They say women know when they are pregnant. But how is it possible that you simply know? Science tells us that it's not just intuition, but how you read the early signs of pregnancy and interpret them correctly.

Yes, your body can tell you quite early that you are going to become a mother, and some symptoms can signal your pregnancy even without a test. Find out what they are, when and how you can tell you're pregnant after contact.

How long can you get pregnant after contact

Pregnancy does not always start right after unprotected sex. The main reason is that fertilization of the egg, most of the time, does not happen immediately. That is precisely why the moment when the egg is fertilized is considered the date of conception, not the moment when the contact took place.

Sperm can even survive for 5-7 days in your reproductive tract, hence the possibility of getting pregnant even if intercourse happened before ovulation. To correctly estimate how long it takes to get pregnant, you first need to know the stages your body goes through in this process.

The first step is for the sperm and egg to unite, a process we call fertilization. After that the formed embryo will move to the uterus. The next stage takes place in the uterus, where the fertilized egg will move and implant in the lining. Only when this implantation takes place can we officially say that the pregnancy has begun.

So it can take up to:

• 5-7 days until fertilization takes place (union of the sperm with the egg).

• 3-4 days until the fertilized egg (embryo) climbs towards the uterus.

• another 3-4 days until the egg manages to implant in the uterine lining.

So in the end, it can take up to 2-3 weeks for the implantation process to take place. This is actually the time when the pregnancy is considered to have started and it can be officially confirmed that you are pregnant.

When the first signs of pregnancy appear

The answer differs for each person, as each pregnancy is a unique experience. This differs from woman to woman, and even from one pregnancy to another.

For some women, the first signs may appear in just 1-2 weeks from the date of conception. For others, symptoms don't appear until several weeks after their period is due. There are also cases when symptoms do not appear until very late in pregnancy.

If we look at the statistics, there are studies that:

• 89% of women notice the first signs of pregnancy in the first 8 weeks;

• 71% notice symptoms in the first 6 weeks;

• 59% notice them earlier, as early as the first 5-6 weeks.

Signs and Symptoms - Pregnancy by Weeks

Every woman's experience is different with every pregnancy. Symptoms may be clear from the first few weeks, or they may not appear until very late in pregnancy. But certainly implantation bleeding and lack of a period are the first things you will notice and will indicate a pregnancy. They can also be accompanied by other early signs.

Among the most common symptoms in early pregnancy are:

• Missing a period and implantation bleeding : There is no menstrual bleeding, but light bleeding or spotting may occur when the egg implants in the uterus.

• Early vaginal discharge : This may be a milky or egg white-like discharge that occurs immediately after the sperm fertilizes the egg, as hormone levels change and the vaginal walls thicken. These discharges can continue throughout pregnancy and are normal (unless they are accompanied by an unpleasant odor or itching, as they indicate an infection and require treatment). Protect your underwear and clothes from these leaks by using only 100% organic intimate care products made without toxic chemicals that won't alter your intimate pH or irritate your skin.

• Changes in the breasts : The breasts may become tender or painful, swell, and the color may darken around the nipples.

• Fatigue : can be accompanied by dizziness and fainting. You feel tired because of hormonal changes, but also because your body produces more blood and your glucose and blood pressure levels drop.

• Nausea : morning sickness, vomiting, food cravings or aversion to certain foods or smells

• Other common symptoms : frequent urination, constipation, headache and back pain, stuffy nose, metallic taste in the mouth, bloating, acne or skin irritation.

In order to have a clear overview, I have prepared a table below in which you can track which symptoms you can expect and in which week of pregnancy. It's just a quick review, because there are a lot of other changes going on in your body: physical, hormonal, emotional.

If you want to know more about this, I've talked about everything that happens in pregnancy by week in a separate article, where you can see how your baby develops (and how your body changes) from week 1 until birth.

What symptoms do you have when you are pregnant in the first days - Find out if you are pregnant without a test

Contrary to what many people think, you cannot feel that you are pregnant immediately after contact. Missing periods and implantation bleeding are the first signs of pregnancy, and they appear only after 1-2 weeks. You can't be sure you're pregnant in just a few days without a test (not even a test), and symptoms mistaken for pregnancy may have a completely different cause.

Therefore, nausea, dizziness, fatigue or unusual vaginal discharge immediately after intercourse should NOT be interpreted as pregnancy symptoms. On the contrary, in the absence of pregnancy, these can be signs of premenstrual syndrome or an infection in the vaginal tract.

Most people can only feel pregnancy a week after fertilization (which does not happen at the same time as intercourse, but 5-7 days later). The most common signs are, as I said above:

• Absence of menstruation

• Abdominal bloating or cramps

• Frequent urination

• Nausea and fatigue

• Breast tenderness

• Mood swings

You can read HERE the article in which I told more about how you know you are pregnant.

