I got pregnant in my first month of trying and I knew right away even though I had never been pregnant before and had no real tangible proof that I was in fact pregnant.
Lots of medical professionals will tell you that there is no proven way of knowing and that it is best to wait until your missed period but I disagree with this stance.
If you know your body, then you know when something is up and I don’t need a national study to prove it.
When I got married, one year before TTC, I read a life changing book called “Taking charge of your fertility” written by Toni Weschler and released in 1995. I was born in 1992 and yet, I was never taught what I learned reading that fundamental book.
I knew that I got my first period at 14 years old and that I had been bleeding approximately once a month since then. I also knew there were different phases in the menstrual cycle but didn’t really remember their name or their purpose.
That’s pretty much all I knew. How sad. Reading Weschler’s book opened my eyes on so many things about women’s bodies and minds that I want to help spread the word to those who may not have heard of it yet.
This article will not necessarily be about what I learned in that book but will definitely be based on it.
“Taking charge of your fertility” taught me about the fertility awareness method. This method worked for me for a year until we decided to start trying and I got pregnant.
This method encourages women to do some family planning naturally. It is based on three majors elements:
- your basal temperature
- your cervical mucus
- the position of your cervix
First, lots of women need to become comfortable with those terms and their own bodies. I know a lot of women feel uncomfortable checking themselves and I understand this but the power in knowing your body is so essential that I encourage you to try.
For one year, I took my temperature right after waking up and put it in my app on my phone. I would regularly check the position of my cervix to get familiar with it at every stage of my cycle.
Finally, I observed and took note of my cervical mucus to be aware of what it looks like at each phase.
During my two week wait, I noticed several things that I would have never noticed had I not known my body thanks to the fertility awareness method.
First, I noticed that my temperature didn’t rise up the day after ovulation. I can’t find any explanation for this but I can tell you that it was the first time in 13 months that it happened.
I should also mention that my cycles were very regular. 26 days on the beat. For me, ovulation usually happens between day 10 and 12. I had felt my ovulation that month (which only happened when the ovulation happened on my right side by the way) so I knew it happened on day 12 and yet, there was no temperature rise.
The second thing I noticed was my cervical mucus that was still egg white three days after ovulation. That had NEVER happened, ever. I had been very focused on that element during the previous months because I knew it was a surefire sign that I was fertile and would eventually need to do the deed at that point when TTC. The egg white consistency would never last after ovulation though. Especially after three days. And yet, there I was with egg white cervical mucus that was also more abundant than usual.
The third thing I noticed was my cervix. It was still very soft and low while it usually goes back to being harder and high after ovulation. This is another thing I could have noticed had I not read about the fertility awareness method.
Apart from this huge indicators, I also noticed weird stuff:
- I had a metal taste in my mouth
- I was hungry in the morning (I have always been disgusted by the idea of eating when I wake up)
- I felt a sharp pain in my lower belly on the right one night, it lasted 10 seconds
- I got very light bleeding a few days later. It looked brownish red. I NEVER bleed outside of my period. EVER.
With all these signs happening to me for the first time, I was quite confident that I was pregnant. What’s funny is I had two negative tests (you can read that story here) but I was still sure that there was a baby in my belly!
There you have it, that’s how I knew I was pregnant before my positive test.µ
You can find so many articles and Youtube videos about this topic and yet, so many professionals will tell you that there is no way to know before you take the test. I know I haven’t been through lots of months of TTC and sometimes, we may get carried away and see signs that don’t exist but it doesn’t mean that our intuition and that knowing our bodies aren’t fundamentally essential. I hope we get more confident and stop waiting for other people to tell us what is going on in our bodies and learn how to get to know ourselves better.