A rare minority of women can have multiple estrogen spikes during a single cycle - releasing one or more eggs at various times during the cycle. The reproductive specialist I went to while undertaking fertility treatments told me of a situation he had had where one of his patients underwent follicle stimulation therapy, and ultrasound showed several 'ripe' follicles and several underdeveloped follicles. She had some eggs harvested at this time, but seemingly had an additional spike in her estrogen (naturally produced) and ovulated naturally about a week later, and fell pregnant naturally *after* having several eggs removed and fertilised in vitro ready for transfer back to her. They transferred three embryos, and she ended up pregnant with five fraternal children - meaning she had released an additional two eggs, which were fertilised the normal way...sure, this is an exceptional circumstance, and there's nothing to say it wouldn't have happened if her ovaries hadn't been artificially stimulated in the first place - but he talked about it as if it wasn't the first time he had come across it. (My specialist tended to talk a lot...)
I'm also thinking about those rare women who have incredibly short cycles (1-3 weeks), who do not actually menstruate with each cycle, but who *do* ovulate within each cycle. Rare - extremely - but they *do* exist.
While I entirely agree that the incidence of women falling pregnant at other times other than the latter half of the cycle is rare, and the probability of falling pregnant from pre-ejaculate is also very low (which I also said in my initial comment) sweeping it under the carpet and telling girls that "it'll never happen" is wrong. Every woman needs to know what the possibilities are, so she can make a truly informed choice as to what contraception method she will then choose - and then she can't turn around *if* she falls pregnant and say - "well, no-one told me I could fall pregnant during my period", or " They told me that pre-cum doesn't have any sperm, so I couldn't get pregnant".
On another mis-information note, I was watching Knocked Up last night - and while I know it is a very tongue-in-cheek movie, there will be a *lot* of young people who have watched it/will watch it, and take what is said for gospel. The line from Jason to Ben about "if the girl's on top, she can't get pregnant - force of gravity and all that. What goes up must come down..." - how many couples/hook-ups are now going to rely on the girl-on-top position as their sole means of preventing a pregnancy? "It was in a movie - it must be true!" As an informed adult, I can appreciate the humour, but as a young teen, I *might* have actually believed this line, since it seems, on the surface, almost logical.
Sometimes I think we as a population have no chance in stopping unwanted pregnancies because of the utter plethora of mis-information out there. VP is an amazing resource, but everyone needs to know the whole truth about the possibilities, not just the probabilities, associated with pregnancy and infection/disease, and prevention of both. They need to know what the possibilities are so they can choose to protect themselves. If they think there is no risk, they will not take the appropriate measures, and the outcome could be devastating.
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Date: 2008-02-15 04:39 am (UTC)I'm also thinking about those rare women who have incredibly short cycles (1-3 weeks), who do not actually menstruate with each cycle, but who *do* ovulate within each cycle. Rare - extremely - but they *do* exist.
While I entirely agree that the incidence of women falling pregnant at other times other than the latter half of the cycle is rare, and the probability of falling pregnant from pre-ejaculate is also very low (which I also said in my initial comment) sweeping it under the carpet and telling girls that "it'll never happen" is wrong. Every woman needs to know what the possibilities are, so she can make a truly informed choice as to what contraception method she will then choose - and then she can't turn around *if* she falls pregnant and say - "well, no-one told me I could fall pregnant during my period", or " They told me that pre-cum doesn't have any sperm, so I couldn't get pregnant".
On another mis-information note, I was watching Knocked Up last night - and while I know it is a very tongue-in-cheek movie, there will be a *lot* of young people who have watched it/will watch it, and take what is said for gospel. The line from Jason to Ben about "if the girl's on top, she can't get pregnant - force of gravity and all that. What goes up must come down..." - how many couples/hook-ups are now going to rely on the girl-on-top position as their sole means of preventing a pregnancy? "It was in a movie - it must be true!" As an informed adult, I can appreciate the humour, but as a young teen, I *might* have actually believed this line, since it seems, on the surface, almost logical.
Sometimes I think we as a population have no chance in stopping unwanted pregnancies because of the utter plethora of mis-information out there. VP is an amazing resource, but everyone needs to know the whole truth about the possibilities, not just the probabilities, associated with pregnancy and infection/disease, and prevention of both. They need to know what the possibilities are so they can choose to protect themselves. If they think there is no risk, they will not take the appropriate measures, and the outcome could be devastating.