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Irregular Spotting

QUESTION

Dear Midwife,
I been married for about two years and my husband and I have been trying to conceive. Nothing has happened.

I was using the Nuva ring for about two months where I skipped my period. So the third time I tried to skip it I started with UTI's and tons of discharge so I stopped using the ring.

My first period was out of whack. I had really weird brown discharge and painful intercourse. The next period was normal but the this month I was three day late. Now I am just wondering. I started having really light spotting about a week ago and it's only when I clean myself after going to the bathroom.

Intercourse is really painful and my back ache seems to get worse. I have done urine pregnacy tests and are negative. Is there any chance I could be pregnant and would not show in a urine pregnancy test?

ANSWER

Good quality urine pregnancy tests are as accurate as blood tests these days, so it is extremely unlikely that you are pregnant.

If you have been trying for two years, it is time to see a provider who can take a good history and maybe run some basic tests to make sure everything is okay. If not, often very simple things can be done that incrase your chances of conceiving a lot, and it would be better to consider these options sooner rather than later.

Good luck!
~Cynthia

Cynthia Flynn

Cynthia Flynn, CNM. PhD, is the General Director of the Family Health and Birth Center which provides prenatal, birth, postnatal, gynecological and primary health care to underserved women and their families in Washington, D.C. Recently Cynthia served as Associate Professor of Nursing at Seattle University. There she not only taught, but remained in full scope clinical midwifery practice at Valley Medical Center where she cared for pregnant and birthing women, and practices well-woman gynecology, family planning, and treatment of sexually transmitted diseases.

Cynthia founded Columbia Women's Clinic and Birth Center, where she took care of pregnant women and infants up to two weeks of age and attended both birth center and hospital births. Before Cynthia earned her CNM, she worked as a registered nurse in labor and delivery and postpartum and is a certified Doula and Doula trainer.