Early Pregnancy Symptoms

Pregnancy is one of the important stages that a women passes through in her life.

During this stage she undergoes lot of changes physically, mentally mainly due to the influence of certain hormones which are particularly raised during pregnancy.

Signs:

          Signs are those which are seen by physicians.

Symptoms:

         They are observed and felt by the patient.

Signs of pregnancy:

There are number of associated signs in case of pregnancy. Initial signs typically appear within first few weeks of conception. Although not all are universally present or all of them are diagnostic by themselves. But they are useful for presumptive diagnosis of pregnancy and confirmed along with lab diagnosis.

 Early signs of pregnancy:

• A rise in human chorionic gonadotrophic hormone which is released from the cells called trophoblast of embryo during the process of implantation. Implantation typically occurs 6-12 days after fertilization. The embryo gets implanted in the endometrium of the uterus usually. This typical rise of this hormone is very helpful for diagnosis of pregnancy. Within 15 days are so this hormone appears in blood and later in urine too.
• Raised basal body temperature from the day of ovulation.
• On physical examination, Chadwick’ signs—darkening of cervix & vagina can be observed & Gödel’s sign--- softening of vaginal portion of cervix can be observed.

Early symptoms of pregnancy:

Once after fertilization there won’t be any obvious symptoms within the first week .But by 10-12^TH day there will be (spotting) bleeding from the vagina.This is called as implantation bleeding due to the implantation of embryo in the vagina.

• Missed menstrual period-usually menstrual period is nothing but the sloughing of developed endometrium if no pregnancy occurs. But once fertilization and implantation occurs in the endometrioum due to hormonal signals there won’t be periods. If there is an unusual break in the normal cycle one of the main reasons for it is pregnancy. Some women may get it a bit later also hence it is advisable to wait for 1 week at least to undergo any further confirmatory tests.

During this stage there is rapid cell division taking place in the embryo .These divisions’ paves way for the formation of organs later. Hence there will be more energy and nutrition demand from the embryo for its rapid division. First month of pregnancy would almost passover without any symptoms. From the beginning of second month women starts getting symptoms some of the typical common symptoms are :

• Breast feeling tender, soft & sore due to hormonal changes inducing the mammary glands for the production of milk. There will be gradual increase in the size of the breast from here. There will be darkening of the areola surrounding the nipple.
• Morning sickness—comprises of vomiting sensation on the sight of food due to rise in the hormonal levels. This is more severe in the morning. Many women keep vomiting all the food they are taking. This tendency has some hereditary patterns. Some women have severe vomiting pattern and some other with no such symptoms. But pregnant women despite this feeling should try taking essential nutrients.

• Craving for some strange tastes. This is proposed to be due to the hormonal influence and also to the increased demand from the developing embryo.

• Frequent urination due to the increased fluids excreted by the kidneys and due to hormonal influence.
• Fatigue, dizziness and headache- due to raised progesterone (hormonal effects) compounded by increased blood volume which leads to fall in blood pressure and fall in blood sugar hence leading to deficient blood supply to brain. This is also due to increased metabolic needs of pregnancy.
• Heightened sensation to aromas.
• Slight increase in body weight.
• Blushing of the face due to hormonal play.
• Mild back pain.
• Mood swings, dysphoric effects, depressed mindset due to the effect of progesterone on the mood regulatory part of brain. Its very important to have a positive thoughts and to nurture happiness to pass through a smooth pregnancy

• Constipation and indigestion— due to increased hormonal flow slowing down the bowel movements and absorption of nutrients .Hence this        should be compensated with large intake of water and fruits. Multivitamin supplements should be continued to overcome this malabsorbtion.

             One should be very careful during this stage as there are lot of chances for miscarriages as the embryo is in formative stages and are highly sensitive. Hence if any abnormal symptoms like severe pain in the abdomen and heavy blood flow should be immediately attended by a physician.

            These are some of the common symptoms that a pregnant women experience during pregnancy .These symptoms won’t be present in all the women and differs from person to person.