Increased Discharge and Pregnancy Worries

[untstuntstgirl.livejournal.com]

Hello VPers!

I posted a couple weeks ago about how my NuvaRing had gone MIA. I discovered the missing ring on Sunday, and am not sure at all when the ring actually went missing. I had had unprotected sex the night before, so I went and took some Plan B Sunday night/Monday morning (12 hours between pills, as instructed).

The Plan B warned that my period may come a week late, but I'm still concerned. My period should have come last week (on time), and tomorrow will be one week. Still no sign of my period.

Now I'm having a lot more discharge than I usually get, and I'm wondering why this is. My discharge is normal: wet and clear. My panties get pretty damp during the day, and every time I go to the bathroom, I feel like I could wipe over and over and over again and STILL has tons of discharge. I do normally have a fair amount of discharge, but this seems like more than usual.

Is this discharge related to anything? Period? Pregnancy? Screwed up birth control?



My last period came as schedule a month ago. Since then, I believe my boyfriend and I had sex three or four times - only once without a condom. The time without a condom was Saturday, April 4th. On Sunday, April 5th, I discovered my nuva ring was missing. I also had some light bleeding that day and the next day, Monday.

So, April 5th I took Plan B. I took the first pill about 24 hours after we had had sex.
On Thursday, April 16th, I put a new ring in, as scheduled. It slipped out a little later that day, and I had to put it in again. As I was putting it in place, it felt like it was hitting something and would not go any further. I have checked to make sure it is still there a few times since then, and it always feels lower to me than usual. Normally, I have to stick my finger in past the first knuckle to find my ring. I don't quite reach my knuckle now when I touch my ring. This is weird to me.

I should have received my period on April 16th, but I have not received it yet. Tomorrow is one full week.

I think I've had cramps off and on all week, but I've also been getting gas pains, so sometimes it's hard to tell the difference. And the last few days, I've noticed an increase in discharge.

I keep rationalizing with myself that I'm not going to be instantly fertile the second my ring pops out, and I took Plan B, so I'm probably okay and it's just all the weird hormones in my body (and my stress) that's messing up my period. Maybe the light bleeding the day I noticed my ring was missing WAS my period?

It's still scary, and while I know a lot regarding pregnancy and birth control, I still don't know everything.

I know I should take a pregnancy test to ease my mind, but I'm afraid of false negatives and false positives...I can't trust anything! I also hate the idea of buying a pregnancy test...ugh.

If my period hasn't come by the weekend, I will get my boyfriend to come hold my hand and take some pregnancy tests, but for the time being, I'm looking for some insight and some informed opinions.

Thanks much!

Comments

[pygmybugs.livejournal.com]

Plan B totally whacked my schedule for a good couple of months. Plus, it's a big ol' dose of hormones, so side effects can be weird. I get heavy discharge from both the NuvaRing and Plan B.

Do whatever makes you comfortable, but even though buying them seems like 'admitting defeat,' I find that peeing on a stick makes me feel better. And hell, half the time I actually drop the money to buy one, I get my period before I ever get a chance to take the test. It's like Murphy's Law of pregnancy tests.

[untstuntstgirl.livejournal.com]

That's a bit of a reassurrance.

My boyfriend told me he's more than happy to come with me to buy a test. So that helps a lot.

[chiyo-no-saru.livejournal.com]

It's 100% normal for Plan B to delay your period by up to 3 weeks, so really, I wouldn't worry about it at all. If taking a pregnancy test would feel better, by all means do so--trying to relieve your anxiety is far from admitting defeat, it's being realistic about the situation and taking steps to protect yourself mentally and phsyically.

[queensugar.livejournal.com]

A few things here.

First of all, Plan B can make a period a great deal more than a week late.

Another thing to consider is how your NuvaRing use played into it. Did you reinsert your NuvaRing when you found it, and take it out during the standard hormone-free week? Or did you just not insert a ring until April 16?

If you didn't reinsert the Ring until April 16, then you would not have had a period that week as there was no hormone withdrawal to trigger that bleed.

At any rate, you can take a test now and expect an accurate result. False negatives at this point would be very, very rare if the test was used correctly. But overall it's probably more likely whacked out hormones due to Plan B and/or Ring taking variation.

[untstuntstgirl.livejournal.com]

Ah, okay. All that the Plan B packaging said was "if you don't receive your period in a week, you may be pregnant" and I went...o.O

When I found out my ring was missing, it was MISSING. I had no other ring to put in.

That puts my mind at ease a bit more. I figured it was just whacked out hormones, but I didn't want to make that assumption and wind up like those women are in the delivery room saying "I HAD NO CLUE I WAS PREGNANT!"

[queensugar.livejournal.com]

If you didn't have a ring to put in, then yeah, you wouldn't expect a period on April 16. Remember that a period while on hormonal birth control is only caused by the drop in hormones during the hormone-free week... so if you lost your ring around the fifth and never had a new one to put in, then it's to be expected that no bleed would occur.

[dressdncheckers.livejournal.com]

can't help with the pregnancy stuff but i found that during i used and after i stopped using the nuvaring i had ridiculous amounts of discharge of many variations. alot of the kind where, like you said, you wipe and wipe and wipe and wipe and it seems like it just won't ever go away. i think i remember reading in the nuvaring info that increased discharge is part of the package. it eventually dwindled away the longer it had been since i stopped using it.