If you thought you were pregnant and you got your normal, heavy period (not just spotting) are you safe to say you aren’t pregnant for sure?
Getting your normal, heavy period is a really strong sign that you’re not pregnant. It’s actually impossible to get a period while pregnant. You can always take a pregnancy test if it’ll help ease your mind.
Unprotected vaginal sex can lead to both pregnancy and STDs. If you want to avoid
pregnancy while having sex, your best bet is to use birth control, like the IUD, shot, and pill (among others). It’s also
a good idea to use condoms too, since they can help prevent STDs along with some bonus pregnancy prevention powers. Learn more about your birth control options.
Tags: period, pregnancy
The tales of hapless new moms Amanda Burger and Amanda Prentice, both of whom had healthy baby girls they didn't know they were pregnant with before going into labor, have been making the rounds this week, and Internet tsk-tskers are having a field day. They ask, "How could they not know?" Must be denial. Or there's something a little off about the moms, know what I mean?
Most women who have been pregnant can't even imagine the condition passing notice. Those who gained 50 pounds, or swelled up like toads, or threw up every day for months find it hard to believe that pregnancy could be symptom-free. At the very least, they ask, wouldn't the woman have noticed her missing period? And here's the crux of these "cryptic pregnancy" stories: No, they didn't. And if you were in their bodies, you might not, either.
For one thing, women can continue to have monthly bleeding throughout their pregnancies. Yes! It's rare, but it happens. It happened, in fact, to a neighbor of my mom's. Every single month of her pregnancy this lady had period-like bleeding. It wasn't as heavy as a regular period, but it came regularly every month.
If you had no particular reason to think you were pregnant and weren't experiencing symptoms, you too might be reassured by the monthly bleeding. Still getting my period! Can't be pregnant!
Even women who notice missing periods may have good reasons to suspect something at work other than a baby. Many, many types of modern birth control, such as IUDs and different types of contraceptive pills, reduce monthly bleeding or allow women to have periods only a few times a year rather than every month. Stress, intense exercise, weight changes, being overweight, and many other conditions can cause a woman to miss periods. And some women aren't even that regular to begin with. That's me, in fact. I didn't realize I was pregnant until almost three months into my pregnancy, because I've always skipped periods.
In addition, I took two pregnancy tests that came out negative before a positive result. Why? I didn't bother to read the instructions on the test package, and I took the first two tests in the afternoon, after I'd spent the day drinking tea and water. When I finally read the instructions and realized I had to use morning urine for the tests, bingo, there was my extra pink line!
But if I hadn't been a getting-older-every-day woman who was desperately trying to conceive before it was too late, would I have taken that third test? Even if I had, my own little fetus could have confounded me by not showing up on the tests.
Remember, the tests look for the presence of HCG, the human growth hormone. An Italian researcher suggested in 2007 that the incidence of "cryptic pregnancy" is higher than we suspect, about 1 in 475 pregnancies, and that part of the reason may be due to low-profile babies not producing a lot of HCG. Some babies don't, you know.
The reasons for babies not producing much HCG are varied and for now, speculative. But that theory goes a long way towards explaining cryptic pregnancy.
So the next time you hear an "I didn't know I was pregnant" story, give the mom in the tale an iota of credit. She may be no more clueless than you or me, just caught up in one of the enduring mysteries of the human body.
Whether you're trying to become pregnant or trying your hardest to avoid it, you can usually take your period as a sign that you don't have to think about a baby anytime soon. But, in a new interview with InStyle, Serena Williams says she actually got a period during the early stages of her pregnancy—and she was completely floored to find out that she was actually pregnant.
In the interview, Williams says that she didn’t think it was even possible that she could be pregnant. She hadn’t seen her now-husband Alexis Ohanian “in like four weeks” and “literally had a cycle just before.” Williams says she took the test “just to shut my friend up” and was completely surprised when it was positive. She was even more shocked when her doctor told her she was seven weeks along. Oh, and she was playing in the Australian Open at the time.
Having your period when you're pregnant is pretty darn unlikely.
