If you have read my earlier posts, we decided to go ahead and try to get pregnant. I decided, in order to increase our chances, we should have intercourse every night during my supposed fertile window as predicted by my Apple Watch. You know how some nights you really just aren’t into it? You feel too bloated, or too tired, or you have a migraine. Well, with this schedule, too bad! Bloated, tired or not, you gotta get in the mood and get going. Part of this might be we were having intercourse right before bed time…maybe we should try earlier. Some studies actually say those assigned male at birth have a higher fertility rate in the mornings anyway.
Symptoms
So after the first day, the next morning I felt really dizzy. I looked it up and symptoms of pregnancy shouldn’t start until 5-6 days, if then. I have some theories on this, which I will explain in just a sec. Anyway, I was going about my morning routine, and I noticed while I was watering the garden that I started to feel really lightheaded and dizzy. Not enough to stop, but certainly a noticeable amount. It just lasted that morning, and then went away.
The next day I got a killer migraine that lasted 7-8 hours! I do not get migraines really. I looked it up, and apparently this is common weeks into pregnancy, not days. Basically blood flow increases in your body, causing your blood vessels to expand, and occasionally causing migraines. Hey guess what, you can’t take ibuprofen for it either…
Today is after the third day of trying to conceive. I noticed a few things. My nipples were really sore this morning. I have had mild cramping, and a mild headache all day. I feel like I have a heightened sense of smell, and some passing nausea, as in when I just ate my favorite candy, a Necco wafer. And the weirdest thing, other than that being my favorite candy, is that my hands and lips are all tingly.
Now like I said, according to the googling I did, none of this should be happening yet. And you all can tease the shit out of me when I take a pregnancy test and it comes back negative. Yes, I am aware that because we are consciously trying to get pregnant, this might be some placebo effect bullshit. Excepting the migraine. That shit laid me out for the whole 7 hours! But I have some other non-placebo effect ideas too.
Doctor’s Don’t Listen to Women
The first time I encountered this, I was experiencing a-fib and my doctor told me it was all in my head, and I should try losing 15 lbs. When I shared my story, basically all of the women I know told me similar stories of how they had been treated. So why does this matter, imagine bringing these symptoms of very early pregnancy to your doctor, and having him not listen.
Women are frequently told it’s all in their head. When in reality, we tend to know our bodies best. For example, in all of this research, I looked up how long women should lie on their back after sex to increase chances of pregnancy. For those who don’t know, many individuals trying to get pregnant recommend lying on your back and hugging your knees to your chest in order to help the sperm swim the right way and find the egg. I was in the middle of doing this, with a migraine, and watching Hocus Pocus, when I realized I didn’t know for how long I was supposed to do it.
The article I happened to find said lying on your back to help get pregnant was an old wives tale (a phrase I hate anyway), and that many women ask this when trying to get pregnant, but there is no reason it should help. THE NEXT SENTENCE, was that there is some scientific evidence that suggests laying on your back for 15 minutes could help you get pregnant. So, they invalidated the experience of the people trying to get pregnant, and then literally turned around and said the thing these people were asking for had some proof.
So yeah, in the back of my mind, the reason symptoms “don’t start until 5-10 days after” could be because male doctors and researchers weren’t listening when people who were 3 days pregnant said their hands were tingling. Again, you can tease the shit out of me when I am dead wrong, and I am not at all pregnant. But if I am right, then the research is wrong.
Symptoms 5-10 Days After Ovulation
So when I started reading about all of this, there are a bunch of different dates to pay attention to. If you are trying to get pregnant, keep track of that menstrual cycle. The reason is that your ovulation cycle should line up with it. So if you are one of the few on a perfect 28 day cycle, your ovulation cycle should begin 14 days later.
My menstrual cycle has been anywhere from 30-50 days. Since I have been logging on the Apple Watch, it has calculated my average at 36 days, which is why it is predicting my ovulation cycle to be 18 days later. Tbh, I don’t know if that is what it is calling my fertile window or not. Anyway. These are all predictions. It could be that my ovulation cycle actually started 3 or more days prior to my predicted fertile window.
As it turns out, symptoms don’t start 5-10 days after conception, which is how I read it the first time. They instead start 5-10 days after ovulation. So it might not be day 3 for me. It might be day 6 and that is why I am having symptoms. Or I might not be pregnant and I am instead totally bonkers!
What do you think? If you are or have been pregnant, how early did your symptoms start? Let me know in the comments!