Symptoms of Pregnancy: 11 Early Signs of Pregnancy

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 including nausea, vomiting, exhaustion, frequent urination, and breast soreness and swelling, and 70% have symptoms by the time they’re 6 weeks pregnant, and around 90% have symptoms by the time they’re 8 weeks pregnant.

Symptoms of pregnancy

If you’re wondering why you haven’t had your period and are experiencing some of the early pregnancy symptoms listed below (not all women experience them), you may be pregnant.

Missed period

If you’re used to being on time and haven’t had your period in a while, you might want to take a pregnancy test before you notice any other symptoms. However, if you’re not on a regular cycle or don’t keep track of it, nausea, breast soreness, and more trips to the bathroom could indicate pregnancy before you notice you haven’t had your period.

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 over the body, including those in the digestive tract. This means that food moves more slowly through the intestines.

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 cope with your everyday duties, or if you’re experiencing suicidal thoughts, contact your healthcare practitioner or a mental health expert immediately.

Bloating in the abdomen

Early in pregnancy, hormonal fluctuations can 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 clothes may feel tighter around the waist than usual.

Frequent urination

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 pee more frequently.

As your pregnancy continues, you’ll notice that you’re urinating more frequently. During pregnancy, your blood volume increases considerably, resulting in additional fluid being processed and ending up in your bladder. The condition gets worse as the baby grows and puts additional strain on your bladder.

Fatigue

Do you have 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 weariness, it’s probable that quickly rising levels of the hormone progesterone are to blame. Of course, morning sickness and the need to urinate frequently throughout the night might contribute to your tiredness.

Once you reach your second trimester, you should feel more energised, however lethargy frequently returns later in pregnancy when you’re carrying a lot more weight and some of the normal pregnancy discomforts make it more difficult to get a decent night’s sleep.

Sore breasts

Sensitive, swollen breasts are a frequent pregnancy symptom induced by increased hormone levels. Your breasts may feel sore and swollen in an exaggerated version of how they feel before your menstruation. As your body adjusts to the hormonal changes, your discomfort should decrease dramatically after the first trimester.

Bleeding or spotting after implantation

It may sound contradictory, but spotting or vaginal bleeding are the last things you want to see when trying to conceive. It could be implantation bleeding if you observe only light spotting around the time your period is due. Nobody knows why this happens, however it could be due to the fertilised egg settling into the uterine lining.

During the first trimester, about 1 in 4 women will have spotting or mild bleeding. It’s usually nothing, but it could indicate a miscarriage or an ectopic pregnancy. Call your doctor or midwife if your bleeding is severe or accompanied by discomfort or lightheadedness, or if you have any concerns.

Sickness

Morning sickness may not begin for some women until a month or two after conception, while it can start as early as two weeks for others. And it’s not just in the morning: Morning, noon, and night, pregnancy-related nausea (with or without vomiting) can 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 few are spared.

High basal body temperature

If you’ve been keeping track of your basal body temperature and it’s been raised for more than two weeks, you’re probably pregnant.

Positive pregnancy test

Despite what the package says, many home pregnancy tests aren’t sensitive enough to reliably identify pregnancy until a week after 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 develop 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 symptoms.

When do the first signs of pregnancy arise?

Because every person (and even every pregnancy!) is different, it’s hard to predict when pregnancy symptoms will begin. Some women notice the earliest signs of pregnancy within a week or two of conception, while others don’t notice anything for several months.

136 women who were trying to conceive kept daily notes of their symptoms from the moment they stopped taking birth control until they were 8 weeks pregnant in the best study on the subject to date. (This is based on the first day of their previous menstrual period being eight weeks ago.) The following are the outcomes:

• 50 percent had some symptoms of pregnancy by the time they were 5 weeks pregnant.
• 70 percent had symptoms by 6 weeks.
• 90 percent had symptoms by 8 weeks.

