Trying To Get Pregnant
Archive for July, 2008
Was I Pregnant And Miscarried Or Never Pregnant At All?
Jul 30th
This is a very common question. Many people who are late, but begin bleeding before taking a pregnancy test, or have a negative test, assume that they were pregnant and miscarried. The “evidence” for this piles up when the cramps are stronger, there is more blood, and maybe even clots are passed.
Most likely, this was not a miscarriage. Remember that light bleeding is common in pregnancy and may not signal the end if it stops shortly after it starts. See symptoms for more information. If you have had a positive pregnancy test, this information is not for you. There is no doubt you were pregnant. Go the the miscarriage diagnosis section instead.
One important note: If your blood type is Rh negative (such as O negative, A negative, B negative, or AB negative), you MUST have a shot to prevent building antibodies after a miscarriage if the father was Rh positive. If you even suspect a miscarriage, find out your blood type and see a doctor right away (within 72 hours) to determine if you need the shot to protect your future pregnancies.
Here’s some information that might help you understand unusual periods that are not miscarriages, especially if you had a negative pregnancy test:
- But my period was so heavy and painful.
Any late period is going to be heavy.
A late period is caused by extra time being added to the first half of the cycle, which is when the lining is being built. If more lining is built, it will cause more blood flow and stronger cramps to get it out. Blood clots are a natural part of any lining that has had to hang around longer than intended. Late periods are often caused by illness, stress, serious physical exertion, or hormone changes.
- But I timed intercourse just right, and my period came early.
An early period is almost never a miscarriage.
An early period is often caused by a lack of ovulation, or the ovulation of an egg that is not able to be fertilized. As a result, progesterone is not produced sufficiently to keep the last part of your cycle going. In this situation, a pregnancy cannot happen. Even a positive ovulation test does not mean your ovulation will surely happen or will produce a quality egg. If you are charting your temperatures, however, and see that you did not have at least 10 days between ovulation and when your periods began, you may have a luteal phase defect. Read more about it.
But I saw some tissue that must have been a pregnancy.
A baby from a pregnancy that made your period less than two weeks late is not usually visible to the naked eye.
Even if the baby had grown, it would be about the size of a grain of rice. This would be impossible to see amongst the blood and clots. What you are seeing may be part of a pregnancy, but is more likely just clots and uterine lining from an off-month cycle.
- But I got this huge golf-ball sized clot I’ve never seen before. It had to be a baby.
Tissue that is like a ball is often what is called a corpus luteum cyst, and not a baby.
An extra long or extra short period can be caused when the shell that once housed the egg (called the corpus luteum) swells in size and throws off the hormone chain. This ball will come out in the period, leaving many women to believe they were pregnant, when actually they had a non-viable egg that month.
Without a positive pregnancy test, it is impossible to know for sure if you were pregnant. If you are actively trying to get pregnant, and have had several suspicious periods, then it is time to get tested for a luteal phase defect. You may indeed be losing babies due to low progesterone.
One way to possibly find out is get to the doctor immediately when you think you are pregnant but start bleeding heavily (do not wait, even a day or two) and have a quantitative hCG blood pregnancy test done. Any hCG in your system would show that you were at one point pregnant. Otherwise, unless your blood type is Rh negative, you should not need to worry about a lost pregnancy.
The Pregnant Man-Can A Hermaphrodite Get Pregnant?
Jul 25th
When I think of hermaphrodite I think of a person being born with sex organs of both male and female, in the case of the pregnant man, this is a woman that had breasts removed, male organs attached, and given hormones. Concerning hermaphrodites born naturally.
I think it is theoretically possible, If it did work, in vitro fertilization would be necessary. This is based on gut reaction and my (pretty good but probably incomplete) knowledge of reproductive physiology. I also found a very useful and interesting paper to back up some of this stuff.
First you’d need two viable gametes. The primordial germ cells, precursors to sperm or eggs, start off the same on both sexes and develop into the correct type of gamete under the influence of hormones etc from the gonad they are developing in (it’s the environment in the gonad that determines the sex of the resulting gamete).
So a pgc in a testicle becomes sperm and one in an ovary becomes an egg. Some hermaphrodites have a functioning version of each gonad (one on each side), so having both gametes form is theoretically possible.
