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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To not get why

30 replies

Tinyprancer · 06/03/2018 20:30

Every ‘official’ website says you cannot get normal monthly periods and be pregnant yet so many people on forum boards say it’s happened to them. I understand people can have light bleeding but all the medical literature says that heavy monthly periods are impossible - I’m confused!

OP posts:
Anymajordude · 06/03/2018 20:37

Maybe it's a case of women not being listened to. It wouldn't be the first time. I don't really know as I haven't experienced this.

frasier · 06/03/2018 20:47

I was told (by a male doctor) that it was "impossible" for me to know which side I ovulated from. I knew! I could feel it! How the hell did he know I couldn't?

Anymajordude is right, women aren't listened to. Plus the old wives tales go around and people believe them wholeheartedly.

Hassled · 06/03/2018 20:55

I don't know either.
But I remember being incandescent with rage in a school Biology lesson when the male teacher told us how the average amount of menstrual blood is a tablespoon per period. I still wish I'd had the guts to take a straw poll of the girls there as to whether they thought that was true or whether that was some random bollocks a man somewhere had decided was true.

FlyingMonkeys · 06/03/2018 20:55

Hmmm, I believed I was 6wks pregnant due to what appeared like a normal cycle until that point. GP examined me and agreed. A week later and after a scan as consultant believed it "might be a few weeks more". Turned out I was 19weeks...

WitchyMama3 · 06/03/2018 21:13

It has to be a very big tablespoon then Hassled Grin

I think maybe it could be down to a period being the lining of your womb shedding, which I'd assume shouldn't happen if you're pregnant

Funnily enough it happened to me, I went to the doctors with horrendous pain in my left leg and my hips, the doctor was going to refer me for an x-ray but did a pregnancy test just to rule it out, the test came back positive so I thought it must be really early stage because I was due to come on in the next week or so and hadn't missed any. My dating scan got delayed by a couple of weeks - I can't remember why - so I went to my scan thinking maybe I'd be 14/15 weeks at the most, turns out I was 28 weeks on the dot with my youngest

Original poster
Tinyprancer · 06/03/2018 21:22

@witchymama were your periods normal as in full on soak through tampons heavy?

OP posts:
WitchyMama3 · 06/03/2018 21:27

Yeah, my periods were completely normal, still heavy and still leaked

PossiblyPFB · 06/03/2018 21:31

I suggest you seek out and watch the US show “I didn’t know I was pregnant” if you haven’t seen it. Common theme.... and some of them are shocking- ‘periods’ throughout and not a hint of showing. One lady had twins and you’d have never thought she was pregnant from her ‘just before the event’ photos! Shock

Original poster
Tinyprancer · 06/03/2018 21:50

This all terrifies me!

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Original poster
Tinyprancer · 06/03/2018 21:51

Did the doctos explain what blood was coming out as it obviously wasn’t womb lining.

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blastomama · 06/03/2018 22:03

Well you literally can't get actual periods. Think about what a period is, and what pregnancy is, and you'll realise that you absolutely can't have periods while pregnant.
What you can have is bleeding and spotting and still be pregnant, and its not that hard to confuse that with periods.

Original poster
Tinyprancer · 06/03/2018 22:08

@blastomama but how can that be heavy enough to be soaking through tampons like a normal period. I had spotting when pregnant but it’s very different

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Lemongingertea80 · 06/03/2018 22:14

I had periods when I was pregnant. Because of this I didn't realise I was pregnant until four months. Then I had a prem baby. All in all a bit of a whirlwind few months!
It's turns out I have a heart shaped womb and that is why I continued to cycle when I was pregnant. I also have hormone issues which might have contributed to the confusion.

blastomama · 06/03/2018 22:21

Nobody has actual periods while pregnant. A menstrual period is when the entire thickened lining of your uterus is shed because you are not pregnant. If the lining of your uterus came away and out of your vagina when you were pregnant, you would be having a miscarriage.
By biological definition, you cannot have a period AND be pregnant at the same time.
There are many reasons for vaginal bleeding in pregnancy though none of them is a period.

Yarboosucks · 06/03/2018 22:27

Someone very close to me had regular, monthly bleeding when pregnant, quite heavy too - enough for break-through and for the full 9 months!

Lemongingertea80 · 06/03/2018 22:41

@blastomama, Google bicornuate uterus and uterine bleeding during pregnancy and prepare to be enlightened by the concept of 'not textbook'

Sadly for women with this type of uterine abnormality, the shedding of the uterine lining in the unused horn (a period) does indeed increase the risk of miscarriage. Sadly I also experienced this in one of my pregnancies.

LeighaJ · 06/03/2018 23:13

When I had benign cysts on one side I could definitly tell which side I was ovulating from, if it hurt then it was the right side.

A few of my family members had bleeding in early pregnancy mistaken for a period. It may not have technically been one but considering how closely PMS and early pregnancy symptoms mimic each other, it's easy to see why they didn't realise they were pregnant yet.

blastomama · 07/03/2018 00:03

, Google bicornuate uterus and uterine bleeding during pregnancy and prepare to be enlightened by the concept of 'not textbook

I'm well aware of this. It's actually called "Cyclical menstrual like bleeding during pregnancy" and is NOT a period.

Lemongingertea80 · 07/03/2018 04:42

What on earth do you think periods are @blastomama lol
Are you mansplaining?!

Mummyoflittledragon · 07/03/2018 05:13

Some women have more than one uterus and can get pregnant in either. Therefore I don’t see why a woman cannot have a period when pregnant. The same with bleeding as described above. It may not be an egg release bleed so not a period in the strictest sense of the term. As in anovulatory bleeding, where no ovulation takes place and no egg is released but the woman still bleeds. Official information always is for the majority, not the minority.

And as for the table spoon of blood. Bollocks 😂

scaevola · 07/03/2018 06:43

I think the establishment view that it's not a period (because it's defined in terms of not being pregnant) is terribly helpful here.

Because women are using the term to mean 'my monthly bleed'. No one on the pill changes their terminology just because strictly speaking it's a withdrawal bleed, and I don't see why - in conversation - there is need to be a stickler.

Monthly bleeds - whether you call them periods or not - do appear to be more widely reported amongst communities of women than are recorded by doctors. I don't think anyone is collecting data on how often it happens, so I see this as just a case of noting the discrepancy.

userabcname · 07/03/2018 07:02

I know someone who bled monthly during her pregnancy. She was TTC but didn't think to take a test because of it so by the time she found out she was 4 months along.

Frouby · 07/03/2018 07:08

My mum has 6 dcs. Still caught out with number 6. Had regular monthly bleeds. Only found out she was pg because she kept fainting. Doc did some blood tests and wanted to rule out early pgcy as a cause. She was about 17 weeks gone.

And if a woman who has had 5 previous pregnancies doesn't know who does?!

Original poster
Tinyprancer · 07/03/2018 07:14

My question still is, for the women who are saying they’re having regular heavy bleeds - where is the blood coming from?!

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demirose87 · 07/03/2018 07:22

blastomama is correct. It's impossible to have menstrual periods. Obviously a period is where the womb lining and unfertilised egg sheds, and a pregnancy would not survive that.
It's vaginal bleeding but it's not a menstrual cycle.