Pregnancy Symptoms but Not Pregnant: How Can It Be?

“Every month I feel like I’m pregnant – I have nausea, breast sensitivity, frequent urination, and other usual pregnancy symptoms but the test is always negative. How can it be?”

Wishful Thinking

Everyone gives in to wishful thinking from time to time, especially a woman actively trying to conceive. Such thinking can lead to false pregnancy symptoms you experience. Of course, you always hope that this month everything went according to a plan and begin to “try on” the early signs of pregnancy you read about. But don’t forget that regular pregnancy tests, as a rule, provide exact enough results which depend not on your wishful thinking, but on the fact whether you’re really pregnant or not.

False Pregnancy

There is an interesting condition called false (or hysterical) pregnancy which causes women to experience the first signs of pregnancy even if they are not pregnant at all! The symptoms can be really dramatic – from breast sensitivity and swelling of the belly to fetal movements and even signs of labor! No one can tell for certain why such a thing happens. But women experiencing such a condition need qualified psychiatric help.

PMS

However, since false pregnancy is an extremely rare condition, you are most likely to have normal premenstrual changes (the so-called PMS – premenstrual syndrome). Unfortunately, some women suffer from spasmodic pains, bloating, pelvic pains, nausea, and vomiting during their time of the month. Sometimes they even have to take a few days off work, but all these symptoms still don’t mean that they are pregnant! Many scientists believe that the reason for such sensations is hormonal changes in the levels of estrogen and progesterone (the two main hormones produced during a menstrual cycle) in the blood flow.

If you are not trying to get pregnant and want to relieve premenstrual syndrome a bit you can try taking birth control pills (but only after talking to a professional gynecologist about it!). The pills control the amounts of hormones in your organism which leads to the stabilization of sudden changes in their level during your cycle. Other simple methods that can help you with pain management are abstaining from caffeine and regular exercises between your periods.

If you are, on the contrary, trying to conceive and have pregnancy symptoms but are not pregnant, then you need to wait for a couple of days until the moment when your next menstrual cycle should start. If there is a delay – do another test, it may come positive. If your usual period starts, don’t be upset – you haven’t conceived this time but you definitely will! And remember – stress can be one of the reasons you can’t get pregnant, so try to relax and enjoy your life as much as possible.