Most likely you won't notice any pregnancy symptoms until about the time you've missed a period, or a week or two later. If you're not keeping track of your menstrual cycle or if it varies widely from one month to the next, you may not be sure when to expect your period. But if you start to experience some of the symptoms below (not all women get them all) and you haven't had a period for a while, you may very well be pregnant. Take a home pregnancy test and find out for sure!
10. Tender, swollen breasts
One of the early hallmarks of pregnancy is sensitive, sore breasts caused by increasing levels of hormones. The soreness may feel like an exaggerated version of how your breasts feel before your period. Your discomfort should diminish significantly after the first trimester, as your body adjusts to the hormonal changes.
9. Fatigue
Feeling tired all of a sudden? No, make that exhausted. Increased levels of the hormone progesterone and the stress your body undergoes as it adapts to pregnancy can make you feel as if you've run a marathon when all you've done is put in a day at work. You should start to feel more energetic once you hit your second trimester, although fatigue usually returns in the third trimester.
8. Implantation bleeding
Some women have a small amount of vaginal bleeding around 11 or 12 days after conception (close to the time you might notice a missed period). The bleeding may be caused by the fertilized egg burrowing into the blood-rich lining of your uterus — a process that starts just six days after fertilization — but no one knows for sure. The bleeding is very light (appearing as red spotting or pink or reddish-brown staining) and lasts only a day or two. (Let your practitioner know if you notice any bleeding or spotting, particularly if it's accompanied by pain, since this can be a sign of an ectopic pregnancy.)
7. Nausea or vomiting
If you're like most women, morning sickness won't hit you until about a month after conception. (A lucky few escape it altogether.) But some women do start to feel queasy a bit earlier. And not just in the morning, either — pregnancy-related nausea and vomiting can be a problem morning, noon, or night. About half of women with nausea feel complete relief by the beginning of the second trimester. For most of the rest it takes another month or so for the queasiness to ease up.
6. Increased sensitivity to odors
It's not uncommon if you're newly pregnant to feel repulsed by the smell of a bologna sandwich or cup of coffee and for certain aromas to trigger your gag reflex. Though no one knows for sure, this may be a side effect of rapidly increasing amounts of estrogen in your system.
5. Food aversions
While some women insist they crave certain foods during pregnancy, food aversions are even more common. You may suddenly find that certain foods you used to enjoy are now completely repulsive to you. This feeling may come and go or last throughout your pregnancy.
4. Frequent urination
Shortly after you become pregnant, you may find yourself hurrying to the bathroom all the time. Why? Mostly because during pregnancy the amount of blood and other fluids in your body increases, which leads to extra fluid being processed by your kidneys and ending up in your bladder. This symptom may start as early as six weeks into your first trimester and continue or worsen as your pregnancy progresses and your growing baby exerts more pressure on your bladder.
3. A missed period
If you're usually pretty regular and your period doesn't arrive on time, you'll probably take a pregnancy test long before you notice any of the above symptoms. But if you're not regular or you're not keeping track of your cycle, nausea and breast tenderness and extra trips to the bathroom may signal pregnancy before you realize you didn't get your period.
2. Your basal body temperature stays high
If you've been charting your basal body temperature and you see that your temperature has stayed elevated for 18 days in a row, you're probably pregnant.
And finally...
1. The proof: A positive home pregnancy test
In spite of what you might read on the box, many home pregnancy tests are not sensitive enough to detect pregnancy until about a week after a missed period. So if you decide to take one earlier than that and get a negative result, try again in a few days. Once you've gotten a positive result, make an appointment with your practitioner. Now head over to our pregnancy area. Also, don't forget to update your profile and sign up for our "My Baby This Week" newsletter. Congratulations!