Can You Feel When You Have Conceived? Experts Describe The Earliest Signs Of Pregnancy

You've spent many years trying not to get pregnant — a late period or a strange sensation in your abdomen was cause for alarm. Now you're ready to have a baby and everything is different. You track your monthly cycle and dutifully have sex on the days you're most fertile, then you hold your breath and hope it works. Until you find out for sure in a few weeks, you're alert to any changes in your body, however slight. But can you feel when you have conceived? The experience is different for every woman, according to WebMD, but there are some common early signs of pregnancy.

Over email, Romper asks G. Thomas Ruiz, OB-GYN, of Orange Coast Memorial Medical Center in Fountain Valley, California if it's possible to feel conception. "Most women cannot tell they have conceived," Ruiz says. However, he adds, "There are some women who are very tuned into the process of ovulation. They notice their cervical mucus becoming watery and they note low abdominal cramping associated with ovulation." If you're one of those women and you had sex on the day(s) you thought you were ovulating, there's a good chance you'll have a positive pregnancy test soon.

Although most women can't feel when they have conceived, there are still early signs of pregnancy you might notice before you can take a pregnancy test. Many of these symptoms are similar to what you experience during a period, which is why it can be hard to feel signs of conception unless you're looking for them. Implantation bleeding, which manifests as light spotting and cramping, occurs within one to two weeks of conception, when the embryo attaches itself to your uterus, WebMD noted.

Two other early signs of conception are swollen, tender breasts and unusual exhaustion. If while taking a shower you notice that your chest seems bigger, or your nipples hurt when you touch them, this could be a symptom of pregnancy. And within a week of conception, even before you can take a home pregnancy test, you may notice you feel especially tired, more so than is normal for you, according to the American Pregnancy Association.

If you're trying to conceive and can hardly wait for the home pregnancy test to find out, practicing natural family planning can help you determine if your efforts succeeded. As Ruiz notes, awareness of ovulation is related to awareness of conception. If you track your temperature and other fertility signs, you'll have more information to work with when you're trying to figure out whether or not you felt conception.