Life
How Do You Know You're Pregnant If You Have Irregular Periods?
When you're trying to conceive, your life is a rollercoaster of excitement and anxiety, disappointment and happy surprises all based around charting your period. Now imagine trying to conceive when you don't know when Aunt Flo is coming to town. How do you know you're pregnant if you have irregular periods? Lots and lots of patience, even more pregnancy tests, and a really supportive network of friends and family.
On the road to having a baby, every woman is charting her period to figure out the big occasion: ovulation. According to Parents, you are the most fertile when you ovulate because your body releases the egg. Parents added that if the egg isn't fertilized during the next 36 hours, chances of conception decrease. If you have irregular periods, which means that your cycles are not consistent and, according to The Bump, can last as long as 45 to 60 days, or just vanish from month to month without warning, it's a lot harder to chart your cycle. According to the American Pregnancy Association, ovulation occurs about midway through your cycle, which makes charting unreliable with irregular periods. You can use ovulation predictor kits, but with irregular periods, you're going to be going through a whole lot of these suckers, because the kits only test positive when you're ovulating, not right before.
This does not mean that you can't get pregnant with irregular periods; you most definitely can get pregnant. The process will just involve a lot more guesswork and, as the Bump advised, patience. You might also want to know a couple key things the different kinds of irregular periods and be in touch with your physician.
1What Is An Irregular Period?
According to Everyday Health, an irregular period is any period that comes outside of 28 days (give or take seven days in either direction). If you're skipping periods, or go long times without them, that's also a sign of irregular periods.
2Anovulation
Anovulation is a type of irregular period when you don't ovulate, noted Everyday Health. Health Central added that anovation is most likely an irregular period due to lifestyle habits. Excessive exercise, diet, stress, and use of drugs are all believed to be causes of this type of irregular period.
3Polycystic Ovary Syndrome
Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) is another cause of irregular periods, where cysts form on your ovaries noted Mayo Clinic. You should be under a physician's care if you think you have PCOS.
With proper medical diagnosis, and a look at your lifestyle, you can not only survive your irregular periods, when TTC, you can make a baby as awesome as you.
