Early Signs of Pregnancy Before Missed Period

"I just started taking the pill but had unprotected sex, am I pregnant"?

Just the act of having sex without a condom doesn't always result in a pregnancy. If that were true there would be no need for fertility clinics. So to clarify, having sex before the pill takes full effect doesn't mean you are pregnant. Of course, you could be.

The early signs of pregnancy before your first missed period can often be mistaken for the arrival of your menstruation. If you've just started taking birth control pills it's important to know that they normally take a full period cycle (approx. 28-30 days) for them to to be effective. However, even if you do take your pill religiously everyday, there is still a minute chance that you could conceive as the pill is only 96-98% effective. The problem here is that most people don't take the pill as prescribed, which means everyday at the exact same time, and this decreases it's effectiveness to approximately 86%. In other words, even if you take the pill every day there is still a 14% chance that you will conceive.

Everybody is different as far as feeling the early effects of pregnancy. I knew I was pregnant just minutes after conceiving. However, until I had that confirmed by taking (several) pregnancy tests, it was just a hunch.

Actually, quite a lot of women intuitively know that they are pregnant before they ever have their suspicion confirmed by taking a pregnancy test. But just as many don't have a clue. What's important to remember here is that every woman will experience pregnancy differently. In fact, lots of women have a different set of symptoms with each pregnancy.

My symptoms, which were pretty typical, included a heightened sense of smell, sore breasts (as if I was getting my period), no desire to drink alcohol or coffee, and I spotted which, according to my mother, meant the egg had settled in for the next 9 months - she was right.

Many women experience these same symptoms early in their pregnancy, though you might have none of these symptoms, or another set completely. There's only one way for you to be sure. Get a pregnancy test.

It might still be too early for an over the counter pregnancy test to be accurate as they measure the hcG hormone in your body. That's a hormone that's produced when you get pregnant and it increases every day with your pregnancy. It's possible that at this early stage your body just isn't producing enough to measure accurately. An over the counter pregnancy test is most accurate starting a week to ten days after your first missed period. However, that doesn't mean you should wait to get yourself tested. Your doctor, Planned parenthood or something similar can offer you a more accurate test.

It's very important not to wait. If you are pregnant, the situation only gets worse with time.

Good luck!

You can read more about over the counter tests here:

Planned Parenthood is an excellent resource.  They offer all sorts of services to teens and adults from pregnancy tests, to abortion, advice and more.