Early symptoms

Most women will ask themselves at least once in their lives “am I pregnant?”. Perhaps you made a mistake, had an accident or are actively trying for a child but whatever your circumstances, chances are you are scrutinizing your every waking moment for ‘symptoms’. What are these symptoms? What do they feel like? And when can you expect to start feeling them?

Morning sickness

Morning sickness is probably the most well known of all the pregnancy symptoms. We have all seen films where the newly pregnant woman wakes up in the morning runs to the toilet, throws up once and then carries on with the rest of the day as normal. For most of us, however, this will probably not be how you experience morning sickness (if you experience it at all!). Firstly it might not be in the morning at all. Some women have afternoon, evening or for the unlucky few (like me) all day sickness. Secondly, you may not be sick at all, any nausea during pregnancy is classed as morning sickness even if you are not actually sick.

If you are reading this wondering if you could be pregnant, morning sickness does not normally kick in until after you have missed your period. However, many pregnant women report the very start of the nausea etc before they have missed their first period. You may find that certain smells make you gag (mint and greasy food are common ones) or you may find that as soon as you start to fell hungry your stomach begins to churn and you feel slightly sick. There are also a small number of women who have sickness from very early on in their pregnancies.

Breast and nipple changes

Changes in your breasts and especially in your nipples are probably some of the earliest symptoms you can look for. Some women experience these changes for between one and two weeks after conception. Things to look out for are a darkening of the nipples or of the veins that run through your breasts and any unusual soreness or aching. Soreness can range from nipples being more sensitive than normal to a general aching across your chest. Some women also report that they have a small increase in breast size in early pregnancy; perhaps your bra is a little tighter than normal?

As mentioned above this is one of the earliest reported symptoms of pregnancy. It is also one of the most unreliable and difficult to interpret Breasts are very indecisive things and change size shape and colour through any normal (non – pregnant cycle). Another problem with using this symptom as a predictor of pregnancy is that many women get sore breasts during and just before their period.

Implantation spotting

This is a complicated one as some people dispute its existence altogether. The basic concept is that as the egg burrows into the lining of the womb it causes some slight bleeding known as “implantation bleeding”. Implantation occurs at between 4 and 10 days past ovulation and so implantation bleeding could be seen at anywhere between one an two weeks after conception. Most women who experience this describe the bleeding as very light and normally pink in colour rather than bright red. Don’t worry if you don’t get this it does not mean that you are not pregnant, only a very small number of women report spotting before their period is due. If you think you have had implantation bleeding and are wondering how soon you can test it would be a good idea to wait at least a few days to allowyour HCG to increase to a detectable level.

Stomach cramps

This is another tricky one. Stomach cramps are reported by many women in early pregnancy. Some attribute them to implantation others to the stretching of the womb. What is even more difficult about this symptom is that there are such a huge variety of experiences. Everything from period like cramps and sharp twinges to muscle pain and burning has been reported by pregnant women. Unfortunately as with breast changes these symptoms can also be symptoms of your period. One thing I would say, however, is that if you are pregnant or think that you may be pregnant and experience severe pain or pain accompanied by bleeding, you should seek advice form your doctr straight away.

Other symptoms that have been reported;