very late period - negative tests?

[poopicker]

Hello - just wondered if anyone had ever had similar and what the reason turned out to be.

I'm 34 and I've always had very regular periods (28-29 days) and this has never deviated in 20+ years. I'm not on birth control at the moment, we've been using condoms since my son was born - he is 2.7 years. I am now 13 days late, this has never happened before (apart from when I was pregnant) - I had all the symptoms of a period when it was due, cramps etc just no actual period. Obviously, my first thought was contraception failure (which although not ideal, wouldn't be the worst thing in the world), but I've been taking pregnancy tests (last one first thing this morning) and they are definitely negative - not a whiff of a postive (I've even tried different brands).
We're away from home at the moment, so I will be making a GP appointment when I get back next week, but just wondered if this had ever happened to anyone else and what the cause was. I'm not stressed, haven't done anything different this month - I'm totally normal BMI wise, exercise regularly etc.
My lovely partner joked he thought it was early menopause. Ha Ha.

Any ideas?

There's probably a thread a week on this, just to give you an idea of how common it is.

There are a handful of likely reasons for your late period. The first potential is pregnancy which is still possible but unlikely if you're testing negative. The main reason for a late period without pregnancy is delayed ovulation which is usually caused by stress- as you note- mid cycle or illness but can also be delayed for lots of reasons. This would then make your period late.

It is also utterly normal and expected that every now and then a healthy woman will have an anovulatory cycle (no ovulation) and this can delay your period for a while too.

The GP will probably advise you to wait and see but if your period doesn't turn up and you test negative for being pregnant, they can give you something to 'reset' your cycle.

Many thanks - I will stop with the pregnancy tests for a while then!