancy.
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Achy Hips Legs And Arms
Yep, its not just your back your hips, legs and even arms may also ache at different times during early pregnancy due to hormone changes.
Yesterday I had a achey left leg and an achey right arm and I was like, Am I falling to pieces? And then this morning I got a BFP . At least I know why! says Sparkling_DiamondButton.
Yes, says Dr Larisa. Its those pregnancy hormones loosening up your ligaments and joints to prepare for accommodating your growing baby.
How Soon Can You Detect Pregnancy With A Blood Test
A pregnancy blood test can confirm pregnancy as early as 10 days after a missed period , and sometimes these tests can detect hCG even earlier. You should go to the doctor’s office during pregnancy for a blood test. They are more sensitive than home pregnancy tests, so they can detect a pregnancy earlier.
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Things You Can Do To Increase Your Chances And Decrease Your Stress Level:
- Track your ovulation Use tests . Pin pointing the date you ovulate helps you know when you need to do the deed.
- Use an app To track symptoms, ovulation, periods, tests I used Ovia Fertility but there are a multitude of free apps out there. I was trying to conceive for 12 months and only used the app for 2 months before I succeeded.
- Remember that sperm can survive for an average 4 days and you release 1 egg on the day that you ovulate. The egg only lives 24 hours so there has to be alive sperm already in the fallopian tube. Sperm takes a day to travel to the tube. So do the deed as much as you can in the 4-5 days before ovulation and the 1-2 days after.
- Stay away from Google Once you have the basic information from this blog you will not gain any extra knowledge or peace of mind.
- Join a birth community such as BabyCenter the forums allow you to chat with women in exactly the same scenario as you and its great to have support and someone to talk with. It can also distract you during the two week wait and remind you at times that there is always someone worse off than you are.
How Early Do Pregnancy Symptoms Start
Women in the early stages of pregnancy may experience a number of different symptoms that may signal a pregnancy. While a missed menstrual period is often the characteristic sign of pregnancy, women who do not have regular menstrual cycles may not recognize that a menstrual period has been missed. In some cases, breast tenderness or other symptoms are the first sign of pregnancy. Still, other women may not experience any particular symptoms at all during early pregnancy and may not be aware of their condition.
A missed menstrual period is most often the first sign of pregnancy and is a common first-trimester symptom. Sometimes a woman who is pregnant may still experience some bleeding or spotting around the time of the expected period, typically 6 to 12 days after conception. When it occurs, this so-called “implantation bleeding” is generally not as heavy or long as a regular menstrual period. This small amount of bleeding that happens at the time of the expected menstrual period occurs because the fertilized egg attaches to the uterine wall. This is referred to as implantation bleeding.
The experience of pregnancy symptoms is highly individualized and differs among women. In fact, a woman may experience different symptoms in a second or subsequent pregnancy than she did in her first pregnancy.
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Other Causes Of A Missed Period
A missed period can occur for many reasons, including:
- Period delay: If a woman ovulates a few days later than usual, this may delay her period by a few days.
- Hormone disorders: Numerous conditions can cause hormonal imbalances that delay ovulation, or even suppress it, resulting in a missed period.
- An early pregnancy loss: A chemical pregnancy, or early pregnancy loss, can sometimes cause a positive test that a negative test then follows. In some cases, the late period that occurs is an early pregnancy loss.
- Malnourishment: Women who are very underweight or eating too few calories may not ovulate, which can cause their periods to disappear. Doctors refer to this as amenorrhea.
- Perimenopause: A woman entering menopause may ovulate less frequently, causing fewer periods. This stage is known as perimenopause.
Early Signs Of Pregnancy Before Missed Period To Look Out For
If only there were a magic list that defined whether a symptom meant either pregnant or not, during the agonizing two week wait between your attempt to conceive and your period.
Unfortunately, many of the telltale early pregnancy symptoms can also just be associated with the confusing female anatomy and the potentially approaching period.
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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.