Abnormal period worries

[faedria.livejournal.com]

I have always been very regular. I chart and I almost always start on day 27, like clockwork. This month I was 8 days late. I bled normally for a day and a half and now, on day 3, I have only very light pink spotting and mild cramps. This has never happened to me before in 10 years of menstruating and my head is full of all sorts of scary things.


I last had sex the week of Oct. 15, which would have been ovulation week. My period came on time two weeks later and seemed completely normal - cramps, heavy bleeding, the full 5 days. The boyfriend and I use condoms, though we do very occasionally practice withdrawal. We are normally careful to use condoms every time during ovulation week, but I think we might not have applied one immediately the last time we had sex. There was no mishap, but now I'm agonizing over that little detail. I also had some pretty bad UTI-like achiness for a couple of days that I thought was related to an accidental cervix-jabbing incident and/or ovulation.

Granted, I have been under a lot of stress since October. I had to fly home to take care of my mother after a surgery. I've been moody for several weeks and am pretty freaked out with the addition of the abnormal period. I want to believe it's just stress, but I know that some women experience pain during implantation and bleed during pregnancy and I can't get those thoughts out of my head! I don't drive or have anyone that I feel comfortable sharing this with here, so I haven't been able to take a test. I may yet come up with an excuse for a trip to the store just for peace of mind. I do have a gyn appointment scheduled for Wednesday, so I suppose I'm just looking for support until then. I am so terribly paranoid.

EDIT: I had my appointment and all is well. The test was negative. I just want to thank you for your comments. Just being able to post here provided some relief, and your responses helped me calm down. <3

Comments

[katrina-splat.livejournal.com]

It sounds pretty unlikely that you would have gotten pregnant, and you can take a test I believe 19 days after the sex in question. You can get tests cheap from a dollar tree store I believe, so the peace of mind is definitely worth that. Check peeonastick.com for more info.

[archangelbeth]

If your prior period came on time and was normal, with fairly heavy bleeding, and you didn't have any condom mishaps, and you haven't had any sex after that, then I would suspect that you're just stressed out right now. My decidual bleeding (the technical term for harmless bleeding during pregnancy) did fool me -- but only because I'd had other light, spotty periods that year that we deliberately ditched the contraception.

When you get the gyno appointment, ask for a urine test -- they can do it quickly, and you will almost certainly be reassured by a negative result. (Or, if you can get to a dollar tree store, grab some tests there. Just don't read them outside the time-window in their instructions, or evaporation lines will say you're pregnant with alien Elvis' triplets.)

I hope you feel better soon!

[extra-thursday.livejournal.com]

i just wanted to chime in to say that being especially stressed out has done almost this exact same thing to me and i don't think you need to be worried. i don't know how often you fly, but whenever i fly across time zones my "like clockwork" cycle goes all wonky. for me i think its a combination of airport stress and lack of sleep from the jetlag, but i either end up a few days late or a week early.

i agree with the above posters that you should check out a dollar store test if you can, and definitely have your gyno do a quick test when you go this week. good luck to you!