When do you start getting pregnancy signs?

(February 18, 2010)

When pregnant, a woman’s body goes through numerous changes that are indicators of pregnancy. A missed period is the main sign of pregnancy as menstruation ceases as soon as a fertilized egg or zygote embeds itself in the uterine wall. Hence, most women realize that they are pregnant on missing a period. However, the working of the human body is complex and there are numerous processes that lead to the onset of pregnancy signs.

A woman conceives during the ‘fertile window’ which is the time span exactly in between two consecutive menstrual periods. For a woman with a menstrual cycle of 28 days, the phase between the 12th and the 15th day from the last menstrual period is the most fertile phase where she is the most likely to conceive. At this stage, the egg is fertilized by a sperm that swims up into the fallopian tube. Once the egg is fertilized, the zygote (fertilized egg) travels down into the uterus where it embeds itself in the uterine wall. This entire process takes approximately a fortnight. Once the embryo is properly implanted in the wall of the uterus, the first signs of pregnancy are experienced. This is usually slight bleeding or spotting occurring as a result of the implantation procedure. Lower back pain, tender breasts and nausea are other signs that follow shortly. Some women may develop food cravings or aversions to certain foods, beverages or odors as a result of the hormonal changes that take place in their body. Mood swings, lightheadedness, dizziness and fatigue are other common signs of pregnancy.

A slowing down of the digestive system may also lead to heartburn and constipation.On implantation, the baby starts drawing nutrition from the mother and releases the hormone HCG into the mother’s blood. This human chorionic gonadotrophin hormone is responsible for the numerous changes that begin to take place in the mother’s body. Hence, most women experience pregnancy symptoms around the date that their menstrual period would be due. However, at this stage the HCG in the expectant mother may not be high enough to bring about visible changes. Hence, the signs begin to set in around the 6th week of gestation or whenever the levels are high enough. Every woman is different from the other and her body reacts differently to a pregnancy. Hence, it is not necessary that all women will experience the same symptoms with the same level of severity at the same time during their pregnancy. Some may not even experience any signs at all.

Submitted by P T on February 18, 2010 at 10:59