Are you pregnant? You may be pregnant if you have been experiencing some of the 18 pregnancy symptoms below.
1. Nausea or morning sickness: Morning sickness is term to describe nausea and vomiting during pregnancy. Most pregnant women experience morning sickness from the first month of pregnancy onwards. Although the name suggests that this is a condition experienced in the morning, it may strike at any time during the day whenever your blood sugar levels get too low.
2. Headaches: If you have never experienced regular headaches before pregnancy, be prepared for some throbbing pain in your head and neck during pregnancy. Changes in your body’s hormonal patterns is the primary cause of headaches during pregnancy. Other causes like stress, poor posture, lack of sleep, dehydration and low blood sugar levels may lead to headaches too.
3. Dizziness and fainting spells: Due to the lowered blood pressure in your body during pregnancy, blood flow to the brain may cause dizziness and fainting spells in extreme cases.
4. Mood swings: With your hormones raging, it is common for women to feel grumpy during their pregnancy. It takes some time to settle into your new life by adjusting to all the changes in your body and lifestyle.
5. Fatigue: Feeling worn out is a very common symptom in pregnant women. Hormonal changes are usually the main cause of fatigue followed by the additional weight you have to carry around.
6. Food cravings: A strong desire for food that you don’t usually eat could be an indication that you are pregnant. Usually, women report cravings for salty and sweet food during pregnancy while others report a peculiar desire for spicy or high carbohydrate food.
7. Weight gain and bloating: Your growing baby and increased food intake will result in an unavoidable gain in weight and inability to fit into some of your clothes. As most women put on weight mostly on their hips and thighs, an mysterious increase in the size of your stomach could indicate that you are pregnant.
8. Heartburn: The hormones in your body may relax the valve between your stomach and esophagus, causing a wave of gastric acid to flow upwards, which in turn causes an uncomfortable burning sensation.
9. Lower back pain: Lower back pain occurs because your growing baby causes your spine to be thrown out of alignment as the additional weight constantly pulls on your back.
10. Constipation: Hormones released during pregnancy tend to relax the intestines and cause constipation. This could be a sign of pregnancy if you do not experience constipation frequently.
11. Constant urination: The growing uterus presses onto the bladder and causes you to have more frequent urges to urinate than usual.
12. High Basal Body Temperature (BBT): If your BTT stays in the high temperature range for 18 days or more, you have a good chance of being pregnant.
13. Cramping: The growing uterus stretches to accommodate your new baby and this causes menstrual-like cramps to occur.
14. Spotting: Slight bleeding occurs during implantation of the fertilized egg to the lining of the uterus. A lot of women confuse this with their period but this happens usually before the period starts and the discharge is lighter than normal.
15. Darkening of the areolas: Your areolas could darken and increase in diameter during pregnancy. This is a natural process by which your breasts are preparing themselves to produce milk for your baby.
16. Tender or swollen breasts: A lot of women experience sore, swollen, tingly or tender breasts during pregnancy due to the increasing hormones that are used to prepare a woman for breastfeeding. This feels like a greater version of how your breast feels before your period.
17. Missed periods: If you have been sexually active and you missed a period, it is a good indication that are you are pregnant. A pregnancy test should be taken to confirm if the missed period is really caused by your pregnancy.
18. Positive pregnancy tests: Only a positive urine test or blood test can give you solid indication that you are pregnant. Please take note that not all symptoms above indicate a confirmed pregnancy. When you have a positive pregnancy test, visit a doctor to get more tests done to confirm your pregnancy. That’s the only way to find out if you are truly pregnant.