A missed period is usually the first indicator of pregnancy. Nausea, vomiting, exhaustion, frequent urination, and breast soreness and swelling are the most common symptoms to watch for. These signs and symptoms might range from mild to severe.

Early signs of pregnancy

Though it’s difficult to generalise early pregnancy symptoms, many expecting mothers experience a similar development of pregnancy symptoms as the weeks pass. Here’s what to expect in the first few weeks of pregnancy:

Symptoms of pregnancy at 2 weeks

Your most recent period began about two weeks ago. According to how doctors and midwives count the weeks of pregnancy, you’re simply ovulating and perhaps about to conceive at the so-called 2-week mark. What you’re going through right now is most likely related to your regular menstrual cycle.

Symptoms of pregnancy at 3 weeks

If your egg was fertilised successfully, it will divide this week as it travels down the fallopian tube to the uterus, a process known as cell division. The fertilised egg inserts in the uterine lining there.

At three weeks, most women don’t notice much of a difference, but some may experience “implantation spotting” or early pregnancy symptoms including exhaustion, sore breasts, nausea, a heightened sense of smell, food aversions, and more frequent urination.

Symptoms of pregnancy at 4 weeks

A missed period is the clearest clue that you’re pregnant at this point. Normally, you get your period approximately 4 weeks after the start of your last period, but if you’re pregnant, a missed period is the clearest sign at this point. At four weeks, many women are still well, but others may experience aching breasts, exhaustion, frequent urination, and nausea. At 4 weeks of pregnancy, around a third of women suffer nausea.

Symptoms of pregnancy at 5 weeks

You may be becoming more aware of pregnancy-related discomforts, including as exhaustion, achy or swollen breasts, nausea, and more frequent trips to the bathroom, while your baby grows at a dizzying rate in your uterus.

Symptoms of pregnancy at 6 weeks

Morning sickness usually develops between 6 and 8 weeks for most women. You may also be tired and moody, which could be related to hormonal changes as well as the stress of not knowing what to expect during your pregnancy.

Early in pregnancy, about 25% of women have spotting. This is normally not a cause for concern, but if you see spotting or bleeding, call your provider to double-check.

Symptoms of pregnancy at 7 weeks

At this point, morning sickness may be well underway, and your jeans may feel a little snug. Your uterus has grown to twice its original size after just five weeks.

Due to increasing pressure on your bladder from your developing uterus and more blood being filtered via your kidneys, you’ll probably need to go to the bathroom more regularly.

Symptoms of pregnancy at 8 weeks

Hormone changes are keeping you sluggish and lethargic, and nausea and vomiting may be depleting your vitality as well. As your hormone levels rise, your bra may become a little tighter as your breasts prepare for lactation. If you wake up multiple times during the night to pee or if your sore breasts prevent you from sleeping on your stomach, you may have problems sleeping.

Other pregnancy indicators described by women by 8 weeks include:

• Mild uterine pain or cramping (without bleeding)
• Bloating in the abdomen
• Constipation
• Heartburn
• Congestion in the nose
• Breathing problems
• Cravings or aversions to certain foods
• Lightheadedness
• Veins of spiders
• Palms that itch
• darker skinned areas (on the face, abdomen, or areolas)

Experts believe that, as uncomfortable as these symptoms are, they may serve a significant purpose in protecting women from eating something that could harm the embryo during its critical early stages of development. They may also alert some women to the fact that they are pregnant, urging them to adjust their lifestyles and seek prenatal care.

However, because the first signs of pregnancy don’t appear until after the embryo is developed, assume you’re pregnant and take good care of yourself even if you don’t have any symptoms or a positive pregnancy test.

Make an appointment with your practitioner once you’ve received a favourable result. You can also visit our pregnancy section to see wonderful photographs of how your baby develops week by week during your pregnancy. Also, don’t forget to update your profile and join up for our weekly email, My Baby This Week. Congratulations!

FAQ