Can you start feeling nauseous a week after conception

In this article

• Tender or tingling breasts
• Darker vulva and vagina
• Food cravings and aversions
• Morning sickness and nausea
• Increased vaginal discharge
• Vaginal spotting
• Feeling tired
• Will I notice early pregnancy symptoms?
• Is it too early to take a pregnancy test?
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Tender breasts, feeling nauseous and tired, and food cravings can all be signs that you're in the early stages of pregnancy. While it may still be too soon to tell, your body is already changing and these early symptoms could be your body's way of hinting that you're pregnant. You won't be able to take a pregnancy test before you've missed your period but can look out for these pregnancy symptoms in the meantime.

Tender or tingling breasts

You may feel a prickling or tingling sensation in your breasts, particularly around your nipples. It happens because pregnancy hormones increase the blood supply to your breasts (Blackburn 2013, Murray and Hassall 2014).

This can be one of the earliest signs of pregnancy. You may notice how tender your breasts feel within a week or so of conception. Your usual bra may become uncomfortable, and feel more chafing than usual. However, sore breasts more commonly become noticeable about three weeks to four weeks after conception (Murray and Hassall 2014).

Darker vulva and vagina

Another early sign of pregnancy is the change in colour of your vulva and vagina. Your vulva and vagina will become darker and may have a blue or purple tinge as your pregnancy progresses (Geraghty and Pomeranz 2011 cited Hassall and Murray 2014).

The change is caused by the increased amount of blood being supplied to the tissues around your vagina. Midwives call this change in colour Chadwick’s sign (Geraghty and Pomeranz 2011 cited Murray and Hassall 2014).

Food cravings and aversions

At this early stage, you are more likely to experience a change in your appetite than cravings for particular foods (NHS 2016). You may notice a metallic taste in your mouth and be extra sensitive to the smells of food or cooking (Newson 2014, NHS 2016).

The pregnancy hormone, progesterone, may make you feel hungrier (Hirschberg 2012). However, it’s also normal to feel hungrier just before your period for the same reason – higher levels of progesterone. So increased appetite doesn’t necessarily mean you have conceived (Hirschberg 2012).

It’s more common to have a loss of appetite, especially if you’re starting to feel queasy because of morning sickness. You may be opting for certain foods that ease your symptoms, rather than because you crave them (Weigel et al 2011).

You may not be able to bear the taste of things that you used to enjoy. This might include coffee, tea, alcohol, spicy or fried foods and eggs. This can work to your advantage though, as you should not drink any alcohol at all during your pregnancy.

Morning sickness and nausea

Morning sickness can start two weeks after you’ve conceived, when you’re actually four weeks pregnant. It’s more common for it to start when you’re about six weeks pregnant, though (Blackburn 2013, Murray and Hassall 2014, NHS 2016).

You may feel nauseous, with or without vomiting, at any time of the day or night. Morning sickness usually starts to ease as you reach the end of the first trimester (Niebyl 2010), although about one woman in 10 still feels sick after week 20 (NHS 2015b).

The exact cause of morning sickness is unknown, but it’s thought to be connected to the rise in pregnancy hormones, human chorionic gonadotrophin (hCG) and oestrogen.

There’s also a theory that thyroid hormones play a part. If the body produces too many thyroid hormones during early pregnancy, when the embryo is developing, it may contribute to sickness (Forbes 2014).

Increased vaginal discharge

It’s possible that if you’re particularly in tune with your usual menstrual cycle, you will notice changes to your vaginal discharge at this early stage.

It’s common to have more vaginal discharge in pregnancy. It’s usually harmless, and not that different from the discharge that you had before you were pregnant.

The amount of discharge increases to discourage infections from travelling up your vagina (NHS 2015a). Don’t rinse out your vagina (douching), as this may irritate your skin and upset the natural, healthy balance of bacteria.

Pregnancy also makes you more likely to get thrush. Although this isn’t harmful to your baby, you’ll need treatment. If your vaginal discharge changes in appearance and smell, see your doctor.

Vaginal spotting

You may notice a slight pink or brown-coloured stain in your knickers, or when you wee, or feel slight cramping. It’s common to have some spotting or light bleeding between week six and week seven (Hasan et al 2010, Newson 2014).

Experts aren’t sure why spotting in very early pregnancy happens, but there’s a possibility that it’s caused by the fertilised egg implanting in your womb (Crafter and Brewster 2014), or the hormones that control your periods lingering on. Most spotting is painless, and you may only notice it when you wipe.

If you have bleeding that seems unusual, see your doctor, to be on the safe side. Bleeding that’s lighter, and brighter, or darker red than usual, or more watery, may be symptoms of an ectopic pregnancy. An ectopic pregnancy is when the embryo implants outside the womb, and it needs immediate treatment.

