TMI ahead, though I’ll try to keep it mild as possible.
Last Monday, I got my period, and I was shocked and a little freaked out by how heavy my bleeding was and how bad my cramps were. I’m one of those fortunate girls who don’t suffer much from cramps, and my periods are typically light and last only 2 or 3 days. These cramps were so painful that it was actually difficult to walk, which is a first for me. I took some aspirin and laid down, wondering what on Earth was going on, and I wondered, Am I miscarrying or something? The pain subsided after the first day and the rest of the period proceeded as normal.
I had no particular reason to think myself pregnant, and in fact the only time I could’ve become pregnant would’ve been 5 days prior, with my new boyfriend. We used birth control, but of course condoms are not 100% effective. But if an embryo ever existed, it could only have been a few days old when I got my period. Would such a tiny clump of cells even cause any noticeable affect if miscarried? I did a little research, and the medical term for a very early miscarriage is chemical pregnancy, but I couldn’t find anything that said if an embryo that young would trigger unusual cramps and period bleeding. I mean, would your body even have had time to build up much lining around the embryo?
I am personally not overly concerned, because IF I suffered a chemical pregnancy, it happened so early on that I had no chance to get attached to the wee thing, and it seems like chemical pregnancies are one of those unfortunate things that happen a to a lot of women, not necessarily a harbringer of doom for my future reproductive life. If I get a weird crampy period again next month, I will go to a gyno and get checked out. But I would like to know if it is possible to suffer miscarriage symptoms with an embryo that young.
My missus has had a couple and she always knew. Not sure how much was her own expectations though - she uses the hormone test strips so spotted the spike at the same time, which made her pay more attention, but she’s certain it’s a different feeling.
And to reassure you somewhat we’ve had a couple of early (i.e. 5-10 day) miscarriages, one was the month before we then got pregnant with our daughter so it’s not always a sign of bad news, just nature’s way of telling you it wasn’t a viable embryo.
My missus also pointed out that she may have had plenty in the months/years before but just wrote them off as unusually heavy periods (it’s only when we’ve used the hormone strips while actively trying to get pregnant that we’ve linked it to a pregnancy).
Having said that the first one actually hit us quite hard so don’t feel like you can’t have feelings just because it was so early.
It seems unlikely: pregnancy starts at implantation, which occurs 6-10 days after conception, which itself occurs up to 72 hours after sex/24 hours after ovulation.
For how long had you abstained prior to starting sex with your current? Would you say that his junk was long or wide enough to hit your cervix or stretch your vagina beyond what it’s been used to, relative to the recent past?
Was your period on time, not early? If it was on time, I think a chempreg is unlikely. ovulation-calendar.com - ovulation calendar Resources and Information. states that ovulation takes place around day 14 (the midpoint) of your cycle, and implantation cannot occur before ovulation (you can’t fertilize an egg that isn’t present). You said your cycle is regular, which would make it 28ish days, yes? 14+5 (days since potential sperm-atization) is only 19, nowhere near 28.
So unless you had a period that was more than a week early, I would think the bleeding is more likely due to your recent amorous foray. Congrats on that, by the way
Just a quick correction, Manda. The definition of a chemical pregnancy is one in which the egg is fertilized, but fails to implant. Even though “traditional” miscarriages involve an implanted embryo, an embryo can still be considered miscarried even if it never implanted. Kind of a special case.
It’s almost impossible that you ovulated and had an egg fertlized 5 days before you got your period (average is 8-15 days before first day of menstruation). I’m sure you were not pregnant in any sense. We all have a period outside our norm now and then.
I also doubt that an early miscarriage of this sort (often called a ‘missed miscarriage’ because women just think it’s their period) would cause typical miscarriage symptoms. As PPs mentioned, an embryo does not implant in the uterus and begin producing identifiable levels of HCG until 6-10 days after fertilization, which occurs up to 24 hours after ovulation (the egg only lives for about a day after it is released); whenever you happen to ovulate, usually around the midpoint of your cycle. Many women can’t get a positive pregnancy test until several days to a week after a missed period.
FWIW I always thought the technical definition of a ‘chemical’ pregnancy was one that was lost before implantation; but I also hear the term used for any very early miscarriage. Often women get a positive pregnancy test late in their cycle, but still have a ‘period’ on their usual schedule and lose the pregnancy.
Hmm, great question Manda. I guess I have to say I don’t know. I also don’t know if that question is answerable since so little is able to be studied about the embryo in question, seeing as how it is so small and would be gone or unfindable (lost in blood or tissue) by the time the symptoms were noticed.
As far as I have found, the only evidence of a chemical miscarriage is the heavy cramps and heavy bleeding (occasionally also there is a + pregtest, then a negtest after the period). I did make the assumption that the timing of the miscarriage would coincide with the symptoms, as in a typical miscarriage. But since a chempreg is by definition an atypical miscarriage… I dunno!
That aside, I don’t believe it’s possible that any sort of pregnancy or miscarriage could be involved anyway, due to the small time interval making the chances of ovulation AND fertilization smaller than miniscule (not to mention the condom). More likely there was some local trauma during sexytimes, or maybe hormonal/emotional/stress changes due to meeting someone to OP’s liking.
I had this happen just this past September. My husband and I were using ovu-strips to schedule sex. On the day I should have gotten my period, I had a positive pregnancy test. Four days later, I got my period.
It was very heavy. The cramps were super intense. And I felt a bit sick.
This was unusual for me. My periods have always been pretty light and symptom free, even after I went off birth control in an effort to conceive.
I am about 5-6 weeks pregnant now, and I am freaking out. Oh, the joys of family making.
I don’t think it was a chemical, for reasons already stated.
I had a confirmed chemical in July (confirmed by a beta) and at least two others in the last couple of years (confirmed by at home pregnancy tests). Only the one in July resulted in heavy bleeding and severe cramps, but I was just over five weeks at the time of the loss. Otherwise, it was just like a regular period.
Having thought about this for a day: are you SURE? Because you could never even know such a pregnancy occurred: there’s no way to get a positive pregnancy test before implantation, because the embryo doesn’t start producing HCG until then. Every description of a chemical pregnancy I could find referred to a positive pregnancy test followed by a negative one. The standard in the doctor’s office is rapidly falling beta numbers. All of that implies implantation happened at least briefly.
Having had both, this is my understanding of chemical pregnancy and missed miscarriage.
For a chemical pregnancy, the egg is fertilized and either fails to implant, or begins the process of implanting but either stops developing on its own or fails to implant properly, also having the effect of stopping development – hence, your body can start producing the pregnancy hormones, but the pregnancy isn’t actually going forward. Any very early miscarriage is often called a chemical pregnancy even though that’s sort of an after-the-fact description and refers more to the timing rather than any medical situation.
A missed miscarriage is when the pregnancy develops to the point of triggering one’s hormones but then ceases to progress. Usually the body would flush the contents of the uterus, but in a missed miscarriage, the hormones aren’t quite synced up so the tissue remains. In some cases, the egg sac even continues to grow, even though the fetus inside hasn’t developed. The options are either to wait it out and see if one’s body eventually gets with the program and eliminates the material on its own, or have a surgical procedure (a D&C) to clear the uterus. At some point, there is a greater risk of infection if the body continues to retain the tissue, so most doctors will recommend a reasonable waiting period, but after that a D&C is considered necessary.
Given what the OP described, I’d say the timing rules out pregnancy of any sort, but there’s always the extreme outside chance that you ovulated off-schedule – even women with very regular cycles can have that one cycle with some variation. It really does sound like more of an unusually heavy period to me.
