Period late. Brown mid cycle spotting. Stress?

[OneWorthyLemonCat]

My periods have always been as regular as clockwork.
I'm currently a bit late. I would normally get a period at about day 27. I'm now on day 33.

I'm 42 and have been through an immense amount of stress recently. I'm 3 months into HRT.

For the first time in my life, I had a dark brown "mini period" half way through my cycle. It was never red at any point. It came out dark brown from the very start, like old blood, and there was enough of it for several days that I needed to continually wear panty liners.

Is this what the beginning of the menopause looks like? Or stress? Or hrt?

I'd be surprised if I was pregnant (but will obviously get a test if my period doesn't appear soon).

This was exactly what my implantation looked like with DD. She’s now 21. I hope you get the answer you want OP

I’d get a test.

Oh blimey. I've never had kids - never tried - it would be quite the conundrum to be pregnant at 42. I'll get a test today. Thank you!

Thanks. I will do. Pregnancy honestly would be the last thing I'd imagine, but think I need to put my mind at rest as I'm now 6 days late.

An update - I did a test and it's negative. So I'm a full week late, either as a result of my hormones settling into the hrt that I'm on, or as a result of stress.
A pregnancy right now would be almost comically bad timing, due to various things going on in my life, so that's a relief.