Are you expecting a child? Some early pregnancy symptoms may appear around the time you miss your period – or a week or two before or after. Although not every woman has early pregnancy symptoms, many do. By the time they’re 5 weeks pregnant, half of women have symptoms like nausea, vomiting, fatigue, frequent urination, and breast tenderness and swelling, and 70% have symptoms by the time they’re 6 weeks pregnant, and roughly 90% have symptoms by the time they’re 8 weeks pregnant.
Symptoms of pregnancy
If you start to experience some of the early pregnancy symptoms listed below (not all women do), and you’re not getting your period, you could be pregnant.
1. Period was skipped.
If you’re used to being on time and haven’t had your period in a while, you may want to take a pregnancy test before you notice any additional symptoms. However, if you’re not on a regular cycle or don’t keep track of it, nausea, breast soreness, and more visits to the toilet might indicate pregnancy before you notice you haven’t had your period.
2. Constipation
Constipation may be the first symptom you notice if you’re expecting your first child. It’s caused by a rise in progesterone, a hormone that relaxes smooth muscles all throughout the body, including those in the digestive system. This implies that food moves more slowly through the intestines.
3. Swings in mood
Mood swings are typical during pregnancy, due in part to hormonal changes that influence neurotransmitters (chemical messengers in the brain). Everyone reacts to these changes in their own unique way. Some expectant mothers have more intense emotions, both positive and negative, while others are more melancholy or nervous.
Note: If you’re feeling gloomy, hopeless, or unable to deal with your everyday duties, or if you’re experiencing suicidal thoughts, contact your healthcare practitioner or a mental health expert immediately.
4. Bloating in the abdomen
Early in pregnancy, hormonal fluctuations might make you feel bloated, similar to how some women feel immediately before their period. That’s why, even when your uterus is still little, your clothing may feel tighter around the waist than normal.
5. Urination on a regular basis
Hormonal changes trigger a cascade of events that increase the pace of blood flow through your kidneys shortly after you become pregnant. This causes your bladder to fill up faster, requiring you to urinate more often.
As your pregnancy progresses, you’ll notice that you’re urinating more frequently. During pregnancy, your blood volume increases dramatically, resulting in extra fluid being processed and ending up in your bladder. The problem gets worse as your baby grows and puts more pressure on your bladder.
6. Fatigue
Do you get a sudden feeling of exhaustion? No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no Although no one knows for sure what causes early pregnancy fatigue, it’s possible that rapidly rising levels of the hormone progesterone are to blame. Of course, morning sickness and the need to urinate frequently throughout the night can contribute to your tiredness.
Once you reach your second trimester, you should feel more energized, though fatigue usually returns later in pregnancy when you’re carrying a lot more weight and some of the common pregnancy discomforts make it more difficult to get a good night’s sleep.
7. Breasts that hurt
Sensitive, swollen breasts are a common pregnancy symptom caused by rising hormone levels. Your breasts may feel painful and swollen in an exaggerated version of how they feel before your menstruation. As your body adapts to the hormonal changes, your pain should decrease dramatically after the first trimester.
8. Bleeding or spotting after implantation
It may sound contradictory, but spotting or vaginal bleeding are the last things you want to see while trying to conceive. It might be implantation bleeding if you observe just mild spotting around the time your period is due. Nobody knows why this occurs, however it might be due to the fertilized egg settling into the uterine lining.
During the first trimester, around 1 in 4 women may have spotting or mild bleeding. It’s usually nothing, but it might indicate a miscarriage or an ectopic pregnancy. Call your doctor or midwife if your bleeding is significant or accompanied by discomfort or lightheadedness, or if you have any concerns.
9. Nausea
Morning sickness may not begin for some women until a month or two after conception, while it may start as early as two weeks for others. And it’s not only in the morning: Morning, noon, and night, pregnancy-related nausea (with or without vomiting) may be a concern.
By the beginning of the second trimester, the majority of pregnant women who are experiencing nausea have completely recovered. For the majority of people, the nausea takes another month or more to subside. Only a select handful are spared.
10. High body temperature at rest
If you’ve been keeping track of your basal body temperature and it’s been raised for more than two weeks, you’re definitely pregnant.
11. A pregnancy test came back positive.
Despite what the package says, many home pregnancy tests aren’t sensitive enough to reliably identify pregnancy until a week following a missed period. So, if you decide to take a test sooner and receive a negative result, wait a few days and try again. Remember that a baby begins to grow before you can tell you’re pregnant, so keep your health in check while you wait to find out, and be on the lookout for other early pregnancy signs.