Although a lot of women experience pregnancy symptoms, and find signs of being pregnant, other’s don’t "feel" pregnant. Certain signs and symptoms of being pregnant can be confused with other illnesses. The following list are some telltale symptoms of pregnancy. Morning sickness is one of the most common signs of being pregnant, but you also might be one of the lucky ones who never experience this pregnancy symptom. Missing a period is another sign and symptom of being pregnant. We’ll go into greater detail below, and you can read below.

MISSING A PERIOD

One of the most common signs and symptoms of being pregnant, missing a period can also be caused by other reasons. Although missing a period is one of the most common of the pregnancy symptoms, stress, illness, weight fluctuations or coming off the oral contraceptive pill can also be the cause of this. Irregular periods are a common symptom of polycystic ovary syndrome, a condition in which periods can occur several months apart. If you still feel like you are experiencing other pregnancy symptoms, continue reading the other signs of being pregnant.

TENDERNESS OF THE BREAST

Another sign and symptom of pregnancy is the changing of size and feel of your breast. As early as a few days after conception, this pregnancy symptom may occur. Your breast is beginning to enlarge, as it gets ready for breastfeeding. Many women claim that their breasts are very sensitive and that they experience a very sharp, tingling sensation as well. Being one of the signs and symptoms of being pregnant, the tenderness of the breast often disappears a few weeks later.

NAUSEA AND VOMITING

Considered another one of the classic sign and symptoms of being pregnant, nausea and vomiting, (aka morning sickness) has become one of the most feared of all pregnancy symptoms. Feeling sick is a common complaint and is experienced by most women from weeks 5 to 6 of their pregnancy. However, morning sickness can also be felt as early as two weeks after conception. Morning sickness can occur at any time of the day, and can vary from an occasional faint sensation to overwhelming vomiting and nausea. By and large, morning sickness is one of the pregnancy symptoms that tends to disappear towards the end of the first trimester.

TIREDNESS

Many women experience fatigue as one of their pregnancy symptoms. Although this might be a sign of being pregnant, it can also indicate other things as well.

DARKENING OF THE AREOLA

Being one of the first physical symptoms of pregnancy, the darkening of the areola can occur throughout your entire pregnancy. If you notice the darkening of the areola, this could be considered one of the signs and symptoms of being pregnant.

FREQUENT URINATION

If you experience that you are urinating more frequently, this might be another of the pregnancy symptoms that confirm that you are pregnant. As early as two weeks after conception, you might find yourself experience this pregnancy symptom. The pressure of the literally reducing size of your bladder is the cause of this. Your uterus beings to rise up into the abdomen, and this annoying pregnancy symptom is the result. Rising levels of the pregnancy hormone progesterone stimulate the bladder muscles, so that it feels full, even though you might not need to urinate. Of all of the pregnancy symptoms, and signs of being pregnant, women sometimes find this to be the most annoying.

CHANGES IN TASTE AND SMELL

Don’t be surprised if you experience this pregnancy sign and symptom. Many women claim that certain foods make them feel queasy – while others experience a craving for other foods. Another sign of this pregnancy symptom, is a strange metallic taste.

CONSTIPATION

Another of the annoying signs and symptoms of being pregnant, constipation occurs.

CONFIRMING YOUR PREGNANCY

Two weeks after conception, your baby is no bigger than a pinhead, comprised of a few balls of cells. As it begins to develop in the lining of the uterus, the placenta begins to form and produce necessary pregnancy hormones. Below are some ways to confirm that the pregnancy symptoms and signs of being pregnant that you have noticed are accurate, and that you will be having a baby.

HOME PREGNANCY TESTS

Being very accurate, these tests can be purchased at a local drugstore, and can confirm pregnancy by detecting the level of HCG in your urine. Your health care provider may rely on this test, and may only repeating testing if complications arise. If you receive a positive result, you may want to make an appointment with your doctor so that they can confirm you are pregnant and begin follow-up.

OFFICE URINE TEST

Similar to that of a home pregnancy test, and office urine test confirms pregnancy by also detecting the level of HCG in your urine. Being nearly 100% accurate, this test does not require you to urinate first thing in the morning. This type of test also can determine that the signs and symptoms of being pregnant hold true, and that your pregnancy symptoms are right.

PREGNANCY BLOOD TEST

In order to assist dating your pregnancy, your healthcare provider may also perform a pregnancy blood test. This particular pregnancy test can give you a positive or negative result, and once again detects the level of HCG. This time, it detects that level in your blood, and depending on your pregnancy symptoms, helps them determine what kind of care to give you. Pregnancy blood tests are useful if there are any concerns about miscarriage, or if there are indications that an unusual pregnancy is occurring.

INTERNAL EXAM

Four to six weeks after conception, your doctor can receive indefinite proof by examining you internally. Certain signs like the thickening of vaginal tissues and the softening of your uterus will confirm that the pregnancy symptoms are right on!

