I Got My Period Very Late Should I Take A Pregnancy Test Can I Take It On My Period
By | Sept. 10, 2013, 3:21 p.m.
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So, my period was 13 days late and I just got it today, should I still take a pregnancy test? If so, should I wait until Im off my period or is it ok to take it while Im still on it?
Late periods can be stressful, but try to chill out: getting your period is a sign that youre not pregnant. Periods can be late for all kinds of reasons, like weight changes, increase in exercise, hormones, and stress. Its also really common for periods to change in timing and flow during the first few years of your menstrual cycle, while your body develops and settles into a pattern. This is probably whats causing your period to be tardy for the party.
It is possible to be pregnant and have light bleeding that seems kind of like a period, but its not the same as a period. If you really feel like something is wrong, check with your doctor or a Planned Parenthood health center. And yes, you can take a pregnancy test even if youre having bleeding. If taking a pregnancy test will ease your mind, go for it theyre usually about $15 at the drug store.
Since you asked about pregnancy, Im guessing its because youre having vaginal sex. Its great that youre thinking about the possible consequences of sex, like unplanned pregnancy. You should think about using a good method of birth control so you dont have to worry in the future. And remember that its also important to protect against STDs too, by using condoms and getting tested.
Why Is My Period Late Quiz
Is your period late this time? Don’t worry, take this ‘Why is my period late? Quiz’ and you might get to find out the actual reason behind the delay in your periods. Remember that late periods do not always mean that you’re pregnant. There are several other factors associated with late periods such as hormonal imbalances, stress, weight changes, PCOS, and many others. Take this quiz below and see why you are facing delay in your monthly cycle.
- When was the last time you had sexual intercourse?
Regular- I always get my periods on the due date.
Somewhat regular- My periods come 2 to 3 three days early sometimes.
Irregular- My periods come between a gap of 2 to 3 months.
Somewhat irregular- I usually get 2 to 3 days late from its due date.
Yes, I always include healthy fruit and vegetables in my diet.
I try to eat healthy food most of the times.
I usually prefer eating snacks and fast food.
I hardly ever eat healthy home cooked food, I mostly eat at restaurants.
Yes, my mother used to have irregular periods.
No, everyone in my family is perfectly healthy.
Not Getting Enough Nutrients
The body compensates when under-fueled,Rachel Fine, registered dietitian and owner of the nutritional counseling firm To The Pointe Nutrition, tells Bustle. In order to push through your day, the bodys resting metabolism slows to conserve energy for vital processes, like breathing and circulation.
If youre not eating enough each day, perhaps due to things like an illness or stress, you may notice that your period shows up late as a result. As Fine says, Secondary processes not needed for individual survival, such as reproduction, get put on the back burner. If this sounds familiar, let a doctor know.
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What Are Some Possible Other Reasons Behind My Irregular Period What Are Some Common Late Period Causes Besides Stress
There are a lot of factors besides stress that can impact your menstrual cycle and cause a delayed or late period, like pregnancy, birth control , menopause, weight loss, and too much exercise. Hormone changes could also be a cause of why your period is late that youâd wanna chat over with your doctor.
When To Talk To Your Doctor About A Late Or Missing Period
Most people who menstruate dont have a perfectly regular cycle. A couple days off here or there generally isnt cause for concern . However, you should speak with your doctor if youve ruled out a pregnancy and:
- You havent had a period in over three months
- Your periods are suddenly irregular
- You notice there are more than 35 days between your periods
- Your period lasts for more than seven days
- You bleed between periods
- Your periods are extremely heavy
- Your periods are extremely painful
Any of the above could indicate a more serious underlying condition and, regardless, you should always bring up worrying menstrual cycle changes to your healthcare provider or ObGyn.12
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Reason : Very Low Weight
Being underweight is classified as being at least 10% less than the normal body weight for your height. Another measure is if your Body Mass Index is under 10.
When you are severely underweight, your body goes into starvation mode. It can shut down the bodys production of the follicle phase of the reproductive system, so eggs are not even created to be released.
Low body weight could be due to illness, medication, or dietary changes. Alternatively, it could also be due to over-exercising or under-eating. Finally, it may also be a symptom of anorexia nervosa or bulimia.
Symptoms of Very Low Weight
- Frequent sickness
What to Do
If you are severely underweight and experiencing late period but are not pregnant, consider regulating your meals to eat a sufficient amount for your physical activity. If you have severely low body weight due to illness, medication or dietary changes, and your period is late, consume sufficient nutrient-dense foods and proteins to protect your health and reproductive cycle, and to prevent late periods.
