Very worried about pregnant girlfriend

[CairnTrenz]

Hey there, I feel a little out of place being a male posting on mumsnet but I can't help but feel concerned and would like some insight or advice from people that may have or not experienced this.

We started trying for a child around 4/half weeks ago, near the second week we were trying she noticed her right boob had become swollen and a little enlarged compared to her left. On the 3rd week we decided to get it checked by the doctors who told is it seems like an infection and offered us anti-biotics and to come back in a week if it didn't work

The 4th week came around and we took a pregnancy test and found out she is pregnant! we were over the moon, but her right breast had still not gone down. So we went back to the doctors within the next few following days and got another doctor to check her over, she said there was nothing she noticed that was any cause for worry right now and started us on another set of anti-biotics.

Now coming up to our 5th week, and she's getting pretty bad morning sickness and other symptoms but her right breast is still the same size! were about half way through the second batch of anti-biotics and I am thinking surely they should have worked by now?! could it be pregnancy symptoms? surely it would be too early for her to had first got the swollen breast? unless she conceived really damn quickly?.. She became very hormonal too around the same time which makes me think it could be pregnancy related

I'm a natural worrier but the thought of her being pregnant and possibly having breast cancer is paining me beyond words.

So I have done some further research and have found that breast growth can happen even before a positive test result, so that makes me feel allot better. There even seems to be reports of only one breast growing, which also makes me feel better. Would still appreciate some responses and thoughts though if any would like to contribute?

You are overthinking and overanalysing everything. I do it too. But it will be a VERY long pregnancy if you start this now

Women's bodies are weird. All you can really do is wait currently

Is there a reason that you are so anxious you've posted?

I was starting to think that too, I think I need to stay more calm for all of our sakes lol.

I do suffer from health anxiety myself and I think I reflected my anxiety onto her, because everyone else is calm and I am running around like a headless chicken haha

Ah... yeah pregnancy is a stressful time if you suffer with health anxiety

It's also pretty boring to begin with when you are excited and want the drama of kicks and childbirth to be near already. Months to go yet.. until 12 weeks nothing much happens, then till 20 weeks not too much more in terms of what YOU experience

After that it becomes real and exciting though as you can see and feel the baby moving.

You just made it more real, I think I have been so obsessed with worrying that I haven't had the chance to sit back and really comprehend that I am going to be a father.. Thank you for messaging me! :)

😁 download a pregnancy app and enjoy watching how big the baby is and what's developing each week

Spoil her, excuse her more than otherwise if she annoys you, do more than you usually would reasonably to help out...

Read books on parenting

Go shopping for cute bits and bobs

Take up knitting...

And avoid the beer 🍻 in front of her if she is avoiding alcohol altogether

All that will make it more real 😉

AAre antibiotics safe in early pregnancy?

Sorry to pounce but he suffers health anxiety!! The doctor always weighs up the risks and makes the decision on what's safest for mum and baby. And yes some are... some the whole way through. I was given some in Labour and on some in early pregnancy

My child is 6 and healthy

Judas yes.

Just seems odd, that the doctor says there's nothing wrong, yet hands out antibiotics to a woman in very early pregnancy.

Op, did the GP say what she was prescribing the antibiotics for?

My GP struggles to prescribe painkillers, let alone antibiotics, never mind to a woman in early gestation who has a swollen boob, with no other symptoms/diagnosis that the OP has mentioned.
Just saying.

@Heyjudas doctor may have thought it was an infection enlarging the breast hence the antibiotics.

Maybe.......

I feel like the doctor probably knows better than you though Judas.. just a hunch and really not helping a poster with health anxiety

I just find it unusual that two different GPs would prescribe two different courses of antibiotics for one tit bigger than the other, in a woman in early pregnancy.
It just wouldn't happen really.

The GP will have examined the breast, if it appeared warm or slightly erythematous yes they would have prescribed abx, also lots of them are safe in early pregnancy.

