How To Tell If You’re Pregnant? What You Should Know

You are planning a pregnancy. You may have been attempting to have a child for months or even years. You did not use contraception, but you still aren’t pregnant. This article explains how to tell if you’re pregnant and how to take a pregnancy test at home.

Are you pregnant ?

Maybe you think you could be. Maybe you know you could be, but are not sure. The thing is, most of the time, if you’re pregnant, you don’t need a blood test to tell you. Most women know they’re pregnant before they even take the test - because they can feel it. There are many pregnancy symptoms that we have when we become pregnant.

Some are pretty obvious, which makes figuring out if we’re pregnant pretty easy sometimes - like morning sickness, feeling bloated or hormonal, increase in appetite (more or less), cravings for pickles and ice cream at the same time (true story and no joke), etc. Then other symptoms aren't as noticeable at first sights - like an increased sex drive (when did your hubby start making frequent trips to the bedroom?), mood swings, dizziness and nausea (true story again on this one too), tender breast (it gets more tender each month towards your due date by the way), etc. These symptoms can be subtle and may not seem like something that would let us know we're pregnant - especially if we've just had a baby or got off birth control pills.

• The first possible symptom of pregnancy is a missed period.
• Another early symptom can be nausea and vomiting.
• Other symptoms include breast tenderness and cravings.
•  After you've missed your period, it is best to take a pregnancy test.
•  If you're trying to conceive, it's a good idea to take multiple tests as well as get a blood test.
• It is also important to keep a daily journal of your level of fatigue and mood because there are many reasons why you might feel tired or have mood swings that have nothing to do with pregnancy.
• Another thing to keep track of is the texture and color of your discharge because these things can change during pregnancy as well as other times of the year.
• At-home at-first tests such as the First Response Early Result Pregnancy Test as well as higher-level tests such as the Clearblue Digital Pregnancy Test are both highly accurate options for testing hCG, which is a hormone women release when they are pregnant.
• Blood tests are also helpful because they can confirm if you have an elevated beta-hCG level in your bloodstream

When it comes to the topic of pregnancy, there's a lot of misinformation out there

Some people think that if you notice a missed period, that means you're pregnant. But this is not necessarily the case. It can mean anything from stress to eating certain foods to skipping your period altogether.

Missed periods. Just because you miss a period doesn't mean that you're pregnant, even if your cycle is a few days off or irregular. You could very well be stressed out, or even sick, and simply not know it yet. Also, in some cases, missed periods are actually caused by a form of contraception called the "emergency contraception pill," which prevents pregnancy for three days after unprotected sex or contraceptive failure; if you're taking this kind of birth control, you may also forget that you took it.

Nausea and bloating. These symptoms are typically caused by stress and hormonal issues and should go away after a few weeks — though they can be difficult to distinguish from morning sickness in the early stages of pregnancy. They shouldn't last more than two weeks at most.

• Rashes are one of the most common early pregnancy symptoms, but that rash could come from many causes.
• Even when you're worried about pregnancy symptoms like nausea, fatigue, or frequent urination, there might be other things going on with your body that could be causing those symptoms.
• When it comes to symptoms related to stress and anxiety, it's possible to have some of the same problems as women who are pregnant.
• If you're worried about pregnancy symptoms, talk with your doctor about what might be going on with your body before you celebrate any news too soon.
• It's common for women to experience bloating in comparison to their previous weight, even without a weight change.

Many pregnancy symptoms feel similar to symptoms you experience under other circumstances and can look similar to other health conditions you may have or someone else in the family might have.

You may not see every symptom listed for every pregnancy because every woman is different and no two pregnancies are exactly alike.

If you're worried about pregnancy symptoms, talk with your doctor about what might be going on with your body before you celebrate any news too soon.