The main problem would be cross contamination of hormones, as they circulate in the bloodstream. The balance of male hormones in the testicle vs female in the ovary would need to be just right so as not to disrupt the environment provided to the pgc, and I’m not sure if that’s possible.
Note in the rabbit paper above the testis were infertile when the animal was pregnant. However the animal had fathered children previously, so it may be that only one set can work at a time. This would fit with the hormone problem. Gametes could be harvested at different times though, avoiding this issue.
Spermatogenesis is rare in true hermaphrodites so getting functioning, mature sperm would probably be the largest problem. You’d need to find someone who was not only producing sperm, but had a functioning ovary also. Then the sperm needs to mature, which needs the prostate and epididymis and vas deferens, etc.
The paper I linked above indicates that these generally do develop next to testes so this might not be an issue. Even if it was, immature/damaged sperm can be taken direct from the testes and used in in vitro fertilization (intracytoplasmic sperm injection or ICSI), so full sperm development may not be necessary.
Some true hermaphrodites have been shown to ovulate (more common than spermatogenesis) and there have been at least three cases of pregnancy (from the article I linked, one of them was also mentioned in previous comments).
For in vitro fertilization eggs need to be matured and harvested artificially which involves large injections of female hormones etc. This could screw up sperm production quite a lot reinforcing the harvesting at different times.
At the very least artificial insemination would be needed as self fertilization is not physically possible (particularly given that external genitalia of hermaphrodites are usually under developed).
Lastly the zygote needs somewhere to developed. Most hermaphrodites don’t have functioning wombs (the article I linked found 10% with ‘normal’ uteruses). This is because the testes secretes a substance during development that actively inhibits development of the female parts (uterus, fallopian tubes etc) and this messes up uterine development.
The three pregnancy cases outlined above were unable to bring their children to term because of uterus problems, and it’s not unreasonable to expect that a true hermaphrodite with a fully functioning male side will not also have fully developed female ducts because of this secretion (although I haven’t found anything confirming this).
We also need to assume that the hermaphroditism wasn’t caused by some underlying totally messed up genetics. Sometimes it is and sometimes it isn’t. So while this doesn’t kill the idea, it does further reduce the possibility of finding an individual with all the right characteristics.
So in summary, you’d need a true hermaphrodite with one of each gonad, fully developed, producing gametes and with the associated plumbing, you’d need hormone balance between the two sides to be somehow maintained despite the circulating nature of these compounds and you’d need no underlying genetic disorders that precludes fertility.
Then you’d need to find a practitioner willing to perform in vitro fertilization with this person and have everything go perfectly, hormone levels kept in check etc, so the child could develop. All this is possible but the vanishingly small probabilities of finding such a combination lead me to expect it will never happen.
Can You Get Pregnant During Your Period?
Jul 24th
Yes you can get pregnant during your period, but your chances of getting pregnant
during your period are slim. The best time for a woman to get pregnant is around the middle of her cycle, close to ovulation. For the average woman this is around cycle day 12 to 16. However, it is possible to get pregnant during your period and there are several reasons why.
Sperm can live for up to 5 days
Normally sperm can survive inside a woman’s body for around two to three days. However, under the best conditions, sperm can sometimes survive for as long as five days. So if a woman had unprotected sex during her period and then ovulated four or five days after she had sex, she could get pregnant.Early ovulation
Typically a woman ovulates around 14 days before the start of her period. So if you have an average 28 day cycle, you would most likely ovulate on cycle day 14. A woman’s cycle, though, is not always predictable. Even women who normally have regular cycles can have an off cycle and ovulate earlier or later than normal. If you ovulate very early in your cycle, for example, on cycle day 10, it would be possible to conceive if you had intercourse while on your period.
Long periods or irregular bleeding
Some women have very long periods or irregular bleeding after their period. If a woman had a long period, say it lasted for 10 days, and she had unprotected sex while she was still bleeding, she might get pregnant. Even though a woman is bleeding or spotting, it doesn’t mean she is not fertile. It is possible for a woman approaching ovulation to still be on her period. In fact, some women will begin producing fertile cervical mucous during the last few days of their periods. If a woman ovulates shortly after her period ends or while she is spotting, she could get pregnant.
Ovulation Spotting
Ovulation spotting is bleeding that occurs close to ovulation. It is very fertile cervical fluid and it is sometimes mistake for a long or abnormal period. Some women will have brown or red spotting right before they ovulate. This type of spotting provides the ideal environment for sperm to live in. If a woman has sex while she is having ovulation spotting, there is a good chance she could get pregnant.
