Heather Schwartz was not herself when she was pregnant. In the first few weeks of pregnancy, the Vancouver mother suffered major anxiety and severe mood swings, something she had never experienced before. ?My anxiety was through the roof,? she says. There were times when she couldn?t get out of the car at the dog park because she felt overwhelmed. She also developed nausea that lasted all day. When thatfinally abated about five months into her pregnancy, Schwartzwas struck with another unpleasant pregnancy symptom, seemingly out of nowhere: back pain. ?It was excruciating,? she says. ?I would lie in bed at night and wail.? Schwartzslew of ailments might seem unrelated, but as it turns out, they?re all caused by the same culprit?the surge of hormones that occurs during pregnancy. Pregnancy can take a real toll on your body as your hormones work to create a new human. We spoke to the experts about what happens to your body and why.
Your hormones in the first trimester
The first trimester can be a doozy. Your body is going into overdrive to grow that tiny embryo. Your blood volume increases, your immune system changes to protect the fetus, and your bloodstream is coursing with a whole whack of hormones.
When you first become pregnant, progesterone and estrogen, hormones that are a part of your normal menstrual cycle, rise dramatically, and a new hormone, one that?s special to pregnancy, called human chorionic gonadotropin, begins to be produced.
Progesterone is important for ...