Exercise Or Lack Of Body Fat
You may be an athlete who is neither over- nor underweight . However, its not your weight that really impacts your reproductive cycleits the amount of fat.
Athletes may have a high percentage of muscle and a low percentage of body fat. This can cause their menstrual cycles to be irregular or even stop completely. Excessive exercise can also cause your periods to become irregular or stop.
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Can You Get Pregnant If You Have Sex During Your Period
By | Aug. 29, 2013, 7:13 a.m.
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Can you get pregnant if you have sex while you are in your period?
Yes its possible to get pregnant if you have unprotected sex during your period. But it’s not super common, especially during the very beginning of a period.
Heres the deal: You’re most likely to get pregnant when you have sex right before and during ovulation . Ovulation happens in the middle of your menstrual cycle, usually about 14 days before your period starts. The average menstrual cycle is about 25-30 days, but it can be shorter or longer it varies from person to person. If you have a shorter menstrual cycle, you have a higher chance of getting pregnant from sex during your period.
All of this might sound really complicated, especially if you arent sure how long your menstrual cycle is. And it can be really hard to know exactly when youre ovulating. Many people also have irregular periods especially when you’re younger which makes this stuff even harder to keep track of.
So if you want to prevent pregnancy, the best way to go is to use an effective a birth control method like condoms or the pill every time you have sex. If you use birth control correctly, your chances of getting pregnant are really really low whether youre on your period or not.
Tags:periods, ovulation, am I pregnant, sex during period
Why You Cant Have A Period While Pregnant
A true period is blood loss that occurs at the end of a menstrual cycle as a result of your egg not being fertilized by sperm. When an egg goes unfertilized, hormonesthe ones that control the release of the egg into your fallopian tubes and cause your womb lining to thickendrop in levels at the end of the month. Your womb lining then disintegrates and is shed in what we commonly refer to as a period.
If youre pregnant, an egg has already been fertilized and is growing as an embryo within the walls of your uterus. Since your womb lining is not being discarded at the end of each month, you no longer have a period. This is why one of the early signs of pregnancy is a missed period.
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Should I Watch For Any Problems
Most girls don’t have any problems with their periods. But call your doctor if you:
- are 15 and haven’t started your period
- have had your period for more than 2 years and it still doesn’t come regularly
- have bleeding between periods
- have severe cramps that don’t get better with ibuprofen or naproxen
- have very heavy bleeding
- have periods that last more than about a week
- have severe PMS that gets in the way of your everyday activities
Period Tracking And Logging Sex
Women who use Natural Cycles take their temperature every morning and record it in the app. The method works by identifying a rise in body temperature just before ovulation. This means Natural Cycles can tell you when you can and cant get pregnant, so you will know your own fertility whilst on your period, or any day of your cycle, for that matter. On top of this, you will also know where you are in your cycle, meaning you can plan for your period, PMS or when to do a self breast exam.
If you are looking for a hormone-free birth control option that learns your unique cycle, then Natural Cycles could be the solution youve been searching for.
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Implantation Bleeding Could Be Mistaken For A Light Period
Many women also mistake implantation bleeding for a period while pregnant. Following the same example above, if you often have a light period, and had spotting on day 23, you might mistake that spotting as your period a day or two early.
Bleeding varies from woman to woman, but a heavy flow is almost never implantation bleeding. You can read a full article or try our quiz on telling the difference between implantation and your period here.
Examining Your Hormones To Determine A Pregnancy
If you have had unprotected sex and want to know if you are pregnant, your first thought may be to take a pregnancy test. While these tests are convenient, it is important to understand that a reliable test result can only accurately be determined a few days or weeks after conception. Most doctors will advise waiting at least one week after sex to take the first test, and then again two weeks later for an even more accurate test.
The hormonal changes associated with pregnancy begin almost immediately after conception and can help determine if you have become pregnant. Reproductive hormones like hCG begin to increase shortly after implantation occurs in the uterus and can be detected as early as two weeks after conception has taken place. To determine whether this hormone indicates that you are pregnant, a blood sample must be taken and tested for levels of hCG. A positive result is usually confirmed by repeating the tests for three times within 48-72 hours with increasing levels of hCG present each time. Although more expensive than a home pregnancy test, these blood tests gives more detailed information about the potential pregnancy sooner than home testing does.
