What Happens If A Woman Gets Pregnant In The Military – Heather Schwartz wasn’t herself when she was pregnant. In the first few weeks of pregnancy, the Vancouver mom suffered major anxiety and severe mood swings, something she had never experienced before. “My anxiety was through the roof,” she says. There were times she couldn’t get out of the car at the dog park because she felt overwhelmed. He also developed nausea that lasted all day. When that finally decreased about five months into her pregnancy, Schwartz was struck by another unpleasant pregnancy symptom, seemingly out of nowhere: back pain. “It was heartbreaking,” she says. “I lie in bed at night and cry.” Schwartzslew of the diseases may seem unrelated, but as it turns out, they are all caused by the same culprit – the increase in hormones that occurs during pregnancy.
Pregnancy can take a real toll on your body as your hormones work to create a new human. We talked to the experts about what happens to your body and why.
Contents
- What Happens If A Woman Gets Pregnant In The Military
- Truths About Getting Pregnant And Ovulation
- Fertility And Conception Tips: What To Do Before Getting Pregnant
- Can You Get Pregnant Without Having A Period?
- How To Get Pregnant Fast: 7 Tricks To Boost Your Odds
- How To Get Pregnant Fast, According To Experts
What Happens If A Woman Gets Pregnant In The Military
The first trimester can be a doozy. Your body goes into overdrive to grow that tiny embryo. Your blood volume increases, your immune system changes to protect the fetus, and your blood flow is running full of hormones.
Truths About Getting Pregnant And Ovulation
When you first become pregnant, progesterone and estrogen, hormones that are part of your normal menstrual cycle, increase dramatically, and a new hormone, one that is special for pregnancy, called human chorionic gonadotropin, begins to be produced.
Progesterone is important to getting pregnant in the first place because it prepares your uterus for the egg to implant and acts as a muscle relaxant, preventing your uterus from contracting until labor begins. But these same muscle-relaxing properties can also cause constipation, because it slows down your digestive tract, says naturopathic doctor Kinga Babicki-Farrugia.
Progesterone is also associated with that classic irritability in the premenstrual period — and because your progesterone levels are elevated during pregnancy, mood swings can be a side effect, explains Ilana Halperin, a staff physician in endocrinology at Sunnybrook. Health Sciences Center and assistant professor at the University of Toronto.
Schwartz’s mood swings are actually what triggered her to take a pregnancy test in the first place. She would be angry one minute and sad the next.
Fertility And Conception Tips: What To Do Before Getting Pregnant
Meanwhile, estrogen helps regulate that progesterone, while also maintaining the endometrial lining which is vital for the development of the baby. Estrogen is believed to promote an increase in blood flow, which is important to nourish the baby, but that extra blood flow has the side effect of making your breasts achy and tender, says Babicki-Farrugia. The increase in blood flow can also lead to that stuffy nose that many women experience in pregnancy, causing the mucous in your nasal passages. And that same increase in blood can cause you to go to the bathroom more often. When your kidneys process the extra fluids and your uterus puts pressure on your bladder, you may feel the urgent and frequent need to pee. Fortunately, there is at least one benefit that can be due to this increase – a boost in blood flow can be part of the reason for the healthy pregnancy glow of your skin.
Human chorionic gonadotropin, or hCG, is known as the pregnancy hormone because it is usually only produced during pregnancy. Home pregnancy tests give you that positive streak when they detect this hormone in your urine. When you’re pregnant, your hCG levels will rise rapidly, doubling every few days before reaching their peak in the first eight to 11 weeks. This hormone is important because high levels indicate that the placenta has been created, says Doug Wilson, the head of the department of obstetrics and gynecology at Foothills Medical Center in Calgary and professor at the University of Calgary. But, it can also make you feel nauseous.
While there is no conclusive science exactly what causes morning sickness, hCG is often thought to be one of the culprits. “I always tell my patients that the sicker you feel, the better it means that your implantation and placenta are working,” says Wilson. If you are pregnant with twins or multiples, you may experience more nausea because there is more hCG being created by your body. You may also have a heightened sense of smell, which could be related to hCG levels and increase your nausea. Since hCG peaks around weeks eight to 11, some women (unfortunately not all) start to feel relief once they start the second trimester.
