It’s been a few days since your period was supposed to be here. You think you might be pregnant. While only a test can conclusively prove your pregnancy, there are nonetheless some signs that indicate the early processes of pregnancy.

Keep in mind that the first symptoms of pregnancy may not always be directly related to being pregnant. Also, the pregnancy symptoms can differ from woman to woman. Nevertheless, the early signs of pregnancy are quite common in women. The absence of your period is one of them. But other symptoms can also crop up at the beginning of your pregnancy.

Here are some of the signs of pregnancy.

Video Summary

Main Early Signs of Pregnancy

You are nauseous

Hormonal changes at the beginning of pregnancy often cause nausea. Nausea is therefore often one of the first symptoms of pregnancy.

This starts around the expected menstruation period and sometimes even a few days earlier. Often you feel especially nauseous in the early morning, the so-called morning sickness. However, it does not always have to be in the morning; the nausea can return in waves throughout the day.

Your digestion may work slower and your stomach will stay full longer, causing a loss of appetite.

Change in taste & strange cravings

Certain smells and foods that you normally like may suddenly become repulsive to you. For example, do you suddenly have an adverse reaction to the smell of coffee or cigarette smoke? This can be one of the symptoms of early pregnancy.

You can also suddenly show separate eating needs, such as feeling like pickles, salty herring, or licorice. There are even pregnant women who tend to eat coffee beans, washing powder, toothpaste, mud, or other strange things.

Has your taste indeed changed? This can be one of the first signs of pregnancy. Why some pregnant women have these needs is not known.

Your breasts are more sensitive

Already a week or two after the implantation of the fertilized egg, your breasts can feel tense and sensitive to touches. Sensitive breasts are therefore one of the first, noticeable symptoms of pregnancy. The cause of this is the production of pregnancy hormones. As a result, your mammary glands swell. Your breasts can also feel heavier.

You get tired faster

Your body is working full-time with the pregnancy and you probably feel tired faster and need more sleep. Sometimes sleep can suddenly overtake you. Due to hormonal changes, your body temperature rises slightly. Your heart also beats a little faster to be able to pump more blood to the uterus. All this costs your body a lot of energy, so you are tired faster.

The fatigue can occur as early as a week after conception.

You have pain in your lower abdomen

Pain in your lower abdomen can also occur in the first weeks of pregnancy. Your uterus is held in places by ligaments. As the uterus becomes larger, these ligaments are slightly stretched. As a result, a newly pregnant woman will sometimes experience pain in the lower abdomen.

The stretching of these ligaments begins quite soon after the implantation of the fertilized egg. If you suffer from pain in your lower abdomen, this could be one of the symptoms of pregnancy.

You have unusual headaches

Are you suddenly experiencing more headaches than usual? Headaches can be one of the first signs of pregnancy. That also has to do with your hormones. Especially if you were already sensitive to headaches, there is a good chance that you will suffer from them more often during your pregnancy.

You are bloated

Bloating is an annoying feeling that many women suffer from. This is also often the case during your period or the early days of pregnancy.

Around the fourth or fifth week of your pregnancy, you may experience abdominal distention. This is not to say that your belly immediately starts to grow because of the baby, but this is because your body retains more fluid during the early days of pregnancy.

Your intestines also work a bit slower when you are pregnant, which can cause bloating.

Do you suffer from bloating and this is not due to menstruation or eating certain foods? Then it could just be one of the first pregnancy symptoms.

You need to urinate more often

Later in pregnancy, the baby presses on your bladder and you have to go to the toilet more often. But even shortly after fertilization, the swelling uterus can already get in the way of your bladder.

Do you have to urinate more often than usual? This may indicate a pregnancy.

The kidneys also play a role in this: they receive extra blood and thus produce more urine.

You are emotional

Do you suddenly cry for the smallest things? This can be a symptom of pregnancy. It often happens that pregnant women are more emotional at the beginning of their pregnancy. For example, you quickly get irritated and you become emotional about completely unimportant things.

These mood changes also occur under the influence of hormones. Mood swings usually occur from the third week of pregnancy and are therefore often one of the first pregnancy symptoms. These emotional changes can last throughout your pregnancy.

You get dizzy

Do you suffer from dizziness? This can also mean that you are pregnant. When you are just pregnant, you often feel light-headed and you sometimes suffer from dizziness.

Your body contains the hormone progesterone, even before your pregnancy. However, when you are pregnant, your body makes even more of this hormone. Progesterone protects your uterus and uterine wall and also relaxes the blood vessels. As a result, a little less blood flows to your brain, which can make you feel dizzy.

Other symptoms of pregnancy

In addition to these mentioned symptoms, there are several lesser-known first pregnancy symptoms. These are less noticeable, but can also certainly indicate a pregnancy. Among them, we find belching or flatulence, a crazy taste in your mouth, pain in your lower back, heartburn, or more vaginal discharge. 

Are you pregnant or not?

Do you recognize yourself in one or more of the above symptoms of pregnancy? To be sure you are pregnant, you can take a pregnancy test. This can only be done on the first day of your expected period. With such a test you measure whether you have the pregnancy hormone (HCG) in your urine. You can buy a test yourself or go to the doctor. Only then, you’ll be sure of your pregnancy.

If you want to get ready for a possible pregnancy, check out our dossier here on how to mentally and physically prepare for the arrival of a baby.