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Unprotected Sex Before Period
When you have sex, there is always a chance of becoming pregnant. It can happen even when you have protected sex. Using protection will however increase your chances of preventing unwanted pregnancies and sexually transmitted infections. Researchers believe that you are more likely to conceive when you have sex at certain times during your monthly cycle. How about unprotected sex before period? Can you get pregnant at this time? It all depends when you actually ovulate, but you cannot say for sure when you will or will not ovulate. Many researchers use the monthly cycle of a woman and calculate the average risk for pregnancy.
If Its Not Period What Is It
Since the answer to Can you be pregnant and still have a period? is no, you may be wondering what the bleeding is really all about. Here are some ideas:
1. Implantation Spotting or Bleeding
This is a type of bleeding that occurs when the fertilized embryo finally attaches to the uterine lining. When the egg digs deep into the uterine lining, it can cause bleeding when the embryo and the lining come together. This can result in a slight amount of bleeding about a week before the normal period is supposed to happen, which is usually a bit of red spotting, pink discharge, or a light brown discharge in most women but it can become just as heavy as a light period. You can easily confuse this bleeding with an early period or a period that just happens to be lighter than normal.
2. Bleeding Following Birth Control
It is possible to have irregular bleeding when you are taking the birth control pill. If you have just stopped the pill and have become pregnant, the hormonal changes associated with this change can result in some off and on spotting. If you get pregnant immediately after stopping the birth control pill, it can be hard to tell the difference between this bleeding and a normal period. You might actually be pregnant and experiencing some intermittent vaginal bleeding.
3. Ectopic Pregnancy
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What Are The Symptoms Of Menarche
Leading up to your first period, you may notice these symptoms:
- Tender or sore breasts .
During your period, you may notice red or brown blood on your underwear or in the toilet after using the bathroom. You may bleed so little that you only see a few spots before your period ends. Or, your bleeding may start light, get heavier, and then become light again before it ends.
Everyone experiences periods differently. And first periods are especially unpredictable. Dont worry if your symptoms or your period are different from someone elses.
Can You Get Pregnant Right Before Or After Your Period
Doctors generally agree that people are not likely to get pregnant in the days leading up to their period. This is especially true if their periods are regular and they have a 28-day menstrual cycle.
However, given the fluid nature of the fertile window, people who do not want to become pregnant should still use contraception at this time.
Sperm cells can only fertilize an egg within a 24-hour window after ovulation. If a person knows when they have ovulated and counts w days from ovulation, they should no longer be able to get pregnant before their next period.
It is, however, possible for a person to get pregnant immediately after their period. This is because sperm can still fertilize eggs for 35 days after sexual intercourse.
If a person with a short cycle has sexual intercourse right after their period and happens to ovulate early, they may ovulate quickly enough for the egg to connect with sperm cells.
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You Have An Ectopic Pregnancy
Do you have severe abdominal pain, light brown discharge and pregnancy symptoms? Then its possible you have an ectopic pregnancy.
What does ectopic pregnancy mean?
In normal pregnancies, fertilization occurs inside the Fallopian tube, which is a 10cm tube attached to the body of the uterus. After fertilization, the embryo or fertilized ovum is transported back to the uterus for implantation.
However, in ectopic pregnancies, this process fails to result in implantation outside the uterus, or in the fallopian tubes. Implantation inside the Fallopian tube will cause bleeding into the abdomen with symptoms like
- Pain especially in the right or left side of the abdomen
- Heavy vaginal bleeding, though it may be light bleeding or no bleeding at all.
- Dizziness or fainting attack
- Severe pain in the abdomen that gets worse with time
Who are at risk of an ectopic pregnancy?
- Untreated chlamydia or gonorrhea infection
- Pelvic inflammation disease
- Drugs like Clomiphene citrate used to stimulate ovulation
- Previous history of an abortion
What to do?
You should inform your doctor ASAP about your symptoms. Ectopic pregnancy is an emergency worldwide and may cause death in young women if not treated early.
How Does Ovulation Relate To Periods
Ovulation is the release of an egg from the ovaries. The same hormones that cause the uterus lining to build up also cause an egg to leave one of the ovaries. The egg travels through a thin tube called a fallopian tube to the uterus.
If the egg is fertilized by a sperm cell, it attaches to the wall of the uterus, where over time it develops into a baby. If the egg is not fertilized, the uterus lining breaks down and bleeds, causing a period.
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Can Your Get Pregnant Right After Your Period
For most people, pregnancy isnt likely to happen right after your periodbut it is possible. As early as the third day of your menstrual cycle, your levels of the reproductive hormones progesterone and estrogen, which taper off at the start of your period, begin to climb and help your uterine lining rebuild.
