What About Period Sex
Weve heard period sex hailed as the ultimate time for unprotected love making. Though baby making odds are slim, its not 100 percent risk-free.
During the 4 to 8 days of bleeding, youre shedding the unfertilized egg from your previous cycle. This means there isnt a new egg ready for baby making, but it doesnt mean your partners sperm wont hang out until the new egg makes its debut.
Pregnancy With A Period: Is It Possible
While some people may experience intermittent vaginal bleeding while they are pregnant, it isnt possible to have a period. Menstruation only takes place in the absence of pregnancy.
Each month, ovulation occurs when your ovary releases an egg to be fertilized by the sperm. The uterine lining thickens in anticipation of a fertilized egg being implanted, which then results in pregnancy. If an egg isnt fertilized and implanted, both the egg and the uterine lining are shed through the vagina as menstrual blood.
So, can you have a period while youre pregnant? The short answer is no. Since you dont ovulate or release an egg during pregnancy, you will not get your monthly period.
Why Cant You Technically Have A Period When Youre Pregnant
Throughout the month, your body prepares for pregnancy. It does this by building up the endometrium, or uterine lining. If you become pregnant, this lining serves to help nourish the fertilized egg at the very early stages of pregnancy. If you dont become pregnant, your body sheds the endometrium, via your period. Therefore, its impossible to be pregnant and have a period, because you dont shed your endometrium while pregnant.
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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 its pretty impossible to have actual periods during pregnancy.
Just a little refresher: Every month , 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 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 situationeither the egg is fertilized and the process of pregnancy begins, or it isn’t and the process of your period begins instead.
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Why Am I Bleeding Yet Am Pregnant
You may experience some spotting when you expect to get your period. This is called implantation bleeding and it happens around 6 to 12 days after conception as the fertilized egg implants itself in your womb. This bleeding should be light perhaps lasting for a couple of days, but its perfectly normal.
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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.
Get A Pregnant Result As Fast As 1 Minute From The Day You Miss Your Period
Clearblue Rapid Detection Pregnancy Test has been designed to offer you the easiest pregnancy testing experience, with the accuracy you expect from Clearblue and a result as fast as 1 minute.
A pregnant result may appear in 1 minute when testing from the day of the missed period. Wait 3 minutes to confirm a not pregnant result.
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Vaginal Bleeding During Pregnancy
Although you cant have an actual period while pregnant, you can experience vaginal bleedingwhich is often mistaken for a period. Bleeding in pregnancy may be dark brown discharge, spotting light pink, or heavy and bright red similar to or more than a period, says Dr. Steve Rad, MD, FACOG, of the Los Angeles Fetal & Maternal Care Center. It may or may not be accompanied by pain, but painless bleeding can still be equally dangerous!
The Fertile Window Includes:
- the 5 days before ovulation
- the day of ovulation
Simple. Just calculate your window and enjoy worry-free romps for the rest of the month, right?
Not so fast. Like sex, your bodys schedule can be beautifully messy. Its more art class than math class.
Even during your period, when pregnancy-friendly progesterone is low, your body is prepping for its next fertile window. Sometimes, your ovaries get eager and release an egg early. Or sometimes you skip an ovulation day.
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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.
When Can You Get Pregnant
It is possible to have an idea of when you will be most fertile. You have to keep track of when your period starts every month. Also, count the number of days between each period. It is also a good thing to notice any changes that happen in your body during that time.
The very first day of when your period starts is the first day of your cycle. For a 28-day cycle, you should expect ovulation to happen between day 12 and 17. You will notice certain changes in your body during this time. In a 35-day cycle, the signs of ovulation may appear around day 20 or later. Therefore, it is important to first determine the length of your cycle to know if it is possible to become pregnant when you have unprotected sex before period. The following chart gives the ranges:
You will experience certain symptoms when you ovulate, which is extremely helpful if your period is irregular. For instance:
- You will notice cervical mucus becoming very thin, slippery, and clear like egg whites. If you take some of it on your fingers, it will stretch.
- You may also notice lower abdominal pain by the time you ovulate. It is usually nothing more than a twinge in the lower abdomen. Some women even experience a backache by the same time.
- Your basal body temperature will increase by 0.4-1.0°F after ovulation.
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Top Reasons Your Vaginal Bleeding May Not Be A Period
One of the biggest margins for error while using fertility awareness as a method of birth control comes from a misidentified period. Not all vaginal bleeding is a period. A woman may bleed from a hormonal imbalance, cervical lesion, recent trauma and even pregnancy.
