Pondering Pregnancy Symptoms

One thing about early pregnancy and IVF has me totally baffled.

Let me explain.

During an IVF cycle, we shoot up 10,000 units of HCG to "ripen" our eggs. 36 hours later they are removed. HCG has a halflife of 24 hours, which means that it decreases by 50% every 24 hours. HCG is also the "pregnancy hormone" that doctors test for to see if we're pregnant. It's "reported" to be what causes symptoms of pregnancy.

This is what I don't understand.

After 7 complete IVF cycles I have to say that I don't think I've ever had what one would call symptoms of pregnancy after shooting up 10,000 units of HCG. A blood value of 10,000iu of HCG while pregnant would be indicative of a pregnancy of at least 30 days if you look at most HCG charts. I will agree that at one full month of pregnancy, most of us would have major breast tenderness and other clear symptoms of pregnancy that would be unmistakable.

But why is it that "I" don't have symptoms which concur with this level right after having shot up my HCG? I also notice that many bloggers undergoing IVF also do not complain of this. It is more likely that we complain of uterine cramping once we start PIO than we are to complain of anything after HCG.

I am starting to wonder if our current understanding of what causes pregnancy symptoms is just incorrect.

Read here:

"Specifically, breast tenderness is caused by the increase in hormone levels that happens during pregnancy. To prepare for baby, your body increases its levels of estrogen and progesterone."
Source: http://www.pregnancy-info.net/breast_tenderness.html

OK. Our estrogen levels soar during the stim portion of a cycle. I get bloated and my breasts may get a bit bigger, but I'm not sure I've been tender from stims. Progesterone is more evil and definitely causes uterine cramping for me but again, not sure about breast tenderness.