Women can start to notice signs of pregnancy very early on. Many pregnancy symptoms are commonly discussed, like a missed period, morning sickness, vaginal discharge, and pickle cravings.
However, this barely covers the surface of the many different pregnancy signs a woman could experience.
You likely know of all the typical early pregnancy symptoms.
So, it’s time to talk about the ones you don’t know about.
Below are 20 signs of pregnancy you may not have known about.
Unusual Early Pregnancy Symptoms A Checklist
Are you wondering what the most unusual early pregnancy symptoms are?
Some signs of pregnancy don’t necessarily point to pregnancy. These early pregnancy signs may convince you you’re dealing with a health problem.
1. Food Aversions
Very early signs of pregnancy often revolve around your senses. You may notice that you’ve developed aversions to foods you normally enjoy.
If your favorite homecooked meal turns your stomach, you may be pregnant.
2. Strange Food Cravings
Food cravings are often discussed, but most pregnant women aren’t prepared for how weird these cravings will be.
During early pregnancy, you may strongly desire to eat foods you normally wouldn’t pair together, such as some of the following combinations.
- Steak with chocolate sauce
- Peanut butter and sour candies
- Olive oil on ice cream
3. Trapped Gas & Constipation
Pregnancy can affect the digestive system. This is because it releases a higher level of the hormone progesterone, which can slow things down, causing stomach discomfort.
Progesterone is one of the reasons constipation and trapped gas are typical early pregnancy signs.
4. Diarrhea
Strange early pregnancy symptoms include how your bowels are behaving. While constipation is common, diarrhea is just as expected. Many women experience diarrhea after constipation has passed. They may be very gassy as well.
5. Yeast Infection
Some women experience a yeast infection around the date their period is supposed to arrive. This can be very itchy and cause discomfort.
A yeast infection may occur because of the increase in hormones. However, some women are lucky and don’t experience a yeast infection during pregnancy.
6. Frequent Urination
When a woman becomes pregnant, there is an increase in the hCG hormone in her system. This hormone increases blood flow in the pelvic region and causes the woman to urinate more frequently.
Frequent urination is a good sign to take a pregnancy test.
7. Urinary Tract Infection
A frequent urinary or bladder infection is another unusual pregnancy symptom. Pregnant women are known to get UTIs.
This can happen because pregnancy changes the urinary tract. When this occurs, it’s at a higher risk of coming in contact with bacteria.
Uncommon Pregnancy Symptoms (First Month)
You may notice some unusual early pregnancy symptoms that affect your body during the first month of pregnancy.
Some of these weird pregnancy symptoms can indicate that it’s time to take a pregnancy test.
1. Heightened Sense of Smell
An early sign that it’s time to take a pregnancy test is a heightened sense of smell. The hormonal changes will affect your senses, and your sense of smell will become very sensitive.
Be prepared to smell things cooking in your neighborhood, even if the neighbors are making food indoors.
2. Breast Changes
One of the weird early pregnancy symptoms that nearly every women experience is breast changes. This occurs because your body prepares for your baby as soon as you conceive.
You may notice that your breasts appear bigger, are tender, and have a tingling sensation.
3. Mood Swings
Are you in a bad mood for no reason? Little things have you irritated or emotional. Or, maybe you’re perfectly happy one minute, then crying your eyes out the next.
A lot of women think these mood swings are due to PMS. But, if you’re still having extreme mood swings after a missed period, it can be one of the early signs of pregnancy.
4. Leg Cramps
Pregnant women can expect plenty of aches and pains.
However, you may not have anticipated that leg cramps are very common in the early weeks of pregnancy. This usually occurs because your joints and ligaments are preparing for the growing baby.
If your leg cramps are severe, they may be brought on by a vitamin deficiency or an electrolyte imbalance.
5. Implantation Bleeding
Implantation bleeding is normal in very early pregnancy. It will typically occur on or around the date of your missed period.
This is a very light bleeding (or spotting in vaginal discharge) that typically only occurs for a few hours. However, some women may experience light implantation bleeding for up to 2 days.
6. Changes In Skin Complexion
Pregnancy hormones can cause changes to your skin. Many women start experiencing these changes from the very beginning of their pregnancies.
However, the changes vary for every woman.
Some women will have a glowing and radiant complexion, while others experience large and irritating breakouts.
7. Basal Body Temperature
A change in your basal body temperature is an early sign of pregnancy. It’s normal for a woman’s BBT to rise when she ovulates and stay at a higher temperature until her menstrual period.
If your BBT is still high after a missed period, it can be one of the earliest pregnancy symptoms.
Rare Early Pregnancy Symptoms
There are a lot of unusual pregnancy symptoms a woman can experience during the first trimester. Some are rare and don’t affect every pregnant woman.
However, if you’re noticing any of the symptoms below, along with some of the common symptoms mentioned above, it can be your very early sign of pregnancy.
1. Vivid Dreams
Are you wondering what the strangest thing on our weird early pregnancy symptoms checklist is?
We think it’s the strange dreams many pregnant women have told us about. It’s not unusual for pregnant women to have intense and vivid dreams.
You may have dreams that are just as entertaining as your favorite stories. One of the wildest things is that it’s common for women to remember small details about these dreams after they wake up.
2. People Notice Something Different About You
Pregnant women get a lot of attention. However, a very unusual early pregnancy sign is getting attention before you’re showing.
This may seem weird, but it happens a lot.
The people that know you will notice something different, but it’s not obvious, so they can’t pinpoint what it is.
Strangers may even give you more attention than you’re used to. After all, people are naturally drawn to pregnant women.
You may notice that more people go out of their way to help you reach for store items. It’s also likely that people will just randomly look at you or wave, even though you’ve never met them before.
3. Metallic Taste In Your Mouth
Pregnancy hormonal changes can do some pretty wild things to your body. One thing that happens to many pregnant women during the first trimester is a strange taste in their mouths.
This is an unpleasant metallic taste that’s hard to get rid of. Luckily, it will disappear as the pregnancy goes on.
4. Your Pets Are Behaving Differently
If you ask us what the most unexpected pregnancy symptom we’ve heard of is, it will have to be how animals act around pregnant women; if you have a cat or dog, they will know you’re pregnant before you do.
Is your pet acting more loving toward you? Or maybe more protective? You may even notice they have odd behavior when you’re around.
This behavior is not how they act around other people.
At first, you may think something is happening with your pet. But your pet will likely pick up on your pregnancy before you notice any strange symptoms.
5. Dry Mouth or Hypersalivation
Okay, so we can’t complete our unusual early pregnancy symptoms (a checklist) page without discussing one of the strangest symptoms. This is what goes on with your mouth.
You may be dealing with excess saliva at one moment, and then your mouth feels like a dry desert the next.
We aren’t joking when we say that hormonal changes can do strange things to a pregnant woman.
6. Bleeding Gums (Sensitive to Bleeding)
Another pregnancy symptom that women start to notice after a missed period is bleeding gums. Out of nowhere, it will feel like the gums are very sensitive.
This can occur because there is a higher blood volume during pregnancy. Since the blood vessels have a lot of pressure, you may be more sensitive to bleeding.
Gums are one of the most common areas where this occurs. However, some women also experience nose bleeds.
Some pregnant women also notice changes to their blood pressure once they conceive.
Final Words
This completes our early pregnancy symptoms checklist.
There are so many signs of early pregnancy that often go unmentioned.
If you’ve missed your period and are experiencing some of the symptoms mentioned above, it’s an excellent time to take a home pregnancy test.
Which strange pregnancy symptoms were you most surprised by? Let us know in the comments below.