About The Author

Brian Gardner is the Founder of PregnancyEtc.com – An Online Pregnancy Resource For 9 Months & Beyond. Having recently experienced pregnancy firsthand with his wife Shelly, Brian has dedicated his efforts towards pregnancy research. The development of http://www.pregnancyetc.com was to ensure that expecting parents had a place to find information on pregnancy and babies.

info@pregnancyetc.com

This article was posted on March 22, 2005

The everyday stressors faced by Americans have simply become too much for many to bear, and reasonably so. In recent years, taking an anti-anxiety medication or antidepressant has become as common as taking a multivitamin. However, the side effects and long-term effects of such medications were for the most part unknown until recently.

In the past year, some of the drastic negative effects of such medications have come to light, much to the horror of patients and physicians alike. Anti-anxiety medications and antidepressants have been linked to addiction, severe withdrawal, weight gain, vertigo, and even suicide and death. To treat the symptoms of stress, anxiety, and depression, without negative health implications, many are now turning to natural supplements — safely and with much success.

Most consumers are confused about which natural stress, anxiety, and depression supplements to take. Fortunately, there are now a few promising natural supplements on the market which offer truly effective results, safely. The challenge lies in distinguishing the effective products from the one’s that are based more on marketing hype. It is critical that the product you choose contains those ingredients proven effective for treatment through clinical study, and that those ingredients are of the highest grade and included in the proper dosage in the product. This is the key to getting the results you desire – freedom from stress, anxiety, and depression.

After researching nearly every available natural anxiety product on the market today I can tell you that many products contain low-grade ingredients in amounts far too small to be truly effective. There are a few, however, with clinical research behind them that also contain quality ingredients in efficacious doses. These products offer the definite potential to counter your emotional and physical responses to stress, anxiety, and depression. After review of the products and the available scientific literature only those products that met the criteria were recommended, Here is a list of the Top The Top 10 Stress, Anxiety and Depression Supplements On The Market Today:

1) Anxietol 7
2) Welatonin
3) Pinadol
4) Seredyn
5) Prosera
6) Amoryn
7) Euphorx
HerbVal Supra
9) Clarocet-NRI
10) Relora

About The Author

Tess is a contributing consultant, columnist, and writer for various health, fitness. and medical publications. Her new book "Natural Relief For Anxiety and Depression" is scheduled for release in June 2005.

This article was posted on March 30, 2005

In order to figure out if you are stressed, it is necessary to know the symptoms of stress. Fortunately, these are usually fairly obvious, making stress easy to diagnose. However, it is never a bad idea to make sure that you know the symptoms of stress if you are not sure. In fact, some people are so stressed all the time that they never notice the difference. So, if you show some of the following symptoms, you may want to slow down and let yourself unwind.

One of the most obvious symptoms of stress is, of course, constant worrying. In fact, that is, in many ways, stress itself. Being perpetually concerned about money, work, lay offs, your kids, your health, or anything at all is a sure sign of stress. This can also be called anxiety, and it is not good for you. Worry is sometimes unavoidable, but consistent worrying is a problem that can produce health problems.

As well, one of the most obvious symptoms of stress is the headache. Everyone knows that too much stress can cause your head to pound as though it was being attacked by a jackhammer but not many people know that too much stress can cause headaches when you relax. In fact, if you are under constant stress all week and you finally relax on, let’s say, Saturday, you are going to have a wicked headache the one day you are relaxing. If you find that you have consistent headaches on the weekends, the cause is probably stress.

Another symptom of stress is high blood pressure, caused by constricting blood vessels. When stress occurs, the circulatory system tightens the arteries and speeds up the heart. This is one of the scarier symptoms of stress because high blood pressure can be very dangerous. In fact, consistent stress can cause an increase in risk for heart attacks and stroke. You want to avoid this, so try to avoid stress.

As well, stress can also cause ulcers. There is some research showing that ulcers are actually caused by infection and stress weakens the immune system. Thus, the bacteria that causes ulcers is allowed to run unchecked and bleeding in the stomach and esophagus can occur. Though you may not end up with ulcers, stress can also make you more susceptible to colds and flu, which will leave your body in a much worse state that it was in previously. Nobody wants to get sick, but stress can make you more vulnerable to illness.

Included in the list of symptoms of stress are memory problems. If you find yourself struggling to recall facts that you know you made a point to put into your head, you may be under stress. These memory problems are caused by the body shutting down the memory pathways when stress gets to be too much. Though immediate and sudden stress can cause your memory to heighten — such as during a car accident — prolonged stress actually makes your memory worse. When you find yourself having memory problems, you may want to relax in order to reduce stress.

Other symptoms of stress include sleep problems. These sleep problems may run anywhere from nightmares to sleepwalking to sleep apnea. As well, insomnia can result from too much stress, as can hypersomnia — being excessively tired all the time. Most people do not know this, but the brain is very active during sleep. It is the time when your brain is allowed to sort through all the things that have been consuming it and stress can upset your mind in sleep just as it can when you are awake. Thus, your brain is trying to deal with everything that was bothering it during the day and it cannot keep up.