Although an egg isnt released during in the immediate post-period phase, called pre-ovulation, your chances of conceiving arent zero. Sperm can live up to five days in hospitable cervical mucus. That means they can stick around for a few days until your body does release an egg during ovulationespecially if you have a shorter menstrual cycle. One study showed that people who had sex only one time during this phase still got pregnant, says Steven R. Bayer, M.D., a Boston-based reproductive endocrinologist.
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Can I Use My Menstrual Cycle To Predict My Due Date
Yes. You can work out how far along your pregnancy is by counting from the first day of your last period.
This can be confusing because you probably didnt get pregnant until around 2 weeks later, after you ovulated. Even if do you know the date you got pregnant, this is counted as day 14 of your pregnancy , not day 1.
Your pregnancy is calculated from your last menstrual period because every time you have a period this is the bodys way of getting ready for pregnancy. It also gives healthcare professionals a standard to follow because its very difficult to know exactly when the sperm fertilised the egg.
If your period is irregular or if youve recently been on the pill it will be harder to try and work out your due date.
The most accurate way to work out your due date is to have an ultrasound scan when youre around 11 to 14 weeks pregnant. This is used to see how for along you are and check your babys development.
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Pregnant Again After Giving Birth Now What
A second pregnancy within the first year of giving birth usually causes major emotional upheaval . This may be what you are going through right now. Your baby is only a few months or weeks old and now you are pregnant againmany women caught in this situation begin asking themselves how they will be able to manage another pregnancy and an additional child so soon.
We want to encourage you to keep looking forward and to keep sight of your strengths. Solutions are out there. Lets find them together!
I Had Unprotected Sex Before Period Can I Be Pregnant
Yes you can. There is a chance of becoming pregnant irrespective of when you engage in sexual intercourse without practicing safe sex or using birth control. You ovulate when your ovary releases egg, which travels through the fallopian tube. You are most fertile at this stage and having sex may fertilize the egg and result in pregnancy.
Ovulation takes place midway between your periods that is when you have regular periods, but there is a chance of it to vary from the 8th day to the 20th day of your cycle. What it means is that you can still become pregnant if you have unprotected sex before period.The chances of becoming pregnant may come down a bit when you have sex a week before your period when you may not be ovulating. There is no way to confirm when you will ovulate though. This is especially true if you have an irregular period. You can ovulate just before the date of the last time you had your period, in which case unprotected sex will lead to pregnancy. So no matter its 7 days, 5 days or even 2 days before period, you can never be sure if the ovulation has started.
What Others Have Experienced and Advised?
Some with strictly regular periods may argue that if you have sex close enough to the period, the chances of pregnant are very slim. They would give sex without pregnancy a try. Lets see what others say:
What to Do?
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Can You Ovulate Without A Period
If you are not getting your periods, you are probably not ovulating regularly. There are a number of reasons this may occur . However, this doesnt mean you wont suddenly ovulate without getting a period first.
As mentioned above, menstruation marks the end of one cycle. If ovulation occurs, and you dont conceive, you will get your period. But lets say you are currently not having regular cycles. You could, depending on the reason why youre not menstruating regularly, suddenly start a menstrual cycle.
The end of your cycle is marked by your period starting, but there are no obvious signs that your body has begun a cycle. You can ovulate and not know it.
You will only know you ovulated if you get your period or, if you had sexual intercourse within your fertile window, you get pregnant. You may not realize youre pregnant for a while, though, since you havent been getting your periods. You wont have a period to be late if you havent been getting one.
Sex During Your Period
The chances are pretty good that you will not get pregnant if you have sex during your period. Menstruation is the signal that the ovum was not fertilized or implanted, leading to a drop in hormone levels and the shedding of the uterine lining. Even if a sperm made it to an egg, which is very unlikely, the uterine lining would not be ready for implantation. So, during this stage in your cycle, your risk of pregnancy remains negligible.
However, the odds of conception during your period arent zero. If you have a very short cycle, ovulation may occur soon after your period. Given that sperm can live inside you for up to three days, having sex at the end of your period may lead to fertilization in the days following it. One study charting the most common conception days in the menstrual cycle shows that odds start to rise on day 7 LMPjust a week past your first day of bleeding.
It’s also important to note that what you may think is a period might not be. An estimated 2.8% of people with periods have spotting around ovulation, which is actually when you are most fertile. In other cases, spotting may be implantation bleeding, a very early sign of pregnancy. Unlike a regular period, spotting in these circumstances is typically lighter in color and flow.
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