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