Thus, stress can cause you all manner of problems when your mind is finally allowed to, in a way, sort through the file folders and try to find solutions. Unfortunately, this can lead to some very strange results. Sleepwalking is the scariest for those who have experienced it, because the find themselves in a strange place when they wake up. However, sleep apnea can have the most dangerous consequences, as it causes you to stop breathing while you sleep. Many people suffering from sleep apnea can wake up one hundred to two hundred times during the night, which means your body is not getting the sleep it needs.

Finally, stress can also cause a swelling of the joints, which can cause severe pain in people with arthritis. Since arthritic people have swollen joints anyway, the excessive swelling caused by stress can lead to some very painful attacks. If your arthritis is causing you a lot of problems, or you find that your joints are sore all the time, stress may be the cause.

Stress is not just a mental problem. In fact, many of the symptoms of stress are distinct, physical issues that can be anywhere from difficult to life threatening. If you find that you have any of the symptoms listed above, stress may the cause. Check with your doctor to see what he or she thinks, then determine the next course of action. Symptoms of stress can cause serious health problems down the road, so try to keep stress down and keep your body healthy.

About The Author

Trevor Dumbleton is the owner of http://www.LowerYourStress.com/, a categorized resource directory for everything to do with stress.

This article was posted on February 06, 2005

Joe and Emily live in Southern California with their three young children. Both work and must commute 2 hours daily on busy freeways, often not getting home until 7:30 PM, exhausted and depleted.

Stressed, they have little patience for the antics of their young children. This results in frequent shouting matches, defiance on the part of the children, and escalating family tension.

As the above illustrates, stress is often an underlying cause of anger in family members. Sometimes the stress is caused by events outside of the family which family members bring into the home. In other cases, the behavior of family members creates stress and tension in the home. In either case, it becomes a problem when parents find themselves constantly yelling at their children or disagreeing with each other on parenting strategies.

In the meantime their children continue to do what they pleaseor continue bickering and fighting with each other. When not addressed, stress becomes a major factor in marital unhappiness and, ultimately, divorce.

Stress and family members Joe and Emily both suffered individual stress symptoms. These included fatigue, irritability, angry outbursts, headaches and a discontent with their lives. They began feeling increasingly distant from each other.

Their children were also stressed-out; tired, irritable, cranky, and demanding of attention. They often fought with each other and deliberately did things to get each other in trouble with their parents.

Symptoms of family stress

Just as individuals can become overloaded and stressed-out, so can families. To understand how this can happen, we must remember that families such as Joe and Emily’s are the basic building block of our society (like most societies).

Part 2: How empathy reduces family anger

Families consist of two or more people with shared goals and values and with a long term commitment to each other. Families are supposed to help children learn how to become responsible, successful, happy, and well-adjusted adults. When this no longer happens due to stress, the family unit becomes dysfunctional as the family no longer serves its purpose fully, easily or consistently.

Individual isolation

We can recognize the dysfunctional family by noting that parents and children no longer turn to each other for support, encouragement, guidance, or even love. Such family members may continue to live in the same housebut not feel emotionally attached to each other. They fail to view their family as a warm place to retreat to from the stresses and demands of the outside world.

Stress-Guard your family

Tip #1- Teach your children ‘resiliency’ the ability to handle stress and respond more positively to difficult events. Help your children practice ‘bouncing back’ by emphasizing the importance of having friends and being a friend; setting new goals and plans to reach them, and believing in themselves.

Tip #2- Commit to stable family rituals.

Have a way to leave each other in the morning, and to re-connect in the evening; have a Sunday morning ritual or a Friday night family pizza ritual. Rituals create a sense of security and predictability both excellent stress buffers.

Tip #3- Model and teach your children conflict resolution skills.

Children learn how to handle conflict by watching their parents. All couples have conflicts; better parents model good conflict resolution skills for their children. These skills include compromise, calm discussion, and focus on problem-solving. Encourage your children to find a way to resolve their own conflicts rather than jumping in and punishing one or the other child whom you think (perhaps, wrongly) is the troublemaker.

Tip #4- Introduce a family ‘better health’ plan.

This includes proper nutrition, exercise, and adequate sleep each night. The family may also want to look at time managementand explore how how better time management might reduce both personal and family stress.

Tip #5- Minimize criticism and take time to support each other each day.

Excessive criticism is extremely harmful to both children and parents. Emotional support by family members is an extremely important buffer to family stress.

About The Author

Dr. Tony Fiore is a So. California licensed psychologist, and anger management trainer. His company, The Anger Coach, provides anger and stress management programs, training and products to individuals, couples, and the workplace. Sign up for his free monthly newsletter "Taming The Anger Bee" at www.angercoach.com and receive two bonus reports.

This article was posted on April 20, 2005