Have you been feeling exhausted lately?
Are there feelings of bloating, smell sensitivity, or nausea?
If you have not been on birth control and been trying to get pregnant, you might wonder if it’s just another PMS or you got lucky.
If you are too eager to find out whether or not you’ve conceived and can’t wait till you miss your period, this article is for you.
Here I’ll talk about the most common early signs for pregnancy as well as the ones you might find totally weird and surprising.
Before we delve into the signs, I want you to know that these signs vary from woman to woman. Every pregnancy is unique and comes with different symptoms.
Now let’s see what to expect when you’re expecting.
A quick recap of the common early pregnancy symptoms…
Ok, so these are not the weird early pregnancy symptoms. These are the most common… the ones you ready know about.
Missed Period
Well, a missed period sure is the most common early pregnancy sign. But that doesn’t really give you a definitive answer if you have an irregular period.
If you’ve been experiencing a few of the following signs along with your missed period, it’s time to take a pregnancy test to know for sure.
The Infamous Morning Sickness
Nausea with or without vomiting is the second most common early pregnancy sign. Even though it’s called morning sickness, you might feel sick at any time of the day or night.
Some women can experience it earlier than others, while others never go through it at all.
Fatigue
Many women experience extreme lethargy and drowsiness as one of the first signs of pregnancy.
Increased pregnancy hormones, especially progesterone, lower levels of blood sugar, and blood pressure, are the reasons behind you feeling this way.
Also, producing more blood in the body exhausts a lot of energy and makes you drained.
Tingling or aching breasts
Breast swelling and tenderness are a common early sign of pregnancy. You may feel it as early as 1 or 2 weeks after conceiving.
As estrogen levels start to soar, your breasts might get sore, tingly, and more sensitive to touch. Also, your areola will get darker and larger.
Frequent urination
If you constantly feel like you have to pee, it can be one of the early pregnancy symptoms before your missed period.
Around the third week of your conception, this happens due to increased progesterone levels, pregnancy hormone hCG, and the pressure on the bladder from your growing uterus.
High Basal Body Temperature(BBT)
Have you been tracking your body temperature regularly? Progesterone and your BBT both increase around ovulation and decreases once you get your period.
If it doesn’t fall off after two weeks of ovulation and stays elevated, it’s a symptom of early pregnancy.
Bloating and Constipation
It’s another symptom many women experience on their PMS, which can also be a sign of pregnancy.
In early pregnancy, increased progesterone levels can cause the muscles in your intestines to relax and slows down your digestion to make you feel gassy, bloated, and constipated.
A heightened sense of smell
Many women develop a stronger sense of smell as one of the early pregnancy signs, along with a craving for some food and aversion to others.
You might also smell your own body odor, especially vaginal ones. In some cases, this contributes to your morning sickness.
Mood swings
Hormonal changes in the first trimester can make you emotional and moody. Increased estrogen and progesterone levels affect your brain’s neurotransmitters, which can make you more sensitive than your usual self, resulting in mood swings.
One moment you’re euphoric, and the next, you can’t stop crying.
Dizziness
Owing to an increase in your pregnancy hormone, aka hCG, and low blood pressure, you might feel lightheaded and dizzy after conception.
It happens during the first few weeks for some women and stays throughout the pregnancy for others.
6 Weird Early Pregnancy Symptoms
I’m gonna cover the weird early pregnancy symptoms so that you don’t get blindsided by them.
Implementation Cramps and Bleeding
Mild cramping and spotting can be an early sign of pregnancy for 30% of women. Your fertilized egg creates an embryo that implements itself to the uterine wall. It might or might not be accompanied by light bleeding or spotting along with mild to moderate cramps.
Study shows almost one-third of the expectant moms experience implementation cramps and bleeding. You might mistake this as your regular period since it usually occurs around the same time you’d expect your period to start. Confusing, right?
Bleeding Gums and Nose
Hormonal changes make your gums more susceptible to plaque which can cause soreness and bleeding. Nosebleeds and stuffy noses are quite common early signs of pregnancy too.
Increased blood flow can cause the tiny blood vessels inside your nose to burst and make you bleed. It’s scary but totally normal as long as you don’t bleed for a long time.
Strange early pregnancy symptoms like this are relatively uncommon.
Hot Flashes
Hot flashes are common before period or after menopause. But, many women experience hot flashes as a pregnancy symptom due to hormonal changes and increased metabolism caused by the extra blood flow throughout their blood vessels.
As a result of widened blood vessels near your skin, you might get frequent flushes which can be one of the weird early pregnancy symptoms.
Metalic or Sour Taste in Mouth
During the first trimester, you may experience dysgeusia, which is one kind of distortion of the sense of your taste buds. You might feel like sucking on metal objects like old pennies or aluminum foil while you’re eating nothing.
This also is a result of your pregnancy hormones, especially estrogen.
Don’t worry; this study says that it gets better after the first few weeks of pregnancy, so this uncommon early pregnancy symptom should not last long.
Acne
You’ve heard of pregnancy glow. But nobody told you that you might be breaking out like a teenager?
I’m sorry to break it to you, but because of the hormonal changes your body is going through, you may experience acne during your first and second trimesters.
Vaginal Discharge
Increased hormones and vaginal blood flow are why many pregnant women experience an increase and change in cervical mucus.
Once the fertilized egg has attached itself to your uterus, you may secrete thick, creamy, and clear vaginal discharge.
That is one of the very early signs of pregnancy, which you can see just one or two weeks after conception.
Does everyone show signs of early pregnancy?
What if you don’t show any of these signs? Can you still be pregnant? The answer is YES.
Not everyone shows early signs of pregnancy. That’s not unusual, and nor does it mean something bad will happen to your baby. Some women experience these weird early pregnancy symptoms throughout their pregnancy, while others may feel them only during the first few weeks.
Many pregnant women make it to 7 weeks without experiencing nausea, fatigue, or soreness of any kind.
Others see quite a few of these symptoms to find out their period got delayed. So, if you didn’t take a pregnancy test but are showing some of the early signs, go ahead and do it. Then schedule a doctor’s appointment to get a blood and urine check-up to be 100% certain.
Conclusion
If you can’t wait till a missed period, you should keep an eye out for these weird early pregnancy symptoms. Looking for these signs and experiencing a few of them might provide you the optimism you need.
However, many of these signs can be similar to those you get before your period, and false negatives are quite common.
So, I recommend you take a pregnancy test and consult your doctor. If you’ve done that and got a baby on the way (with or without symptoms), mazel tov.
Good luck!
