Shauna Hicks, MD OB/GYN: Pregnancy causes your hormones to change quite a bit. There's a really strong surge of progesterone, which is the hormone that we notice right before we get our period where we might be a little crabby, feel bloated, and that hormone shoots up when we're early in pregnancy. And so you can notice that you might be very crabby or tired or moody.
Stella Dantas, MD OB/GYN: Sometimes people don't have any of those signs, and that can be a normal sign of pregnancy.
Jason & Megan, Expectant Parents: Fortunately my pregnancy has been a lot easier than I expected. I just had hormones and mood swings the first three months, and then after that it's been normal. I've felt like myself, really.
Shauna Hicks, MD OB/GYN: So usually in a normal pregnancy there's no need to monitor pregnancy hormones. Sometimes, very early in the pregnancy, if you have bleeding or pain or other complications, we may check blood levels for pregnancy hormones to ensure that they're increasing in a normal way, and that can help us predict what may be going on with the pregnancy.
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