“I have heard from some women who say they had periods throughout their first trimester,” Jonathan Schaffir, M.D., an ob-gyn at the Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, tells SELF. “But in reality, physiologically it’s pretty impossible to have actual periods during pregnancy.”
Just a little refresher: Every month (if you're ovulating), the lining of your uterus thickens and an egg makes its way from one of your ovaries through the fallopian tubes. If it comes in contact with sperm, the sperm can fertilize the egg. If fertilization happens, the egg will continue its journey to the uterus and can implant on that lining. If things continue from there, the fertilized egg becomes an embryo (and, later, a fetus) and the placenta will develop from the uterine lining.
But, if the egg doesn't get fertilized, your body sheds that built-up uterine lining through your vagina, causing a period. And, as you can probably guess, it's kind of an either/or situation—either the egg is fertilized and the process of pregnancy begins, or it isn't and the process of your period begins instead.
That said, there are several situations that can cause period-like bleeding early in pregnancy.
If you get your period at the usual time, it lasts for the usual amount of days, and the amount of blood that you see is pretty typical for you, it’s pretty unlikely that you’re pregnant, G. Thomas Ruiz, M.D., lead ob-gyn at MemorialCare Orange Coast Medical Center in Fountain Valley, California, tells SELF. But you could have bleeding in early pregnancy that just so happens to coincide with when your period is due, Dr. Schaffir says. In fact, up to 30 percent of pregnant people have some form of bleeding in early pregnancy, according to the American Pregnancy Association.
For instance, you might experience implantation bleeding, which is light spotting or bleeding that can happen when the embryo burrows into your uterine wall, and can also be a cause of bleeding in early pregnancy. But Dr. Ruiz says it’s unlikely this would be mistaken for a normal period because it tends to be much lighter.
Or you might have a cut or tear in your vagina, inflammation of your cervix, or irritation of your cervix from an infection that causes bleeding, Dr. Schaffir says. It can even be caused from sex: “Sometimes women have blood vessels close to the surface of the cervix and, during sex, the friction causes a little bleeding,” he explains. However, again, these usually produce far less blood than a period.
The placenta can also be a cause behind the bleeding if it starts to tear or separate a little. Early in pregnancy, you might see bleeding due to something called a subchorionic hematoma, which is when blood gathers between your placenta and the wall of your uterus, Dr. Schaffir explains. Although the condition can raise your risk for a miscarriage, research suggests that most who have it go on to have a healthy pregnancy.
So what if you really truly thought you got a period while you were pregnant? It's possible that you can actually shed part of your uterine lining after you get pregnant in what's called "decidual bleeding." When you become pregnant, the embryo will implant in one side of your uterine wall, usually at the back, Dr. Ruiz says. But your uterine lining has still built up all over your uterus at that point, and it’s possible for the lining to shed just from the other side of the uterus, he explains. This can look a lot like a period.
In some cases, bleeding during pregnancy can be a sign of a serious issue. So if you're not sure what's causing it, definitely check in with your doctor.
As SELF reported previously, if your bleeding is particularly heavy, comes with abdominal pain, or lasts for more than a few days, that's a sign something more serious may be going on. You might be experiencing an ectopic pregnancy (a condition in which the fertilized egg implants outside the uterus) or a miscarriage.
According to the Mayo Clinic, you should tell your doctor at your next regular appointment if you have any light spotting that goes away within a day. But if you have bleeding that lasts for more than a day, you should contact them within 24 hours. And if you pass any tissue from your vagina, experience moderate to heavy bleeding, or have bleeding along with abdominal pain, chills, or cramping, you should get in touch with them immediately. But, again, many cases of bleeding during early pregnancy aren't serious.
And, on the other hand, if you're not sure if you're pregnant and notice you’re having a period that comes at a weird time, isn't as heavy as usual, doesn’t last as long as usual, and comes with any other pregnancy symptoms, it’s worth taking a test, just in case.
Related:
- 3 Times Bleeding During Pregnancy Could Signal a Problem
- This Is Exactly What Happens During Your Menstrual Cycle
- 8 Subtle Signs You Might Be Pregnant and Not Know It