How soon do pregnancy symptoms start? Here's what experts say.

How soon do pregnancy symptoms start? Here's what experts say.
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Preeclampsia: Symptoms, causes and treatments
Preeclampsia is a high blood pressure condition that develops during pregnancy.
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If you think there's a chance you might be pregnant, you want to know as soon as possible. But how soon can symptoms be attributed to a new pregnancy, rather than other ailments or conditions?
It's helpful first to know how to actually measure pregnancy duration: It's calculated from the first day of your last missed period, not the actual day of conception, says Dr. Karen Tang, author of "It's Not Hysteria: Everything You Need to Know About Your Reproductive Health (But Were Never Told)." And symptoms could begin to arise sooner than you might think.
Here's what gynecological experts want you to know about early pregnancy symptoms and detection.
How does IVF work? Plus what the process is like and how much it costs.
When does morning sickness start?
Pregnancy (or "morning sickness") symptoms can begin to show within four to eight weeks, experts say. Symptoms including nausea, fatigue, moodiness, breast tenderness, light bleeding and mild pelvic cramping. Food cravings or aversions are common.
But not everyone experiences those symptoms in that timeframe – and not everyone who experiences those symptoms is pregnant. It's rare, but in some cases, false negative tests occur.
"Some people never notice symptoms, which is why pregnancies are detected at all different gestational ages, even sometimes in the third trimester," Tang says. "Some of the symptoms of pregnancy can be the same as what people experience in PMS, because they're also caused by a hormone called progesterone that rises in both the luteal phase before your period, and as the placenta develops. You could also think you have a virus because of feeling nauseated, tired and achy."
Noted: Can you actually get pregnant during your period? What an OB/GYN needs you to know.
How early can you detect pregnancy?
The "most sensitive" drugstore tests can detect pregnancy as early as three or four weeks after your missing period date, Tang says. In those first few weeks, pregnancy hormones are on the rise every day. If you take a test early on that turns up negative but you still believe you may be pregnant, Johns Hopkins Medicine recommends testing again in a week. Getting a blood test done by a medical professional also may be helpful, as blood tests are able to detect pregnancy before urine tests and ultrasounds.
"You should take a test as soon as you are worried you might be pregnant, but most over-the-counter tests may not turn positive until around the time that you'd be due for or missing your period," she adds. "Pregnancy hormone (HCG) is most concentrated in the first morning urine, so that may have the best chance of showing a positive, but obviously take the test whenever in the day you're able to."

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• Medscape

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Specifically, optic nerve lesions will make it easier to fulfill the dissemination in space (DIS) principle, a pivotal concept for delivering a diagnosis of MS in patients with CIS, said Calabresi at a May 29 symposium here at the Consortium of Multiple Sclerosis Centers (CMSC) 2025 Annual Meeting. Context Still Key Citing several studies published since 2017, Calabresi noted that incorporating optic nerve lesions into the DIS criteria increases diagnostic sensitivity to over 90% compared to the four existing DIS signs — periventricular, spinal cord, infratentorial, and cortical/juxtacortical. In one study, sensitivity increased from 85% to 95%. Under the revised criteria, optic nerve lesions may be documented using MRI, optical coherence tomography (OCT), or visual evoked potentials (VEP). Calabresi noted that patients meeting all four of the existing 2017 DIS criteria already demonstrate near 100% specificity for MS. While adding a fifth topographical site cannot improve specificity, it will make it easier to detect evidence of DIS across at least four regions and make a diagnosis when combined with other criteria. Several challenging case studies were employed to illustrate his point. This included a 47-year-old woman presenting with isolated optic neuritis and a 31-year-old woman presenting with ataxia. Neither would have been diagnosed with MS on the basis of the 2017 criteria, but both would meet the 2024 criteria due to the involvement of the optic nerve. Like other MS diagnostic criteria, the fifth topographical sign is relevant only in context, not in isolation, Calabresi said. For MRI, the definition is expected to require one or more topical short-segment intrinsic optic nerve lesions when there is no better explanation. For example, prominent chiasmal involvement or perineuritis would not allow for inclusion of definite optic nerve involvement. 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