To wonder about women who claim to have had their periods throughout pregnancy

[Nordicrain]

Something I read got me wondering...

It's clear you can't have a period in pregnancy biologically. And all online information say you might have some bleeding and spotting. But then, anecdontally, some women claim that they had regular bleeding that was just like their periods.

Did these women always have light/ irregular periods? Or is it possible? The contrast in what seems biologically possible and what women is experience has me a little confused!

Oh yeah, what's your big theory?

I had bleeds, in line with a period timeframe, with my eldest - although I never claimed to be having my period. I was frantic each time that I was losing him. It eased up after six months. Otherwise, I had an uncomplicated pregnancy and birth.

I had/ have normal uneventful periods and I didn't experience this in subsequent pregnancies.

You're correct and you can't have an actual period while pregnant. But many women get bleeding on and off throughout their pregnancy. I had a subchorionic hematoma which caused heavy bleeding a few times. I knew I was pregnant so knew it wasn't a period. However if I didn't know I think I could easily have mistaken it for a period. It was very heavy and flooded through a pad more than once. I had a friend who was telling me her last 2 periods were very light and she wasn't sure why. Turned out she was pregnant. So she had noticed a difference in flow but she still thought it was a period.

I’ve heard of it happening in the first trimester, periods or spotting when period would have been due. Explained as pregnancy hormones not reaching full strength yet. I remember having all the same emotional and physical feelings before period would have been due - this stopped after first trimester

@FourTeaFallOut I don't have a big theory. It's just so odd to me that in lots of stories about un/ late detected pregnancies women swear they had their periods. Yet if you google it EVERYTHING says that doesn't happen, it's just occassional bleeding or spotting. I am genuinely curious as to whether the women who say they thought they were having periods either had irregular or light periods anyway or weren't keeping track.

I have irregular periods in the first place. It was never a huge thing if I missed my period, whereas some people miss it and immediately buy a pregnancy test. To me it was always just ‘oh I’ll have one next month.’ Also mine can be really light. I can definitely see that if I got pregnant accidentally and didn’t know it could take me some time to realise.

I do track mine though, just by making a red dot in my journal on each day. But there’s not much of a pattern.

It's clear you can't have a period in pregnancy biologically.

Is it though? Many people spot or even bleed heavily during pregnancy, or normally have light, irregular periods. It could be easy to think this was a period.

I only ever had a period once every 4-7 months. Being 'late' wasn't a thing for me so not having a period would not be a pregnancy symptom.

I think most commenters have covered the main reasons. But there was a news article a year or so ago on the BBC where a teen continued to have periods and did not know she was pregnant until she was in labour. It turned out she had an incredibly rare condition where she had two fully functioning uteruses. So whilst she was carrying a baby in one... The other kept menturating as usual!

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-manchester-47282950

There was another case where a woman in India had twins one month after delivering her first born.

So it happens - it is just super rare!

Can I ask though how would you know if you've a period or just bleeding? Like it's not like each month there's a test you take to determine that the blood coming out of your vagina is the lining of your uterus shedding or just random bleeding? Most people just assume based on timing that they're experiencing a period.

I didn't know I was pregnant for months, I thought I was still having periods because the bleeds I was having fell perfectly in line with my normal periods. They were light, like my normal periods, so I thought nothing of it just stuck a tampon in and carried on. I've never tracked my periods religiously or cared all that much to peer in my knickers to investigate the blood and make sure it was definitely a period when I had no reason to.

I had a mum friend who bleed once a month like a period during her pregnancy...she spent the whole pregnancy in fear it was a miscarriage and had a scan every time. Baby is a healthy six year old now it can happen. Friend never got an answer for why and didnt have it for second pregnancy. .

welli guess this is what I am wondering and why I ask whether people who experience this have light/ irregular periods. My periods last 5-6 days and are pretty regular. I would seem odd, and unlikely, if I was pregnant that I would have heavy(ish) bleeding/ spotting for 5-6 days at a time every month.

Because I went down a rabbit hole... Here's some more cases of double wombs...