Taking A Home Pregnancy Test Too Soon
Another reason for a false negative pregnancy test may simply be that you took the test too early. Pregnancy tests vary in how soon they can detect hCG in your urine. It is possible that although an egg may be fertilized, your body has not started secreting enough hCG to register as positive on a test. Your body needs time for the hormone to rise to a high enough level to be detected. Most brands instruct you to wait until the first day of your missed period to test. Remember, hCG rises differently in each woman. If you suspect you are pregnant, even though the test is negative, the test should be repeated in one week.
If you are trying to conceive and your period is more than one week late with a negative pregnancy test, you should consider consultation with a fertility doctor so that you can be properly evaluated and treated, if necessary.
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Change In Your Schedule
Minor changes in your schedule arent going to have an impact on your menstrual cycle but intense ones, like switching to the night shift or having jet lag from traveling across the world , can. The good news is that its temporary. Once your body acclimates to your new schedule, your periods should resume as normal. If they dont, its worth calling your doctor about.
Common Causes Of Missed Periods
The most common cause of a missed period is pregnancy. However, if youre not sexually active, havent had sex in a few months, or got a negative result on your pregnancy test, you already know thats not the issue.
That leads us to other possibilities. While one late or missing period isnt worth fretting about, you shouldnt let it become a common occurrence. Here are the five most common causes of irregular periods, and what you can do about them.
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Im Not Pregnant So Why Is My Period Late
So the pregnancy test came out negative, and you still havent got your period, what then? There are many reasons why you may miss or skip a period, or why your periods may stop altogether.
If pregnancy cannot be ruled out after a negative test result, you may be late or have skipped your period due to:
There are many reasons why your period is late or skipped, and most, like stress, are no cause for alarm and your periods can return to normal with a few healthy lifestyle changes.
However, to rule out any causes for concern, if you miss more than one period you may want to see your doctor for medical advice.
How To Induce Your Period
Whether or not you can jump start your period or encourage it to happen depends on the root cause of the delay. In the long-term, Dr. Speichinger says that addressing some of the issues that can cause late or missed periods can help get your cycle back on track. Reducing your stress levels, getting adequate rest, cutting back on excessive exercise if youre an athlete, and normalizing your weight can reset your cycle if those things have caused the disruption in the first place.
There are also medication options that may be available to you, especially if your late period is because of a hormone imbalance. Typically, we can start with a progesterone challenge to a withdrawal period, Dr. Speichinger explains.
A progesterone challenge test involves taking progesterone orally for about 10 days, then stopping the progesterone to see if withdrawal bleeding occurs. If it does, there may be an issue with ovulation if it doesnt, the problem may be related to estrogen levels. Dr. Speichinger notes that sometimes there is a second step to the progesterone challenge, where estrogen is given first and followed by progesterone, to cause the withdrawal period.
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This test can tell your womens health provider a lot about your hormonal levels, as well as the health of the lining of your uterus. It can make the next steps clearer for you and your provider as you look for the source of your late or missed periods.
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Can I Track My Period
Every woman is different and plotting out your menstrual cycle is a great way to figure out what the average length of your cycle is for you. Once you have plotted when you should start your period youll know what to consider to be a late or a missed period. It’s common to have a period which is 2-3 days late as your cycle can fluctuate from time to time.
For many women a period is considered late if it hasnt started five or more days after the date you expected it to start. If you period is over 4-5 days later then you usually expect, you may want to seek advice or take a pregnancy test for your own peace of mind.
How Early Can You Tell If You Are Pregnant
This varies from woman to woman, with some noticing symptoms from as early as a week after conception, while others may take several months before they notice a change. Many wont experience symptoms in early pregnancy at all, though some may have an implantation bleed.
To make it more confusing, some symptoms of early pregnancy, such as tiredness or breast tenderness, are also associated with PMS, so it can be tricky to tell if you are pregnant or if your period is just a few days late.
If you think you might be pregnant, we recommend taking a pregnancy test on the first day of your missed period. If this is negative and you still think there is a chance you are pregnant, test again after 48 hours.
Of course, you should speak to a healthcare professional if you have concerns around your missed menstruation. In the meantime, well put pregnancy aside and look at some other reasons for late periods.
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Consider Taking A Home Pregnancy Test
You can take a home pregnancy test as early as 14 days after unprotected sex. If you did not use a method of birth control or are concerned about a possible birth control failure, take an at-home pregnancy test. Any test is good, whether purchased from a drug store, like CVS or Walgreens, or the Dollar Store expensive tests are usually no better than affordable tests. Make sure to read and follow the directions about how to take the test and when to read the results. If the test is negative, and your period is still late or you are concerned about possible symptoms of pregnancy, repeat the test in about a week. If the test is positive, then keep reading.
