Is My Body Playing Tricks on Me?
QUESTION
Dear Midwife,
I'm hoping you can put my mind at rest. I came off the pill in February 2008 and my periods have been some what erratic since but seem to settle down toward the end of last year. My last normal period was 2 December 2008. I say normal because I'm not sure that my next period which rather unusually for me only lasted for 2 days ( This was on the 7th January).
Since then I have been experiencing mild cramping in my abdomen, mild head aches, my breasts seems to have increased in size, I've been suffering with mild lower back pain in the past couple of weeks and mild constipation of late. I've done the obvious and taken a pregnancy test I took this about 4 days ago but the result was negative.
When I look at various advice pages on the internet it would appear these are early signs of pregnancy.
Is it possible that I am pregnant and that my HCG levels aren't sufficiently high enough yet to detect, if so when should I do my next test to be sure? If it's unlikely that I am pregnant then I'm worried that something is wrong with me. I've never had this before. My next period is due on the 5th Feb but it seems such a long time to wait to see what happens then, and I don't want to get my hopes up unnecessarily.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
ANSWER
Unfortunately, my advice is to wait until Feb 6 and re-test. If your pregnancy test is still negative and you miss a second period, I'd advise a check-up to find out what is going on. Good luck!
--Cynthia, CNM. PhD.
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.
