Can condoms fail unknowingly?

[10oclocknews]

Ok, so I'm married with 2 children and after 20 years of being on the pill we've decided to use condoms as my body began to have issues with the pill. I wanted a break from hormones. I've a history of irregular periods and often skip the odd month here and there. Since I came off the pill last year however I've had a pretty accurate 32 day cycle......until May this year when my periods stopped. I've not been too concerned about this as it has happened in the past, however we are now in sept and still no period. I've no pregnancy symptoms and as far as I know we've had no '"leaks'. It'd be pretty obvious if there had been right???? Obviously the answer lies in a pregnancy test which I'm now going to do before going to the doctor to ensure nothing is wrong. I'm just wondering if anyone else has had an accident unknowingly when using condoms properly. Can it really go unnoticed??? Thanks

[SleepDeprivedAndCranky]

It is possible that the condoms failed, did you or your oh check the condom for tears afterwards? If you have not had a period since May and were pregnant, you would be about 5 months pregnant so you would probably have a fairly well defined bump by now. I would do the test. If you are 5 months pregnant, the bfp would be present at any time of the day, not just fmu. Good luck

[MrsJoeyMaynard]

I've used condoms as my main contraceptive for the last 6-7 yrs (except when TTC), and while we had no accidental pregnancies, the information I read about them said that condoms aren't 100% effective even if used perfectly every time (there's also a lot of possibility for user error of one sort or another), so it's always possible that something's leaked without you noticing.

Hope things turn out okay for you.

[MyKingdomForBrie]

Well yes, they can. POAS time..

[SunshineAgain]

We used condoms for 10 years, took morning after pill once after a leakage incident. I found out I was pregnant in July. No idea how it happened, there was nothing noticeable, we know how to use them correctly and always do as pregnancy was not an option. I had a termination and during that process I found out that somewhere between 30 and 40 percent of abortions are carried out on people who used condoms as birth control. Surely they can't all be doing it wrong.
Sure that's not what you want to hear but it's my experience.

[10oclocknews]

Thankyou for the replies. Haven't tested yet as been in a conference all day but will do tomorrow. If I am it would be a massive shock especially given that we tried to conceive our daughter for 3 years and needed fertility medication. Either way I need to know to rule anything sinister out. Thanks again x

[EnquiringMingeWantsToKnow]

Sunshine, generally speaking "people who use condoms as birth control" means "people who when asked 'what contraception are you using?' ticked the box marked "Condoms"". It doesn't necessarily mean people who actually had a condom in place on the night in question, it normally means that the condoms were still sitting in the bedside drawer.

However of course bona fide mechanical failure does still happen, and there's a fair few people on MN who've had invisible condom failure.

OP, you know you need to POAS, but if you've had extended period gaps before, and you're (?) approaching 40, and you've had no other symptoms then early perimenopause is also a possibility.

[EnquiringMingeWantsToKnow]

Good luck btw

[10oclocknews]

Yes enquiringmingewants , account name made me chuckle. I have considered the pre menopause theory. I am just 35 so early but not unheard of. Tomorrow will tell and at least I'll be able to have a plan of action. Thanks again x

[10oclocknews]

Ok, to update today's test was negative so off to the doctors I go x

[SleepDeprivedAndCranky]

Good luck. Hopefully it's just delayed