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When Should You Take Symptoms Into Consideration?The problem for many women is telling apart the true pregnancy symptoms from those that only look similar and are, in most cases, hormonal. The first symptoms of pregnancy are very similar to PMS symptoms and vice versa. Not being caught off guard by a negative or a positive may require a woman to be well-trained in understanding her own body, which isn't always easy.
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The first signs of pregnancy can appear even before your period is late. After ovulation happens, the body prepares itself for a possible zygote. The increase in symptoms is due to a rise in hormones needed to maintain a pregnancy if implantation occurs. The main hormone responsible for all pregnancy symptoms is progesterone. Progesterone is produced by a scar in the ovary from which the possibly recently fertilized follicle was released. In its place, a benign but very important cyst forms—the corpus luteum.
The corpus luteum produces a significant amount of progesterone, and this post-ovulation rise can bring on the first symptoms. For this reason, it is very important to differentiate pregnancy symptoms from those that are due to ovulation. As early as the first day after ovulation, symptoms can appear:
- Nausea
- Bitter taste in the mouth
- Feeling hot
- Dizziness
- Lack or excess of appetite
- Breast tenderness
- Pelvic heaviness
It is also possible to consider symptoms such as frequent urination, breast pain, increased salivation, and mood swings as possible pregnancy symptoms. However, all these result from increased progesterone, which may or may not mean pregnancy. Symptoms that seem to be pregnancy could just be hormonal, like an unusual PMS, or effects of ovulation, especially since some women have very late ovulation. Some women also feel pain on one side of the lower abdomen. Some unusual symptoms include increased libido and a sudden craving for a food that is not part of the usual diet.
Being able to tell the difference between pregnancy symptoms and post-ovulation symptoms helps reduce anxiety. If symptoms remain intense until the expected date of your period, that’s a good sign. After about five days of delay with all signs still present, it is recommended to take a test to check for HCG.
The main symptoms of pregnancy, which occur repeatedly, are those that most characterize signs of pregnancy and are also the most popular ones. However, missing your period is still the strongest and most important sign that a woman may be expecting a baby. Absence of menstruation and unusual symptoms, like excessive sleepiness, indicate it’s time to consider taking a beta HCG test. There are actually several types of pregnancy tests. There are two blood tests: quantitative and qualitative. The quantitative test checks the amount of HCG in the woman’s body, and the qualitative simply checks whether it’s present. Sensitivity for these tests is usually 0 for the quantitative and 25mUI for the qualitative, depending on the lab.
Pharmacy tests are the most accessible and are frequently used by women due to their convenience of being used at home. Most are reliable brands and cost about R$10.00. The typical sensitivity of these tests is 25mUI.
The most important thing about pregnancy symptoms is knowing when to take them seriously. If they stay the same intensity or even increase, there’s reason to hope. Otherwise, it’s best to just wait for your period to come or not. Pregnancy symptoms tend to get stronger with confirmation and as the weeks go by. Nausea, for example, may only appear after the 8th week of pregnancy, while other women might not feel anything at all until the end of gestation.
Photos: Konstantin Lazorkin, Ju Blasina
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