Painkillers are different

@NOTthepinkranger agree!😂

We questioned multiple times with the doctors that prescribed us the anti-biotics and the pharmacist, both said it was fine. Starting to worry abit more though with the responses again?

Judas, when you said '' I just find it unusual that two different GPs would prescribe two different courses of antibiotics for one tit bigger than the other, in a woman in early pregnancy. '' did you mean because it's obvious its probably to do with the pregnancy? or something else?

OP you will worry, you have health anxiety

It was a bit mean of that poster to post on your thread with that

All the medical professionals who know the medication being prescribed- both the GPs who knew why they were prescribing

And the pharmacist who only knows that a pregnant woman has been prescribed them and not the reason why

...Say it is safe. Behind these decisions is plenty of research by people trained to research, record and analyse the results

Safest to trust them than base fears on a mumsnetter who isn't sure why that would happen and wasn't present

Keep stress down. 💐

I took them in early pregnancy and all was fine.

(I've suffered health anxiety in the past)

Thank you for the advice flyingdragon, but to another post in this thread, she doesn't have a warm or even slightly erythematous breast. Literally, the only real symptom is swelling of the boob in its entirety and abit of pain every now and then when walking down the stairs too fast or moving etc

My breasts haven’t both taken to this pregnancy enlargement thing equally well, I would say. The left one has always been bigger than the right, and has always been the one more likely to be painful (I always assume this is due to hormones). I’m not really a boob kind of person, (I started this pregnancy at the bottom of my bra size - my bras always had a bit of space in them) but my left boob is now as big as the bra wants to accommodate (life goal achieved) (well, since puberty, anyway!), and the right one still has a little bit of space. The left one has generally been the more uncomfortable one, although as time has gone on, the right one has got more into the spirit of things, and I’ve not recently noticed a difference in discomfort levels (they are mostly not uncomfortable, but regularly throw a little discomfort in).

I have decided not to worry about it. I understand that your girlfriend’s situation is much more extreme than mine, and offer this as an example of a thing I am doing, rather than a suggestion that you are worrying unnecessarily. Although you might well be. But that doesn’t make it easy to stop, I understand! (I’ve saved my worrying for the baby, instead! Lovely to have managed to make the exchange! And as time goes on, the boob thing is becoming increasingly less worrying, because they do seem close enough to each other that anyone not subjecting them to very close scrutiny would be highly unlikely to see the difference, especially as they are starting to feel more well-matched now.)

I also think that the antibiotics may not have been necessary, as it may just have been a pregnancy symptom, but isn’t hindsight lovely? In the circumstances, clearly they felt like the best thing to the doctors. As long as she took them according to the instructions, and finished them as prescribed, they are very unlikely to have done any harm. (If she didn’t finish the course, they probably won’t have harmed the baby, but might have contributed to increased antibiotic resistance in the population. Individually, it is very unlikely that a person will do much harm, but collectively we, as a society, are storing up problems for ourselves!)

She should keep an eye on it, obviously, and should probably have a word with a midwife, I reckon.

@Heyjudas of course you can take antibiotics, what do you think they give you if you have a UTI?

I had two in my first pregnancy and had to have 2 different lots of antibiotics in one case as the first didn't work. There are plenty that are safe. Some are safe only in certain trimesters, some all the way through and some not. I'm sure the doctors know which is which and to keep arguing the point of it "not seeming right" is very very damaging to someone with health anxiety!

Hi OP, on Macmillan coffee morning, I had a photo taken of me and when I saw it, I thought Jesus, look at the size of my breasts! That weekend, I did a test and it came back pregnant! They definitely swell up very quickly. Don't worry.

Thank you to everyone that has replied, were going to make another visit to the doctors next week seeing as these anti-biotics aren't doing anything. It could just be pregnancy related, and the visit will be with a 3rd completely different doctor so it'll be nice to get yet another set of eyes on the situation