Pregnancy Symptoms and Testing
Nearly every woman knows the feeling. The uh oh. When your period is late, you get a weird symptom seemingly out of the blue, or you just feel off. You hastily open your period tracking app and dang, you forgot to track last month’s period. Maybe you take a pregnancy test, thinking that surely I can’t be pregnant right now.
But what if you are?
Determining early on whether or not you are pregnant can be important for a variety of reasons, including finding a primary care doctor, weighing your pregnancy options, and making sure you are taking care of yourself.
Welcome to your comprehensive guide to pregnancy symptoms and testing. We’ll go over common concerns you may have, symptoms to look out for, and when you can take a pregnancy test.
Pregnancy or Something Else? Clarifying Common Symptoms and What They Mean
Sometimes pregnancy, other health conditions, and your normal menstrual cycle can present overlapping symptoms. While this can be confusing, we’ll break it down here to make it easier to grasp.
Pregnancy Symptoms vs. PMS
PMS stands for “premenstrual syndrome” and refers to the period each month in which a woman may experience both physical and mental symptoms leading up to their menstrual period. When a woman is pregnant, early symptoms come from the presence of human chorionic gonadotropin hormone (hCG) and occur as your body begins rapidly changing to support the growing embryo.
Differences between the two can be slight, and they have many symptoms that overlap. Symptoms of both PMS and early pregnancy include headache, frequent urination, acne, digestion issues, nausea, constipation, weight gain, bloating, tender breasts, and cramping.
Symptoms of PMS not typical of early pregnancy:
With PMS, you may experience diarrhea, backache, mood swings with more negative emotions including sadness or irritability, and a decrease in sexual desire. Your period will arrive shortly after these symptoms appear, confirming that you were indeed experiencing PMS rather than pregnancy.
Symptoms of pregnancy not typical of PMS
If you are indeed pregnant, symptoms of early pregnancy that don’t occur in PMS are a missed period, feeling extremely tired or fatigued, nipple changes, nausea with vomiting, and appetite loss. You may experience light spotting or bleeding, called implantation bleeding.
Keep in Mind
If you’re not experiencing PMS symptoms, it doesn’t necessarily mean that you’re pregnant! PMS symptoms can change as you get older, and the only way to tell if you’re pregnant is to take a test after the date of your expected period. The best thing to do is to wait until the day your period is expected to arrive, or 4 weeks from the first day of your last menstrual period (LMP), and take a pregnancy test if your period has still not arrived.
A missed period can also be a symptom of extreme stress, dieting, hormone changes, a recent miscarriage or abortion, or excessive amounts of exercise.
You Are Not Pregnant If…
If you have not been sexually active since your last period (and it was a normal period), you are not pregnant. Wait to see if your period arrives, and if you miss three or more cycles and have been abstinent during that time, contact your primary care provider. You can always call or message them earlier than this if something feels wrong.
Early Pregnancy Symptoms
Symptoms of early pregnancy can begin as soon as 8-10 days into pregnancy when hCG begins to be produced to support the growing pregnancy and your body stops ovulating. Early pregnancy symptoms can be different for each woman, and an absence of symptoms doesn’t necessarily mean that you will miscarry. Hormones simply affect each person differently.
Nausea and vomiting
Nausea can begin to occur between 2-8 weeks after conception and is often called “morning sickness,” though for many it can last throughout the day! Morning sickness may also include a loss of appetite, headache, and dizziness.
Missed Period
The most definitive sign of early pregnancy is a missed period, as your body is now using your uterine lining to support the pregnancy rather than disposing of it. Once your period is late (if your period comes fairly regularly), you can reliably take a pregnancy test.
Fatigue
The increased amount of progesterone that your body produces when pregnant can slow down your metabolic rate, meaning that digesting food takes more energy than before you were pregnant. You may feel more tired as your body expends more energy than usual.
Frequent Urination
When pregnant, your body produces more blood, and the increased volume of work that your kidneys do means that you’ll take more frequent trips to the bathroom.
Spotting or Cramping
Implantation bleeding happens to approximately 25% of women and is often so light that many miss it altogether. Implantation bleeding should only be light pink spotting and last only one or two days. Light cramping may occur as the embryo implants into your uterine lining. If true bleeding or cramping occur, reach out to your doctor, as this could be a sign of miscarriage. Read more here.
Increased Sense of Smell
The influx of hormones in your body can cause you to have a stronger sense of smell which can often be one of the first symptoms of pregnancy, meaning that the chicken in the refrigerator could send you running to the bathroom when normally it doesn’t bug you at all. The types of odors that a pregnant woman finds unbearable can vary from person to person and pregnancy to pregnancy.
Pregnancy Testing: When to Take a Pregnancy Test, Types, Accuracy, and More
What is a pregnancy test?
Put simply, a pregnancy test looks for the presence of human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG) in the urine. If the level of hCG in the urine is higher than the test’s threshold, it will appear positive.
