light period or pregnant ??!!

[sparkleemma]

Hi ladies, im new to all this and just wondering if anyone can help who may have had a similar problem!

We are trying for our second and i stopped taking the pill at thr beginning of August and had a normal withdrawal bleed, so far so good. Fast forward to next period due date and ive had nasty cramping but only a few spots of blood, nothing like a normal period at all. Its been going on for 3 days on and off. Every 4-5 hours i have a cramp that starts as nothing, builds in intensity then there's a couple of drops of blood and the pain disappears then it starts again.

Ive done a couple of pregnancy tests which have been negative. Think im worrying myself reading things on the internet but I am aware sometimes at implantation there can be a bleed, but not sure how long it should go on for.

The only other thing i can think is stopping the pill has messed up my cycle a bit and its just really a light period but ive never had this before, even when came off pill the first time.

i will go to Dr if continues over next couple of days but find the ones at my surgery generally useless! Just wondered if anyone had the same.

Thanks in advance x

I had implantation bleeding when I was pregnant with my son but as it was over 4 years ago, I'm struggling to remember how long it lasted. I did also have cramping type pains though but apparently it can be the egg burying itself in the uterine wall that causes this sharp pain and I had cramping in the weeks that followed too which is apparently caused by the uterus stretching at such a rapid rate. I was about 7 weeks pregnant before I got a positive test, I had a false negative and actually was completely convinced I wasn't pregnant. Like you, I thought it was just a weird period as I had just had surgery on my cervix for cancer prevention. The hospital did a pregnancy test before my surgery, as obviously a general anaesthetic and the type of surgery I had would NEVER be done on a pregnant woman (unless absolutely crucial) but the test was negative so they proceeded. Luckily, my son was unharmed by it all. The hormone that is detected by pregnancy tests can be very weak in the early stages but if you're desperate to find out for sure, you could consider going to one of the private baby scan clinics just for a dating scan. If you tell them you are pregnant (even if you're still unsure) and you just want to know how far on your are, they should do it reasonably cheaply. I had this done when my period was late once and it only cost £25 as I was in and out within 5 mins. Turned out I wasn't on that occasion but the guy told me that they can tell because the uterus 'opens' when someone is pregnant, even in the very early stages but mine was completely closed so I definitely wasn't. Might put your mind at ease and you would know one way or the other if you can't wait another couple of weeks for the pregnancy hormone to increase to a level detectable by the test. Good luck and let me know how you get on x

Sorry but none of that makes sense. A scan can't see anything at the stage OP would be at, and a dating scan isn't done until later anyway. The uterus doesn't "open" when you are pregnant, the cervix closes, the uterus does nothing until it starts getting bigger.

25£ and five minutes...that was some kind of scam.

OP, its normal to have a weird cycle when you are coming off hormonal contraception. If you haven't had a proper period in another week, do another test, but if thats bfn too the most likely thing is that you need to wait until the following month and hope your cycle gets better.

It was certainly no scam, it was in a proper 3D baby scan centre in Perth, I was quoted £35 to just date the pregnancy, with no pictures, but because there was no pregnancy, I was in and out a lot quicker than the sonographer thought so he only charged £25 as he had no measurements etc to take. The guy that runs the place, is a retired NHS sonographer who has obviously scanned thousands and thousands of pregnancies over his career and he certainly knew what he was talking about. I maybe didn't explain it properly when I said about the uterus opening, what I'm meaning is if you are looking at a picture of a uterus, like you would see in a biology textbook, where the uterine walls meet in the middle of the uterus, these walls apparently are not firmly together when an embryo is implanted in the womb. When there is no pregnancy present, they are very close together with no gap. So perhaps you should check your facts before you shoot me down in flames, I'd take a qualified and vastly experienced sonographer's experience over yours thanks!