But there are also people who have a pregnancy without symptoms, and who do not show the usual signs. This may indicate a condition such as polycystic ovary syndrome or ectopic pregnancy, and consultation is necessary to prevent future complications.

Although signs can help you sense a possible pregnancy, the most effective way to confirm it is with tests. The tests will tell you if you are really pregnant, or if it is just the symptoms of PMS.

After how long do you realize you are pregnant with the help of pregnancy tests

There are two simple things that explain how long you can take a pregnancy test to find out if you are pregnant: how these tests work, and how your body works.

Pregnancy tests work by detecting the level of HCG (human chorionic gonadotropin). It is also known as the pregnancy hormone, because it is the placenta that produces it during a pregnancy, with the role of supporting the development of the fetus.

In your body, the level of HCG can be detected in your urine and blood approximately 10-11 days after the date of conception, i.e. when fertilization took place. The tests detect a pregnancy only when the HCG level is high enough.

That's why it's recommended to wait around a week after your period is late before taking a test, giving the placenta enough time to do its job to ensure you get an accurate result.

Today, there are also tests with high accuracy. They can even detect small amounts of HCG in your urine, even days before your period is due.

So, used correctly, pregnancy tests are almost 99% accurate. If you test too early, there is a possibility that the HCG level may not be detectable yet. In this situation, even if you are actually pregnant, you can get a false negative result.

How to take a pregnancy test and types of pregnancy tests

You can do the pregnancy test yourself, at home, in the peace and privacy of your own home (urine test). Or you can do it at the specialist doctor (blood test or ultrasound). In the case of blood tests, they have the highest accuracy and can detect the pregnancy hormone only 6-8 days after conception. It is usually recommended to repeat the test after 48 hours for certainty.

As for the home pregnancy test, how it measures HCG levels depends on the type of test. Among the easiest to use home pregnancy tests are those of the type:

• band

• pen

• box

• digital

• ultra sensitive (detects pregnancy 5 days before your period is due)

After the test you will have to wait a few minutes, after which the number of red or pink lines on the test will tell you whether or not you are pregnant, depending on the concentration of HCG detected.

If you want to take a test, I told you all about pregnancy tests in another article. There we tell you more about all types of tests, how to do them, but also how to interpret them: because some not only tell you if you are pregnant or not, but also indicate the week you are in.

After how long do you realize you are pregnant if you do an ultrasound

Ultrasound is more of a method of investigation and monitoring of pregnancy than of detection. With the help of ultrasound, the doctor watches the development of the fetus and if there are any abnormal signs or complications. Ultrasound does not detect the level of HCG in the body.

Therefore, the pregnancy is visible on the ultrasound only in the 6th week, when the embryo can be followed and the pregnancy is confirmed. You may be able to hear its heartbeat even then, or wait until the embryo becomes a fetus around the eighth week.

How do you know you are pregnant if you have a pregnancy without symptoms

As we told you above, it is not uncommon for pregnancy to proceed without symptoms, especially in the first trimester. There are people who don't feel any different and don't know they are pregnant until the pregnancy starts to be visible (especially if there was implantation bleeding that was mistaken for menstruation).

If you have no symptoms, pregnancy tests or tests with the help of doctors are the only ways you can confirm that you are going to become a mother.

If the test result is positive, you are most likely pregnant even if the symptoms are absent. And if the ultrasound confirms this, there is no longer any doubt.

Conditions with similar symptoms, with which pregnancy can be confused

If, on the other hand, the result of the tests is negative and the pregnancy is not confirmed, there are a lot of other conditions that have similar symptoms and which you can confuse with a pregnancy. The most common are:

• Menstrual cycle: PMS has similar symptoms such as breast tenderness, fatigue, dizziness, cramps, thickening of vaginal secretions, mood swings, nausea, headaches, etc.

• Spotting: before or after menstruation, due to an infection or injuries from sexual intercourse, or from changing birth control pills; can be confused with implantation bleeding.

• Urinary tract infections: May cause the need to urinate frequently.

• Diabetes: Likewise, it can cause frequent urination.

• Stress or chronic fatigue: can cause headaches.

• Dehydration or high caffeine consumption: other common causes of headaches.

• Depression, anxiety, or nutrient-poor diet: May cause food cravings or aversion to various foods.

• Hormonal disorders: can be the cause of changing nipple color.

• Cancer or tumors: can cause absence of menstruation.

In all these situations, a pregnancy test will confirm that you are not pregnant. Because although the signs are similar, the HCG hormone is secreted by the placenta only during an actual pregnancy.

Conditions that can affect your period and disrupt your menstrual cycle

If your pregnancy tests have confirmed that your missed period is not due to pregnancy, it is important to investigate further. The irregularity of the menstrual cycle can have negative consequences on the body, including the difficulty of becoming pregnant in the future.