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cornwall-45044413

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-47729118

I have two uteruses but didn't bleed when pregnant or have periods. I wouldn't say this is impossible though, but I was told that the hormone changes 'shut down' ovulation so that would be for both uteruses. I don't have 2 periods a month either so they obviously work in sync, thank god

Odd and unlikely for you. Plenty of women have period that are different to yours.

Yes, I know. But is exaclty what I am wondering. You often hear or read "I had periods throughout". That makes sense if someone only has a few days of spotting every couple of months. So I was curious if that is most often the case or whether some women have "typical" monthly periods. As I said in my OP....

Interesting with two uteruses btw!

I can see how it happens my periods are very irregular. I sometimes go 9months without one. I was single at the time and o hadn't had sex so I knew I wasn't pregnant but yeah.

Then I'm regular as clockwork for a few months then get irregular again.

Also theres contraception which stops your period, with 99% rate. But say that 1% happened you wouldn't know because you don't get periods in the first place

So your interest is in the language women use when they experience regular bleeding during pregnancy?

My bleeding wasn't like a period is was much shorter and far less than that. So, double wombs aside, I think you just need to cut women a little slack.

Forty percent of women don't even know what a cervix is - a large reason why we shouldn't dick around with with sexed language in nhs literature, but I digress - so it wouldn't surprise me if women cling to language which is familiar - using period to describe regular bleeding which didn't threaten the foetus - to describe what is happening to them.

I didn’t know I was pregnant did I was really late on. The charming team at the hospital explained I didn’t need to lie to them even if I wanted to lie to everyone else. Next time I got a “period” I went to the hospital who said it was a miscarriage cause of the amount of blood, 3 days later it stopped and everything was fine. They said it was just spotting despite changing pads hourly.

im not having a go, they were dealing with the information they had to hand but there was enough fresh red blood to be convincing. My darling granny said it was because I was working to hard and I should take to my bed. Who knows. But despite everyone on the planet being grown in a woman I think there’s plenty more research than can be done.

No, more with the concept of regular bleeding. As I said, if you google it everything seems to say that it doesn't happen and is irregular spotting/ bleeding. Maybe those articles only thing of women's periods as the 5 days relatively heavy bleeding every 28 days, which could be in (ref my OP) OR the experiences of women are just very different (regular bleeding that could easily be confused with a "traditional" period. As i said, I am mainly just curious...

My mother's carer, who was a nurse, didn't know she was pregnant til she almost had the baby in my mother's bathroom!
She didn't look pregnant (was maybe a stone overweight but certainly not round in her tummy), had bleeding throughout. I'm not sure how regular, but enough to fool her. Her mother was also a nurse and didn't suspect either (they saw each other every day).

I had lots of incidents of bleeding during pregnancy, I didn't track the dates to see whether it was in line with a standard cycle. Like a pp's friend, I ended up spending a lot of time in hospitals getting extra scans but the pregnancy was otherwise normal and the baby turned out healthy. Some was kind of spotting, other times it was heavier. Before conceiving I hadn't really paid much attention to my periods so I wouldn't even have known how long my cycle was or how heavy. The bleeding in pregnancy I could conceivably have thought of as normal periods, except that I knew I was pregnant.

Since periods returned after giving birth I have had various gynae issues which mean that I now always have very heavy and long periods. I wouldn't mistake what I have now for what I had in pregnancy, but what I had then was similar enough to what I had before to be unremarkable (though scary).

See this is interesting. In my mind, noone would mistake a period with spotting. Spotting - to me - is light and occasional. Not the continuous flow of a period. So, as you allude to, perhaps the issue is with how the medical profession bothers to deal with or talk about that sort of thing.

Implantation - could happen at pretty much the time you'd expect your period, with similar bleeding to a light period.

Hematoma/random bleeds - next common week for bleeds is 8 weeks (I luckily had a very light one, and was told by the nurse at the hospital that they saw a few at eight weeks).

Sex and thrush can cause light bleeds too.

Let's say you have a bit of sickness. Puts you off sex, or maybe you've split up with a partner so you're not even having sex. So your next "missed" period - well, you can't be pregnant, can you? Not even worth testing.

I can see how you can stack up to four months quite easily, and that's as someone with a regular cycle.

(go on, ask about celebrities and their "moon bumps" next - and I'll regale you with the fact that mine comes and goes still at 18w depending on how much I need a fart)