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Re: please someone helpFrom: jodi (anonymous@obgyn.net)Mon, 29 Oct 2001 10:12:51 -0600 (CST)
This isn't really the "appropriate" place to ask this but since most of us here know enough about the menstrual cycle to warrent medical degrees, it is a place your question could be answered, sort of. The only way to answer it with even near certainty is to know how long your cycles generally are and if they are regular. If you were to have a text book typical 28 day cycle, always on time, and let's assume you have 5 day long periods... well, it would not be too likely that you are pregnant now. Here is why: First, you should know that you start counting cycle days with the first day of bleeding as day 1. In a text book normal cycle, days 1 through the end of your period (3-7) are your bleeding days. All of days 1-14, though, I believe are spent getting your hormones in order to lead to ovulation. I believe this first half of the cycle is called the follicular phase... is that right? Anyway, in an ideal world, you would ovulate on day 14. (This is where the idea behind the rhytym method came from... avoid sex on day 14, don't get preg. It assumes all women ovulate on day 14. It fails to account for a number of things... which is why it often just flat out fails) The remainder of your cycle, called the luteal phase - days 15-28 in an ideal world - consists of the egg travelling to the uterus and the follicle left behind producing progesterone, which tells the uterus to build up a lining and prepare for pregnancy. This progesterone production continues until a. the placenta forms and produces progesterone on its own (pregnant) or b. the unfertilized egg sends a little message back to the follicle (where it left the ovary) saying, "I'm not fertilized, we don't need any more progesterone down here!" Progesterone production drops, and this leads to the lining of your uterus being shed. Some other important stuff to keep in mind is that sperm can live up to 5 days... and eggs generally "live" for 24 hours. That means that if you have sex anywhere in the 5 days before ovulation, you can get pregnant. However, if you have sex more than 24 hours after ovulation, you can not get pregnant. (Generally. Progesterone inhibits further ovulation. If a woman ovultates twice - which would result in fraternal twins - the second egg will be released within a short time of the first egg, before progesterone gets too high to allow further ovulation. In women with PCOS, some say that we do not have high enough levels of progesterone, meaning future ovulations are theoretically possible. I say theoretically because most of us have enough trouble ovulating once, let alone a second time...) So, what all that boils down to is - if you have a text book normal menstrual cycle, you would be capable of getting pregnant roughly between days 9 or 10 and 15. (This is assuming your parnter's sperm have the upper end of the sperm life span, you ovulated on day 14, and your egg lived 24 hours.) If you happen to have text book periods, and your period ended two weeks ago, and we assume it lasted five days, that would place you somewhere around cycle day 19, which would be too late to get pregnant. However, this is no guarantee that you are not pregnant since I have no idea of your cycle lengths and how regular they are. However, you could probably use the above to really figure out your chances by plugging in numbers of your own. A few ways to figure out when you personally actually ovulate... the luteal phase lasts typically 12-16 days. This varies from woman to woman but is generally the same within any given woman. Mine is always 14 days. So, if you have 35 day cycles, you could ovulate anywhere from day 19 to day 23. A few ways to know if you actually have ovulated are observing bodily changes... most/many women experience a sudden increase in cervical mucus at the time of ovulation which means they'll have a gush of clear, slippery, stretchy fluid from the vagina at that time. Sore breasts, especially nipples, also tend to happen at this time. (I can always count on my period 2 weeks from the day I first notice my nipples are sore...) If you have any signs like that, you can better pin down when you ovulated... ANYWAY well I hope the above was somewhat helpful. As you can see, if you have 28 day cycles, or shorter, you're probably safe. If you have longer cycles, you might well not be safe. The only way to know is to take a pregnancy test if your next period doesn't arrive on time. Of course, if you are irregular, all of this flies out the window... there's just no telling in that case. Ok, that's enough out of me. Good luck. - jodi
At Mon, 29 Oct 2001, angela wrote:
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