So, unless you are in perimenopause, look at the conditions that most commonly cause irregular menstrual cycles:

• Polycystic Ovary Syndrome: It is an endocrine disorder that causes periods more than 35 days apart or not at all, and is the leading cause of infertility in women. Read on our blog what you need to know about polycystic ovary syndrome .

• Uterine fibroids: are small formations that appear in the uterus; they can be asymptomatic, or they can put pressure on the uterus, causing pain and long periods with heavy bleeding.

• Eating disorders: can lead to hormonal imbalances which in turn affect the menstrual cycle.

• Ovarian cancer: Can cause bloating, pelvic and abdominal pain, frequent urination, and heavy or irregular menstrual bleeding.

• Thyroid disorders: Too low or too high a level of thyroid hormones can be the cause of periods that are too short or too long and heavy. It is also a major cause of irregular periods and amenorrhea (absence of menstruation for several months).

• Pseudocyesis: also known as "imaginary pregnancy", is a condition in which all the signs of pregnancy are present, except for the fetus. The most common cause is psychological in nature, when a person wants the pregnancy so much that it induces all its specific states and signs. Due to the high level of stress, it is also possible to miss the period.

When should you take the pregnancy test after the first signs

As we told you above, if you take the pregnancy test too early it is possible to get a false negative result. The ideal time to take the test depends mostly on the type of test.

Blood tests can detect pregnancy in just 6-8 days after conception, but you can't do them yourself in the comfort of your own home.

For urine tests done at home, it is recommended to wait a few days after the delay of menstruation. So that the pregnancy hormone is high enough at the time of testing to be detected.

However, there are also ultra-sensitive tests that can detect the pregnancy hormone 5 days before the date you should have started your period, or even as early as 8 days after conception. If you want to test this early, you will need to look for these specific tests, as not all of them are as accurate.

Another thing worth keeping in mind is the concentration of HCG, which in the urine is higher in the morning, the first time you use the toilet. It is recommended to take the test in the morning, especially if you take it early.

When you should go to the doctor after the first signs of pregnancy

If the period is missing and the test is positive, make an appointment with the gynecologist as soon as you confirm the pregnancy. It is very important that the baby's development is monitored from the earliest stages to avoid any future complications and that everything goes smoothly until birth.

How to take a pregnancy test at home

Home pregnancy tests are those that detect the hormone HCG in the urine. They are all similar, but the steps you need to follow are different depending on the type of test.

You don't have to worry, all the instructions are always written on the test packaging. So all you have to do is follow the steps there:

• In the case of the pen test, it must be held under the stream of urine.

• In strip tests, the urine must be collected in a container and the test strip will be inserted into the liquid.

• And with the cassette tests you have to collect the urine, only here you will use a pipette to collect a sample and put it on a special container.

Some tests confirm your pregnancy using the + and - symbols, others 1 or 2 dashes, and others even show you the week of pregnancy.

Each test needs a certain amount of time before being read, usually 5 or 10 minutes, after which you will have to interpret the result (also according to the instructions). Any changes made after this period are no longer valid.

How the pregnancy test works

All pregnancy tests work based on the detection of the HCG hormone, as we explained above. They contain a reactive substance, which will color differently depending on the concentration of HCG in the urine within a few minutes.

Frequently asked questions about the first signs that you are pregnant

We know that sometimes you're looking for quick answers, especially when it comes to a topic that makes you so anxious like a possible pregnancy. So below we have prepared concise answers to the most frequently asked questions about the first signs of pregnancy.

How long will it take for a pregnancy test to be positive?

If you are pregnant, urine tests can detect the pregnancy hormone depending on their level of accuracy. There are tests that indicate a positive result as early as 8 days after conception. But for regular tests, it is recommended to wait until the date you were supposed to start your period or at least 5 days before so that the HCG level is high enough to be detected.

Once you take the test, in the case of a positive result, it will be visible immediately after the expiration of 5 or 10 minutes (according to the instructions on the package).

Can pregnancy be detected after 5 days or 2 weeks?

There are ultra-sensitive tests that have a very high accuracy and can detect pregnancy even after 8 days of conception. So can blood tests. As a rule, it is recommended to repeat the test after 48 hours to confirm the results.

How accurate are home pregnancy tests?

When done correctly, home pregnancy tests are 97% to nearly 99% accurate. The higher the HCG concentration level in the urine, the easier the tests will detect pregnancy.

Could I have early pregnancy symptoms and not be pregnant?

Yes, there are many conditions that can cause hormonal changes and pregnancy-like symptoms without actually being pregnant. Even premenstrual syndrome has similar symptoms: nausea, dizziness, headaches, cramps, changes in mood and appetite, bloating, etc. Other conditions can be urinary tract infections, diabetes, chronic stress, depression, anxiety and even imaginary pregnancy.