Answering the burning question of how to know if you are pregnant can be easy or difficult depending on how pregnant you are and also how well you know your own body. If you want to know how soon you can tell if you are pregnant the answer is usually within 2 weeks of conceiving, but some women know within a few days.

It goes without saying that if you have had unprotected sex at any time during your menstrual cycle you could well be pregnant, even if it was your first time and even if your partner "pulled out". You could also be pregnant if your contraception failed - remember no form of contraception offers a fail safe 100% guarantee. If you're worried about pregnancy because you haven't taken precautions, you might want to read the real story about how to avoid pregnancy.

If you know your body well you may notice some subtle or not so subtle changes in the first few weeks. These are all caused by the changes in your hormone levels.

The pregnancy hormones rushing around your body will progressively increase the further down the road of pregnancy you are and so will the strength of the potential symtoms. You can go from feeling a little nauseous to being frequently sick in a matter of weeks. Human chorionic gonadotrophin hormone - hCG for short, is the hormone that tells your body to increase progesterone levels and this is what makes your periods stop. Over-the-counter pregnancy tests are testing for hCG in your urine and are very reliable because hCG levels are so much higher in pregnancy than when we are not pregnant.

Sometimes a confusing factor when trying to determine if you are pregnant, is that all of the symtpoms of pregnancy can be symptoms of other conditions. So detecting the very early signs of pregnancy without having done a test can be tricky, especially if it is your first pregnancy. Once you are on to pregnancy 2, 3 or 4 you will more than likely recognise the signs quite quickly.

There are several early signs that can tell you that you may be pregnant. The most obvious is missing your period or having light spotting instead of a proper period.

Pregnancy is the number one reason for missing your period. At the point of missing your period you are probably 1-3 weeks pregnant unless there is something else that could be interfering with your menstrual cycle (see below).

It can be possible to know you are pregnant even before that first missed period. On a personal note, I knew I was pregnant within 2 weeks of conceiving on each of the three occasions I've been pregnant.

• Extreme Tiredness
• Feeling Sick
• Enlarged Nipples
• Darkened Nipples
• Sore Breasts
• Swollen Breasts
• Enlarged Breasts
• Feeling Dizzy
• Increased Urination
• Light Spotting
• Feeling Different
• Feeling Emotional
• Missing your period

Some of these symptoms are hard to quantify especially something like "feeling different", but you may well feel different somehow even though you can't explain how you feel different.

In my first pregnancy the earliest signs for me were the enlarged nipples and breasts and breast tenderness as well as feeling dizzy, sick and extremely tired. And yes - I did feel different!

Because early pregnancy symptoms can be confused with other illnesses I would always recommend buying yourself a test. These are very accurate from the point that your period is due and will take the guesswork out of knowing if you are pregnant or not.

Pregnancy tests can be really expensive but you can shop around as the prices will vary greatly. I bought a pack of three tests from a pound store (99c store) and they worked just fine. All the tests work in the same way by testing the hCG levels in your urine. It's always advised that you test your first urination of the day. This is because the urine is stronger and you will get a quicker result. Testing the weaker urine that you produce during the day may not give you the real result - you may think you are not pregnant when in fact you are.

This happened to me. I took my urine sample to the chemist for testing and was told it was negative. Later on in the day I got a call from my doctor to tell me that after I had left, the test had shown positive! This is because it was a weak sample and so the test had taken longer than normal to pick up the hCG in my urine.

If you find you have a positive result then it's time to book a doctors appointment. The doctor may decide to do another pregnancy test to confirm your result.

• Menopause
• Low weight
• Over weight
• Very high levels of exercise
• Anxiety
• Stress
• The morning after pill
• Starting a new birth control method
• Illness
• Hormone Imbalance

If you suspect one of these reasons may be disrupting your normal menstrual cycle and you have a negative pregnancy test then you will need to speak to your health professional.