Symptoms of pregnancy can be subtle, and are easy to mistake for other ailments. You might attribute nausea to a bad meal at a seafood restaurant, or assume you feel exhausted because of stress at work. Other symptoms may go unnoticed unless you're paying close attention to your body and are aware that you could be pregnant. Making note of possible symptoms, being aware of your menstrual cycle and taking a pregnancy test are all ways that you can help determine if you are having a baby.
Step 1
Check your calendar to determine when your last menstrual cycle occurred. The average length of a woman's menstrual cycle is 28 days. This means that a period begins 28 days after the last one began. Your menstrual cycle may be anywhere from 21 to 35 days long and still be considered a normal cycle. If there is usually the same number of days between your periods, your cycle is regular. Not getting your period when you expect it, can be a sign that you are pregnant.
Step 2
Jot down anything unusual that is going on with your body. Nausea and vomiting at any time of day, fatigue, breast swelling and tenderness, dizziness, headache, slight bleeding or cramping, constipation, moodiness, food cravings, aversion to certain foods or smells you could previously tolerate, and a slightly elevated temperature early in the morning, are all early symptoms of pregnancy.
Step 3
Buy a home pregnancy test. A home pregnancy test detects a hormone called hCG in your urine. If this hormone is present, the test will read positive, and you are probably pregnant. False negatives are more common than false positives, because early in pregnancy the level of hCG in your urine may be too low to detect.
Step 4
Visit a doctor. Your regular physician can test your blood or urine for the presence of hCG and tell you if you are pregnant. You can also visit a special doctor called an obstetrician. An obstetrician is a doctor who specializes in treating pregnant women.
Things You'll Need
- Home pregnancy test