You may not think that your thyroid has anything to do with pregnancy, but when you are expecting, these hormones also go through a rapid change. Your thyroid hormones help regulate the metabolism of every cell in your body. When you’re pregnant, thyroid hormones must increase to support your baby’s neurodevelopment and bone development, says Halperin.
Can You Get Pregnant Without Having A Period?
Thyroid stimulating hormone, or TSH, is produced in the pituitary gland in the brain and helps regulate your other important thyroid hormones. The increase in hCG and estrogen can stimulate the thyroid even more, especially in someone who is expecting twins or multiples. “It’s a protective mechanism,” says Halperin, making sure your child is getting enough of the thyroid hormone he needs. Your doctor will measure your thyroid levels through a blood test in the first trimester, and can check again every four to six weeks if there is a known thyroid problem or an abnormality in the initial test. If something is out of the ordinary, they can refer to an endocrinologist for an evaluation
The second trimester is commonly known as the “best trimester” because around week 13, many women start to feel human again. The nausea often begins to dissipate, but you will begin to notice other changes.
For one thing, your muscles and joints may feel strange, or uncomfortable, especially around the pelvis. This is thanks to relaxin, a hormone that helps to relax the smooth muscles in the pelvis, such as the cervix and the uterus, and promotes the growth of the placenta. While this could make prenatal yoga a little easier, unfortunately, it can also cause women to experience some pain in their ligaments, or even experience injuries more easily.
Schwartze experienced severe back pain and pain in her right hip and pelvis during her second trimester, probably thanks to this hormone. “I can barely walk,” she says. “I was driving home from work and couldn’t get out of the driver’s seat for half an hour.” The pain did not dissipate until she gave birth.
How To Get Pregnant Fast: 7 Tricks To Boost Your Odds
In the second trimester, estrogen and progesterone continue to increase to help the baby grow. But these hormones also stimulate the melanocyte-stimulating hormone. It induces your skin’s melanocyte cells to produce melanin, which gives your skin its color. This is why some women may start to notice the “mask of pregnancy”, otherwise known as melasma, which causes brown or gray patches around the face. You may also notice a dark line appearing on your belly, called linea nigra, and your nipples darken, with more pronounced moles and freckles. Fortunately, it usually resolves postpartum. Your hair may also start growing faster at this stage thanks to these same estrogen surges.
Cortisol also increases during pregnancy, but despite what you’ve heard about this stress hormone, it’s not all bad – it’s important for the developing fetus because it can help regulate your metabolism and control blood sugar levels . High levels of cortisol can also be associated with some of those unpleasant symptoms such as stretch marks, blood pressure problems, and red additions in the face and cheeks, says Babicki-Farrugia.
Human placental lactogen (HPL), a hormone secreted by the placenta, is thought to help the baby grow. It is also one of the main hormones related to insulin resistance during pregnancy, or gestational diabetes, which sometimes develops in the second trimester and can lead to the growth of the child.
Your body’s changing reaction to insulin makes a lot of sense evolutionarily, Halperin says. “It is a time of rapid growth for the fetus. If you had a woman who was not enough to eat, making them resistant to insulin, more blood sugar, which is the pillar for growth for the fetus, you would go to the placenta,” he explains.
How To Get Pregnant Fast, According To Experts
Your baby has started packing on the pounds this trimester and your body is increasing some of the hormones it needs postpartum. Estrogen and progesterone peak around 32 weeks and your estrogen levels are the highest they’ll ever be during this trimester — six times higher than before pregnancy, says Babicki-Farrugia. In this trimester, you may notice a lot of swelling around your ankles and feet. While this may be related to the lymphatic system, estrogen may also play a role because it is indirectly involved in the synthesis of a hormone related to the retention of salt and water, says Babicki-Farrugia.
At the end of pregnancy, women can also experience acid reflux or heartburn, because progesterone has relaxed the sphincter at the base of the esophagus, allowing food and stomach acid to travel. Meanwhile, relaxin helps relax the muscles of the pelvis towards the end of pregnancy to prepare for childbirth.
Schwartz had bad acid reflux in her third trimester.
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