First trimester symptoms linked to pre-conception metabolic/hormonal status?

[WelcomeBaby]

I know something similar has been discussed before (weight gain in early preg) but I would like to add my experience and maybe add another angle. I have observed that this time some of my first trimester symptoms are very different from my first pregnancy with DS1. Some background: 5 years ago, I had undiagnosed PCOS with very irregular cycles and bad cystic acne. I was also on a sugar-laden basically vegetarian diet, constantly snacking on unhealthy stuff. (Never realized the connection back then!) No wonder that when I fell pregnant with DS1 (and didn’t change my diet after the BFP), I gained 10lb before the first trimester even ended, and my face and my back broke out LIKE CRAZY - the painful cystic acne stayed active for about 6 weeks and took another 2 months to fully heal.
Now I’m 10 weeks along with the new baby. This time, before conceiving I managed to bring the PCOS under control thanks to the LE PCOS diet, and although I started to eat more fat and bread after my BFP I’m still sticking to the basic principles like reduced sugar and no snacking. Interestingly, so far I’ve only gained a little over 1 pound and while I did develop a few smallish spots on my back (they’re long gone), I never really broke out and my face is really clear (got the pregnancy glow at like 5 weeks, awesome!!).
Now I’m having a hard time believing that these very different symptoms are completely random. I rather think and hope they might represent or at least be linked to my improved overall metabolic and hormonal health. Has anybody observed something similar - different pregnancy symptoms that might be caused by a pre-conception change in metabolic/hormonal health? I know this means nothing with regard to the baby’s sex, I just find it so interesting that in my first pregnancy, my most severe symptoms were classic PCOS symptoms x 1.000.000 and now these are exactly the ones that I’m NOT experiencing (nausea, fatigue, sore boobs etc. are about the same as with DS1).

[atomic sagebrush]

I think it's certainly possible that because our bodies are in different places with every pregnancy, that our symptoms are different.

BUT I also think it is just as likely or is also likely to be from other factors too. Such as:

- with our first pregnancy our body doesn't know what's going on - I had tons of symptoms with DS 1 and I think it was like my body just wasn't "used to" being pregnant. I was 20/21 years old and in great shape with him becuase I didn't have a car and walked everywhere. With my last pregnancy at 41/42 I had few symptoms and it's very hard for me to believe that I was in any better condition with that pregnancy metaboliclly or hormonally since most 42 year olds are somewhat insulin resistant and I was likely in perimenopause.

- something different between the two pregnancies. With my 4th I had been pregnant with twins and one stayed and one went, and I had tons of extreme symptoms in the first tri with that one.

- to some extent (at least when it comes to nausea) we learn tricks to manage symptoms in the first tri. I threw up every day with DS 1 because I hadn't figured out tricks to manage it. With DS 2 I learned to never get hungry, not to drink just plain water (water made me sick for some reason) This wouldn't be true for acne of course but many read a lot into nausea. I was bothered much less by nausea with my subsequent pregnancies because I knew how to manage it.

My two easiest pregnancies were my 2nd and my 5th. They were just cakewalks compared to the others. The other three were all very different from each other and from the two similar ones. I wasn't in fantastic shape or eating super healthy with them (I was at my thinnest with my 5th, but only by 3 lbs compared to where I started my 4th pregnancy) The other three I was in good shape with 1, great shape with 3, and ok shape with 4. My second pregnancy I started off probably at my worst physically and with my last like I said, I was 41/42!

I'm just not sure that we can know with the existing science what is really going on. Too many unknowns.