Fun fact: Though pregnancy testing has come a long way since ancient Egypt, interestingly, they also tested urine to check for pregnancy. Pregnancy tests as we know them today first became available in drugstores in the late 1970s, when they cost around $10 (which would be $41 now). Today, over-the-counter pregnancy tests are both cheaper and more accurate, reliably allowing women to find out that they are pregnant as soon as 4 weeks after their last period.
What is the difference between a urine and blood pregnancy test?
While both tests measure for the presence of hCG, a urine test is qualitative, showing whether or not there is hCG in your blood, while a blood test is quantitative, measuring the exact level of hCG that is in your blood. As pregnancy progresses, the amount of hCG produced in the body increases. A urine test is reliable to determine whether or not you are pregnant if taken at the right time during your cycle.
Are Blood Tests More Reliable than Urine Tests?
In theory, yes, a blood test is more reliable than a urine test, but blood tests are rarely run in place of urine tests because of the higher cost. Given that most women won’t find out that they are pregnant until their missed period, a urine test can reliably give the same result as a blood test. When used correctly, a urine test is accurate 98-99% of the time.
Blood testing is used more often when a woman is undergoing fertility treatments because it can detect much lower amounts of hCG in the bloodstream, giving a positive result as early as 7 days after ovulation. Blood testing is also more likely to be used if your medical provider needs to know the specific level of hCG in your body, rather than simply whether or not hCG is present.
When Can I Take a Pregnancy Test?
A urine pregnancy test should be taken at least 4 weeks after your last menstrual period. Before this, most pregnancy tests wouldn’t be able to measure whether or not there is hCG in your system since the level of hCG would still be too low to detect. While early pregnancy tests can work, they are considered less reliable.
Urine tests can be purchased at drugstores, grocery stores, online, or run for free at Alpha Center during a pregnancy or pre-abortion screening appointment.
How Do I Make Sure My Pregnancy Test is Accurate?
First and foremost, follow the instructions in the package that the test came in. Different brands or types of urine tests may have differing time requirements or sensitivity levels.
To ensure that your test provides an accurate result, make sure of the following:
- The test is taken first thing in the morning, as the hCG levels in your urine would be most concentrated at this time.
- It has been at least four weeks since your last menstrual period. False negatives occur most often when it has not been long enough for the egg to implant into the uterine lining.
- If you are not sure when your last period was, wait at least 21 days after having unprotected sex to test.
- You’ve checked the expiration date on your pregnancy test. If it’s expired, don’t use it.
- You’ve waited enough time before reading the results (according to the instructions).
- You don’t read the test after the testing window, as evaporation lines are more likely to appear the longer the test has been sitting.
My pregnancy test was positive. Now what?
If your pregnancy test was positive, your head may be swimming with the news, whether or not the pregnancy was planned.
If you’re unsure of what you want to do with your pregnancy, it’s a good idea to schedule a pre-abortion screening with Alpha Center. No matter what options you’re considering for your pregnancy, we believe that an informed decision is the best decision – both for your mental and physical health.
During a pre-abortion screening, your nurse will re-run a pregnancy test to confirm the results of your at-home test. Then they will perform a medical assessment to look at risk factors and provide information on what symptoms or concerns to be looking for. An ultrasound will then be performed to determine how far along in pregnancy you are, whether or not the pregnancy is viable, and whether or not the pregnancy is in the uterus. All of Alpha Center’s appointments are free, so we have no financial interest in the results of your pregnancy test or in your pregnancy outcome. Finally, if you are considering an abortion, an STI test should be considered since untreated STIs at the time of an abortion can lead to fertility complications down the road.
Our staff will also give you information about any other options you may be considering, as we know that there are several factors to be considered when deciding the outcome of your pregnancy.
Other things to consider if you’ve just had a positive pregnancy test:
- begin taking a prenatal vitamin
- stop drinking alcohol, smoking cigarettes, and/or using other recreational drugs
- Call an OBGYN to schedule an appointment
- If you experience severe pain or bleeding, call your doctor or another healthcare provider right away as this could be a sign of ectopic pregnancy or miscarriage
My pregnancy test was negative. Now What?
If your pregnancy test was negative but you still suspect that you’re pregnant, wait 48-72 hours and test again. hCG levels rise quickly during the first few weeks of pregnancy, so taking another test in a few days could yield a different result. On the other hand, waiting a few days may bring the arrival of your period and confirmation of the negative result.
Consider whether or not the test was taken correctly – considering whether the test was expired, if it was taken first thing in the morning or later in the day, or if it may be too early to measure your hormone levels accurately.
If you are concerned about your health, it’s always a good idea to contact your doctor. They may be able to provide more information, a blood test, or other testing if they’re concerned that something else may be going on.
Written by Kristen Long for Alpha Center. Published March 2025. Reviewed by Meghan Downing, RN, Nurse Manager.
Related Links and Posts
Ectopic Pregnancy: What You Need to Know
When Should I Take A Pregnancy Test?
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