Reasons Why Your Period Is Late
Its completely normal for a woman to have her period irregularly at two points in her life: when she first starts and when Menopause begins. Your normal cycle may become irregular as your body transitions.
Women who arent yet in menopause have their periods every 28 days for most of the time. A healthy menstrual cycle may vary from every 21 days to every 35 days. A late period can add stress to your life. There are many reasons for a late period, such as an extreme exercice and diet, PCOS, stress and other reasons that we will ltalk about in this article, but in most cases pregnancy is the main reason for a missed period.
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What Is The Menopause
The menopauseis when you have no periods and you will not be able to get pregnant naturally. This happens to women in their late forties to mid-fifties. Many women will notice that their periods completely stop, however others will see their periods become less frequents in the years and months leading up to the menopause.
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You Have A Chronic Condition
Certain chronic health problems, especially celiac disease and diabetes, are sometimes associated with menstrual irregularities.
Celiac disease is an autoimmune disease that affects your digestive system. When people with celiac disease eat gluten, their immune system reacts by attacking the lining of the small intestine.
When the small intestine is damaged, it impairs the bodys ability to absorb nutrients from food. This can lead to malnourishment, which affects normal hormone production and leads to missed periods and other menstrual irregularities.
Those with type 1 and type 2 diabetes might also experience a missed period in rare cases. This tends to only happen when blood sugar levels are not managed.
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Stress Can Cause Your Period To Be Late
It is not only a drain on your mind, but can also cause mental problems. It can also cause physical symptoms such as irregular periods. Dr. Higgins states that minor, daily stress wont usually affect your period. But, big-time stressors can disrupt your bodys delicate hormonal balance and cause your period to be late. Here are some examples of major stress:
- Death of a loved-one
- Exams for high school and college.
- Loss of employment.
- Major life events such as a marriage.
Reason 1: Menstrual Synchrony
As women, this has probably happened to you at some point in your life. Typically, your period cycle syncs up with other women in close quarters, including roommates, coworkers, friends, or family.
Surprisingly, the science on menstrual synchrony is 50/50. The methodology of collecting data and verifying actual menstrual start dates were not obtained by a repeatable methodology.
The concept first appeared in print in 1971 when an undergraduate at Wellesley College, Martha K. McClintock, noticed that all the women in her dorm had a similar date of onset of their menstrual cycles. Her research was published in Nature journal, and menstrual synchrony was considered verified. But then, in 1995, researcher H. Clyde Wilson doubted McClintocks sample selection and method of determining period start dates, He published his own research debunking the McClintock effect. Thus, the fact that women do not start their periods on the exact same day debunked the McClintock effect.
After that, no study has ever found womens menstrual cycles sync to each other. In fact, it has been further debased because it is also uncommon in the animal kingdom. As it stands today, scientists consider menstrual synchrony to be caused by our mutual environments, rather than a pheromone-based instinct that syncs biological rhythms.
Symptoms of Menstrual Synchrony
- between periods is shorter or longer
- Longer or shorter periods
What to Do
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Referral To A Specialist
If your GP thinks a medical condition might have caused your periods to stop, they may refer you to a specialist.
Depending on what your GP thinks is causing the problem, you may be referred to:
- a gynaecologist â a specialist in treating conditions affecting the female reproductive system
- an endocrinologist â a specialist in treating hormonal conditions
You may have a gynaecological examination and various tests, including:
- blood tests â to see if you have abnormal levels of certain hormones
- an ultrasound scan, CT scan or MRI scan â to identify any problems with your reproductive system or the pituitary gland in your brain
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Reason : Early Perimenopause
The average age women in the U.S. experience menopause is between 48 and 55. But women who experience early perimenopause start having late periods by age 39. Instead of the standard 28 days between periods, menses may arrive 36 or 48 days apart.
Women typically experience 4-8 years of changes upon starting menopause. However, in perimenopause, it can last as short as just a few months. If youre under 45 and your period stops completely, its possible youre going through early perimenopause or experiencing premature ovarian failure.
Symptoms of early perimenopause
- Urinary leakage when coughing or sneezing
What to Do
If the symptoms of perimenopause set in, you can contact your healthcare professional to assess if that is the cause of your late period. While perimenopause cannot be stopped or reversed, there are prescription remedies that can help alleviate some of the discomfort .
Selective serotonin uptake inhibitors , Neurontin, Prozac, Paxil, and clonidine can all help with hot flashes, while low dose birth control pills can help with hormonal irregularities, vaginal dryness, and heavy bleeding.
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