Feeling tired

You may start to feel tired right from the early stages of pregnancy, as your body gets ready to support your growing baby. You’ll find this lasts until you’re about 12 weeks pregnant (Blackburn 2013). You may also feel weepy and emotional, while at other times elated (NHS 2016, Raynor and Oates 2009).

Though fatigue is not a sure-fire symptom on its own, it’s a common pregnancy symptom, and often goes hand in hand with morning sickness (Gartland et al 2010, NHS 2015b).

Will I notice early pregnancy symptoms?

Some, but not all, women get the feeling that they’re pregnant a few days after they’ve conceived (Murray and Hassall 2014). So it’s possible that you may experience pregnancy symptoms as early as two weeks after conception. However, it's more likely that you won't feel anything for a little while longer yet.

It may be two weeks since you conceived, but your doctor will calculate that you’re four weeks pregnant. They’ll count your pregnancy from the first day of your last period. There’s no way of knowing for sure the exact date that the embryo implanted in your womb (uterus), which is when you conceived.

Every pregnancy is different, so it’s hard to predict if you’ll notice changes in your body, especially just two weeks after conception.

Early pregnancy symptoms such as tender breasts, tiredness and feeling sick, are easy to confuse with signs that your period is coming on. For most women, the first sign they notice is a missed period (Murray and Hassall 2014).

Is it too early to take a pregnancy test?

At two weeks, it may be. The more sensitive home pregnancy tests claim to detect low levels of pregnancy hormones as early as four days or five days before your period is due (NHS 2015c).

However, the most reliable sign of pregnancy is a missed period. You’ll get the most accurate result from your pregnancy test if you use it no earlier than the time when your period would be due.

Is a pregnancy test accurate?

Can you trust the result your pregnancy test shows you? Our video explains just how accurate pregnancy tests are.More pregnancy videos

If your period is late, and your test result is negative, try testing again in three days’ time. If you have an irregular cycle, it may be that you’ve tested a little too early.

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References

Blackburn ST. 2013. The prenatal period and placental physiology. In: Maternal, Fetal and Neonatal Physiology. A clinical perspective. 4th ed. Oxford: Elsevier Saunders, 61-2

Crafter H, Brewster J. 2014. Common problems associated with early and advanced pregnancy. In: Marshall JE, Raynor MD. eds. Myles Textbook for Midwives. 16th ed. Edinburgh: Churchill Livingstone, 222-42

Forbes S. 2014. Pregnancy sickness and parent-offspring conflict over thyroid function. J Theor Biol 355: 61-7. www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov [Accessed January 2017]

Gartland D, Brown S, Donath S, et al. 2010. Women’s health in early pregnancy: findings from an Australian nulliparous cohort study. ANZJOG 50(5):413-8

Hasan R, Baird DD, Herring AH et al. 2010. Patterns and predictors of vaginal bleeding in the first trimester of pregnancy. Ann Epidemiol 20(7):524-31. www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov [Accessed January 2017]

Hirschberg AL. 2012. Sex hormones, appetite and eating behaviour in women.Maturitas 71(3):248-56. www.n.b5z.net [Accessed January 2017]

Murray I, Hassall J. 2014. Change and adaptation in pregnancy. In: Marshall J, Raynor M. eds. Myles Textbook for Midwives chapter 9, 16th ed. Edinburgh: Churchill Livingstone, 143-77

Niebyl JR. 2010. Nausea and vomiting in pregnancy. N Eng J Med 363(16):1544-50

Newson L. 2014. Early pregnancy signs and symptoms Patient, Health information. patient.info [Accessed December 2016]

NHS. 2015a. Vaginal discharge in pregnancy NHS Choices, Pregnancy and baby. Health A-Z. www.nhs.uk [Accessed January 2017]

NHS. 2015b. Nausea and morning sickness. NHS Choices, Health A-Z. www.nhs.uk [Accessed January 2017]

NHS. 2015c. How soon can I do a pregnancy test? NHS Choices, Common health questions. www.nhs.uk [Accessed January 2017]

NHS. 2016. Signs and symptoms of pregnancy Health A-Z. Pregnancy and baby. www.nhs.uk [Accessed January 2017]

Raynor MD, Oates MR. 2014. Perinatal mental health. In: Marshall J, Raynor M. eds. Myles Textbook for Midwives, chapter 25, 16th ed. Edinburgh: Churchill Livingstone, 539-54

Weigel MM, Coe K, Castro NP et al. 2011. Food aversions and cravings during early pregnancy: association with nausea and vomiting. Ecol Food Nutr 50(3):197-214. www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov [Accessed January 2017]

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