Am I pregnant? It’s the scariest question most of us ask a teens and young adults.
It only becomes easier once we are in a stable relationship and hoping for a baby. Then it’s still scary but we hope for a “yes” instead of a “no”.
Knowing you are pregnant is a life changing event. Things will never, ever be the same once you are pregnant. Even if you don’t continue the pregnancy, life is always different.
Most girls want to know if they are pregnant long before they miss their period. But, it’s tough to tell early on if you are. The best way to know about pregnancy is to miss your period and only then use a pregnancy test.
But let’s backup… to be pregnant you need to have had sperm meet egg. If that didn’t happen there is no chance of being pregnant.
As girls, we only have eggs ready to fertilize one or two days a month. Those days are called ovulation days. They happen about day fifteen. You can learn to recognize when you are ovulating by a slight pain in your side and an increase of discharge.
If you had semen inside your vagina around that time, there is a chance you are pregnant. If you did not have any inside between day 12 and day 18, it’s almost certain that you are not pregnant.
So make that your first question. If you can say “yes” to that, keep going. Otherwise, you aren’t likely to be pregnant.
Next we get into territory of “feelings”. If you are pregnant you will tend to feel a bit tired – more tired than usual. That will start about a week before your missed period.
You will also feel “different” and “weird”. That varies for everyone but most girls who are pregnant can easily point to certain things that felt different from normal. Often that’s in chest tenderness.
Some girls feel nothing out of the ordinary!
The only real second step to figuring out if you are pregnant is to wait. You must have sex at least ten days before your period to get pregnant. From the day you have sex, you need to wait 14 days before you can hope for an accurate pregnancy test.
And… you need to wait until your period is due. Most pregnancy tests are able to correctly determine if you are pregnant the day after you expected your period.
Testing before is a waste of money. Just wait and then test only if your period didn’t show up.
So question two… is your period late? If it is, there is a fair chance you are pregnant. If you have your period, it’s almost impossible to be pregnant.
The last step is testing. It has to be done first thing in the morning to be accurate. Once you are several weeks late for your period, you can test anytime. But in early pregnancy the test needs to be done the first time you pee after having slept.
Take the test to the washroom and follow the instructions to get your urine to meet test. Then wait two minutes.
Most tests feature two lines. One always gets dark to prove the test is working. The other one only gets dark if you are pregnant.
Even if it just turns a lighter shade of the first line, you are still pregnant.
Tests are only valid for a few minutes. Most tests will have the second line turn dark in a few hours even if you are not pregnant. So unless you see that second line in a couple minutes, you are not pregnant.
If you are pregnant and weren’t planning to be… head on over to should I stay pregnant.
