Pregnancy Signs and Symptoms

The period that never comes is the classic sign of pregnancy, but some women get a clue before that. Many symptoms of pregnancy can arise right away: headache, nausea, fatigue, skin breakouts and increased sensitivity to scent are among the less delightful signs of impending motherhood.

If you think you might be pregnant but aren’t totally sure, you can wait until the 28th day of your cycle and then take a home pregnancy test. If you take one before the last day of your cycle, you stand a pretty good chance of getting a false negative reading.

Or, you can wait another day or two and see whether your period arrives. The old fashioned method is a lot cheaper, but sometimes, you just gotta know right away. If you don’t get pregnant right away, there may be a perfectly practical explanation. If you have been taking the birth control pill, your body may take a while to get back into the rhythm of ovulation, and it may be more than a month before it’s back on track. If you have used Depo-Provera, it could be as long as a year, and again, that’s natural. When we interfere with our bodies hormonally, they respond, and it takes time for them to reset their internal regulating functions.

When you don’t get pregnant, there may be one or more reasons behind it. If your partner has a low sperm count, you may have trouble conceiving. If there are problems with the viability of eggs, pregnancy may not occur. Many very early pregnancies terminate naturally after a few days, and women don’t even know it because they haven’t even shown signs of pregnancy yet. These early terminations are nature’s way of preventing a pregnancy when the embryo is not viable.

Most women of childbearing age, if they are having regular, unprotected sex, have a 20-40% chance of getting pregnant in each cycle. Accumulated over the course of six months, your chances of getting pregnant are very good indeed. Your age also has a bearing on how long it takes to conceive. Women under 25 years of age have a 96% chance of getting pregnant within a year of trying. Women age 26-34 have an 86% chance, and women 36-44 have a 78% chance of getting pregnant within a year.

The older you are, the shorter the time you should wait before contacting a doctor. It’s counterintuitive since as you can see above, the older you are, the lower your chances of conceiving, but the older you are, the less you should wait. When people do have problems with fertility, addressing the problem sooner maximizes the chances they have of still being fairly young when the baby is born, so you don't want to wait too long. If you are under 30 years old, don’t be surprised if it takes as long as a year to get pregnant. If you’re between 30 and 35, expect to wait up to nine months: if you haven’t conceived by then, you may want to see your doctor. If you’re between 36 and 40,see your doctor if you haven’t conceived after six months, and if you’re forty or over, you may want to see your doctor after three months.

Your gynecologist will refer you for fertility testing, and if you don’t conceive after around six months of working with your doctor, you may decide to work with a doctor who specializes in fertility treatments.