Do Pierced Nipples Interfere With Breast Feeding,While Pregnant
Jul 19th
Breastfeeding / pumping with pierced nipples:
You should have no problems expressing milk with pierced nipples. You will likely need to remove the jewelry before pumping as it may prevent you from making a good seal between the breast and the breast shield. Occasionally, there can be a build up of scar tissue in the nipple that could hinder milk flow.
Many women report that the extra holes leak milk – at times constantly. This is going to be frustrating, but the upside is you may actually pump faster as the pierce holes will certainly pass extra milk during a pumping session.
Here are some short comments from various women who have experienced pierced nipples while breastfeeding or pumping –
“I had my breasts pierced and had to take them out before i got pregnant due to a mastitis. Anyway my one healed completely & the other CONSTANTLY leaks out of the holes it was pierced in. It is a real hassle because i constantly go through breast pads, wet shirts & wake up with wet sheets.”
“I had just my left nipple pierced for about 5 years. So far the holes have not yet closed and yes the milk comes out of either of the holes (I have a 12 gauge piercing) But I don’t leak at all…”
“I become pregnant and at about 5 months or so begin leaking through my nipple piercing holes! Contrary to what others have said they don’t need to be “healed” to properly breast-feed, Just think of it as a fast flow nipple! ”
My son loved the wholes left from my nipple rings he was a big eater and with the extra wholes it was kinda like a big sprinkler it was kinda funny though when we went to switch him to a bottle he didn’t like it as well we were wondering if we needed to put wholes in the sides of the nipples like he was used to for me it also made it easier to pump and strangely enough the wholes haven’t closed up yet.
“I had both my nipples pierced before having my first baby. I leaked like crazy invest in some really good nursing pads and make sure you are changing them often!”
“I had mine pierced a few years ago and the holes are completely healed. When the tenderness started in my nipples I took my rings out and the holes never closed. I was really worried that it was going to effect breastfeeding my child. I finally had some relief when I began to produce my pre-milk.
Basically all the holes did was provide extra milk ducts for it to escape. I asked my doctor about it and she said it was perfectly fine and that I shouldn’t come across any problems.
Have you wondered about getting a tattoo when you’re pregnant?
http://howtogetpregnantsite.info/12/can-i-get-a-tattoo-if-im-pregnant/
Why Can’t I Get Pregnant-Best Fertility Foods
Jul 16th
Best types of food for fertility
Here are some of the best and worst food choices for women who want to become pregnant, according to “The Fertility Diet” (McGraw-Hill, $24.95) by Harvard researchers Jorge E. Chavarro and Walter C. Willett.
 Foods help regulate ovulation and fertility. |
Peanuts NOT potatoes: The type of carbs you consume makes a big difference. “Slow carbs” (low-glycemic index foods such as peanuts, nuts, dried beans, whole grains) promote ovulation. “Fast carbs” that spike blood sugar (like cold cereal, white rice, white potatoes and sugary drinks) decrease fertility.
Beans NOT beef: Participants in a study who ate the most animal protein were 39% more apt to have ovulatory infertility than women who ate the least. Even adding one daily serving of red meat or poultry could raise infertility risk by a third.Replacing 25 grams of animal protein with 25 grams of plant protein, such as dried beans, could cut risk of ovulatory infertility by half.
Avocados NOT doughnuts: Trans fats are huge villains in infertility; the more eaten, the higher the chances of ovulatory infertility. Even the 4 grams of trans fat in a daily doughnut, compared with the monounsaturated fat in a serving of avocado, can more than double the infertility risk. Substitute unsaturated fats for trans fats, for a pregnancy boost.
Whole milk not fat-free yogurt: Heretical as it sounds, women troubled by infertility are advised to eat high-fat, rather than low-fat, dairy foods. Recommended to improve fertility: a glass of whole milk daily. Threats to fertility: frozen yogurt, sherbet and low-fat yogurt.
Coffee not soda: Surprisingly, research finds that caffeine in moderation — several cups of coffee or tea — does not seem to interfere with becoming pregnant. But sugary soda (caffeinated and decaf) can seriously diminish fertility. Best beverage: lots of water. New studies suggest no caffeine after conception.
Also check out these preconception tips.