If you are tracking your menstrual cycle and the bleeding is consistent in terms of heaviness, color and timing, then you can likely count on it being your period, Harper said. However, there are many women that find it difficult to track their period because irregular bleeding can be due to illness or another underlying cause.
If you are having difficulty or need help starting, talk with your OB-GYN or primary care provider.
What Is The Menstrual Cycle
The menstrual cycle is what your body goes through to get ready for pregnancy. This cycle is the time from the first day of your period up to the day before the start of your next period.
Ovulation usually happens during the second half of the cycle. This is when an egg is released from one of your ovaries. To get pregnant, the egg needs to be fertilised by the sperm.
Ovulation doesnt happen every month for every woman. There are some conditions that may interfere with ovulation, such as endometriosis and polycystic ovarian syndrome . If you are not getting a monthly period and are trying to get pregnant, speak to your doctor.
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Can I Be Pregnant Even After I Have A Period
Since her teenage years when a girl comes of age and starts having her first period, she is told that she is now a complete lady. In the Indian context, it is over the years that one learns that periods is what makes her body ready to bear a child .
We are then told that when a woman conceives a child, she does not have her periods for the next nine months, during which she carries a child in her.
In fact, in rural India or even in deprived households in the urban areas, there are women who do not have access to home pregnancy test kits. These women rely on the information of a missed period to tell them if they are pregnant or not.
Now the million dollar question that arises here is the fact whether a woman can still have her period while she is pregnant or not. While there are a number of myths surrounding the same, this article answers this question from a scientific perspective, taking into account all the medical details about the same.
How Not To Get Pregnant
If you want to get pregnant, plan to get frisky halfway between periods for the best chances. But if youre trying to avoid pregnancy, dont use your period as a guide. Instead, choose a reliable form of birth control.
Thats the best way to prevent pregnancy, Dr. Stephens says.
Yeah, you probably already knew that. But now you know the whole story.
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Got It So When Can You Have Unprotected Sex
Erm NEVER?!
Just kidding . In general, your period is the part of your cycle when youre least likely to make a baby. But regardless of timing, its impossible to be 100 percent sure that unprotected sex wont result in pregnancy.
If you have a 28-day cycle that runs like clockwork, your fertile window lasts for about 6 days mid-cycle . Your safest bet for unprotected sex is a week or so after ovulation just before, during, or just after your period.
But and were sounding like a broken record you could still get pregnant if you have an unpredictable cycle, if you have short cycles, or if you have sex within 5 days of your fertile window .
That Said There Are Several Situations That Can Cause Period
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, its pretty unlikely that youre 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 its 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.
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Ovulating Without Getting Your 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.
It’s Physically Impossible To Have A Period While Pregnant But There Are Reasons For Bleeding During The First Second And Third Trimesters
Can you get your period while pregnant? The short answer is no. “Pregnant people can certainly have vaginal bleeding during a pregnancy, but when they bleed, they are not having a ‘period,'” explains Michele Hakakha, M.D., a board-certified obstetrician and gynecologist based in Los Angeles and co-author of Expecting 411: Clear Answers and Smart Advice for Your Pregnancy.
Keep reading to learn why menstruation stops during pregnancy, as well as other possible causes of vaginal bleeding and spotting during the first, second, or third trimester.
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What Are The Chances I Can Get Pregnant On My Period
The chances of getting pregnant if you have sex during your period are very low. However, if youve had unprotected sex, it is still possible to get pregnant during your period.
To understand how this can happen, you need to know how your menstrual cycle works.
- Your cycle starts on the first day of your period and lasts until the first day of your next period.
- About 10 to 16 days before the start of your next period, you will ovulate, which is when one of your ovaries releases an egg.
- Once youve ovulated, you enter the Luteal phase, when the now empty follicle develops the corpus luteum, which produces the hormone progesterone.
- The lining on your uterus thickens in preparation for a fertilized egg to implant.
- If you have not conceived, then the egg passes into the uterus, hormone levels drop, and the womb lining sheds as you begin your next period.
You are at your most fertile around the time you ovulate. Although the egg lives only for 12 to 24 hours after being released, you can get pregnant even if you have sex days before you ovulate as sperm can live up to five days in your body.
So how likely are you to get pregnant during your period? Well, it depends on a few factors like:
- whether you used contraception or not
- the length of your menstrual cycle
- the length of your period
- when you had sex
You can also conceive after having sex during your period if you have short menstrual cycles, as this means you ovulate a few days earlier, and closer to the end of your period.